Cyclone Tracy – Relief Work Recollections as an Army Reserve Air Dispatcher – Melbourne and Darwin – Dec-Jan 1974/75
At the time, I lived in Melbourne and worked as a trainee accountant, with a part-time job in the Army Reserve (then the CMF – Citizen Military Forces) as 24 year-old Air Dispatcher with 37 Air Dispatch Platoon (RAASC) from 1971 to 75. We had 20 reservists plus 2 Army staff (Warrant Officer John Liston and Corporal Chris Farrer).
Our job was to pack and parachute drop supplies in combat and disaster relief, plus load aircraft – mainly C7A Caribou and UH1 Iroquois helicopters but also C-130 Hercules.
Even Army Cessna 180s & Pilatus Porters in my early days.
Drop or airlift “anything and everything, anywhere” – ammo, fuel, food, Land Rovers & commando boats.
We were well trained and experienced in what we did – and ready !
Here’s a timeline of our involvement with Cyclone Tracy relief:
Wed 25/12 – Christmas at home in Melbourne. In evening heard on TV about a massive
cyclone in Darwin – few details
Thurs 26th – Boxing Day. News full of Darwin situation. Put on uniform & waited by phone.
5.15 p.m. – Our popular Army warrant officer Johnny Liston (“JL”) rang
– “it’s on – unit parade at Laverton at 19:45”
Drove to RAAF Laverton airfield hangar (in western Melbourne).
14 of us were there – one snatched from a beach town by police car !
Communications were limited – no links to Darwin, other than a hobbyist
“Ham” radio operator there, whose equipment had survived,
and a hangered undamaged Connellan Airways Heron passenger plane,
which had a radio link to air traffic control at Katherine Airfield,
Local comms for us were just telephone and a Telex tele-type machine.
As I used one in my day job, our CO – Capt Mike Russell-Croucher – had me man
it.
Received message from RAAF Richmond (near Sydney) that C-130s would
arrive from Darwin early morning with evacuees, plus other Hercs
from Richmond, to pick-up supplies for Darwin. All 18 available Hercs were mobilised – modern E models and even the old A models, which had been scheduled for resale. (The RAAF had 22 Hercs – 4 were having maintenance).
At Laverton, we also had an RNZAF Herc.
At the small Laverton terminal, we turned all the heaters fully on, scrounged every tea urn and babies bottle on the base – and waited.
Friday 27 First Herc arrives. Passengers all women, babies, kids and teens
0223 Helped them into the hangar, where 18 police got them on to Centrelink
Special Benefit cash payments. The Base treated and fed them,
before giving them beds for the night in the Base Hospital.
All were exhausted after Tracy and 6½ hours in a noisy Herc !
Some young kids had PTSD trauma and couldn’t speak.
That 37 Squadron plane set a record that night.
C-130s are designed for up to 92 passengers
– that night, I counted 156 coming off the plane, with mums holding
2 or 3 bub’s on their knees. And what a m – e – s – s – as you guessed,
I had to clean the aircraft – p – h – e – w – y nappies everywhere !!
Friday 27 Meantime, no break for our team, as we packaged relief supplies for the first
(cont.) Darwin-bound Herc from Richmond. For 4 nights we just grabbed an occasional
cat- nap in our cars, parked alongside the airfield – as we knew Hercs could
arrive at anytime, for immediate loading. Meals were hamburgers bought by our
CO Capt Mike.
Friday 27 Second Herc arrives – this time greeted by a large TV & media pack.
0930 Again, well over 100 passengers.
Friday 27 Our team packed pallets and loaded 71 flights will all manner of relief
– Sunday 12 – medical supplies, food rations, blankets, tarps,2,000 petrol generators,
Jan 1800 petrol water pumps & 2,000 portable gas stoves (from every camping
store in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide). Plan was 1 stove, pump & generator
per street – for the hubbies left behind. So they could cook an evening meal,
have a shower and have some light and power – e.g for CB radios.
Other cargo included heavy electro-magnets (from the Melbourne Harbour
authority) and emergency vehicles.
Also, helping evacuees from many more incoming evacuation flights
arriving during this period.
Incidentally, h u g e thanks to the Melbourne Salvation Army !
During a short break on Saturday morning 28th, I called in at their headquarters in Bourke St, Melbourne – and explained that we only had 14 air-dispatchers to load the Hercs. Next morning, about 20 corpsmen arrived at Laverton and worked ceaselessly throughout, helping us manually assemble, strap and load hundreds of pallets, for the planes. As our team of 14 was small & the hours were long, their labour was a huge help.
Honestly, their hard work – all voluntary – helped us get through
– and load 7 times the annual freight volume through Laverton, in 14 days.
I understand our sister Air Dispatch units -38 Platoon based in Richmond and 39 in Sydney, worked similarly during this period, at RAAF Richmond.
Wed 1 Jan I was packing another load, when our CO Mike Russell-Croucher lobbed-up and
0600 said “Corporal [Vic] Ferguson, Private [Bob] Littlewood and Private [Yeowy]
Yeoward – you’re on the next plane to Darwin, to help unload
the aircraft (and others) and assess the local situation.”
A 24 hour round trip – Darwin, Richmond and back to Laverton next morning.
0730 Our Herc is absolutely crammed with relief supplies – even a station wagon
on the ramp – and enough fuel to get us to Darwin, unload and fly to Mt Isa
– if fuel was short in Darwin. Plus a BBQ pack and “refreshments” (beers) for
the Darwin air-loaders (from the Mobile Air Movement Unit at RAAF Amberley,
near Brisbane).
Vic, Bob and I boarded with no gear – apart from my canteen and
one-man 24-hour ration pack, which I always carried.
You guessed it ! That little pack was carefully eked-out over the round trip
– as our only food for 24 hours !
Our pilot reversed us up to the hangar doors at the start of the strip,
stood on the wheel brakes, revved-up the engines to full throttle, then
– G O ! – We raced down the runway – for ever – and ever – and ever –
– eventually clearing the fence at the end of the 6,500 foot strip by only 50 ft
with a loud gasp from all !
0930 Bob awakens – after a difficult night, he’d grabbed a few winks on top of
a pallet of blankets. “Where am I ?” – “You’re 20,000 feet over Alice Springs !”
1400 Arrived over Darwin – not a leaf in sight for 100 kms and virtually every building
destroyed or damaged. All power lines down. Power poles alongside RAAF Base
bent over at 90 degrees, facing west – no doubt as Tracy rolled-in from
Casuarina. Unloaded, then a brief chat with the RAAF Darwin air-loaders and
helping them unload other Hercs, before reboarding our aircraft.
Only to find our ramp motor had failed and I had to hoist it the ramp manually
– 120 arm-pulls on a lever, before it locked and we could go. – p – h – e – w !
Landed at Richmond at 2130 for a brief break, then on Melbourne on another
Herc, arriving at 0800.
Sun 12 Jan We finally finished – with a BBQ. Alas, Whitlam govt. defence cutbacks
– “Barnardisation” – meant 37 Air Dispatch was dis-banded in April 75.
A small, friendly “M*AS*H” bunch – irreverent, 100% professional & dedicated !
Postscript
Air dispatch was started by Britain’s Royal Flying Corps in 1917 – when a biplane dropped a replacement millstone to a starving British garrison besieged in a fort in Iraq
– enabling flour milling and bread-making, from their stored grain.
In Australia, it started in 1942 with ammunition and food drops during the Battle of the Kokoda Track.
Since then, Australian Army Air Dispatchers – including Reservists with 176 Air Dispatch Company in Sydney (and former Reserve platoons – 37 in Melbourne, 38 in Richmond NSW
and 39 in Sydney) – have provided vital air-drop and air-lift support in numerous
disaster relief and combat support operations, in Australia and overseas.
E.g. in 2014, Australian RAAF C-130 and C-17 air crew and Army air-dispatchers dropped vital water bottles and food to thousands of Yazidi people trapped by ISIS on Mt Sinjar in northern Iraq.
In December 2014 I attended the Cyclone Tracy 40Th Anniversary Service
at Christ Church Cathedral in Darwin – representing 37 Air Dispatch.
Kym Yeoward, (formerly a 37 AD Private with an Air Dispatch Brevet – service no. 3169608).
3/26 Emery Avenue Woodroffe NT 0830 (a retired CPA)
M: 0428 405 499 E: kyeoward1@bigpond.com
7 December 2024
P.S.:
When we landed in Darwin, we spent several hours at the RAAF aircraft refuelling depot, just next to the Stuart Highway – as that shelter was still standing, despite bent-over power poles nearby. Funnily enough, the refuelling station still looks today pretty much as it did then – just a high roof, with no walls !.
PPS: 37 AD was aiming to have 30% of members parachute-qualified.
In September 1974 – with no army course available – I did a civilian para course with
the Labertouche Sport Parachute Centre, near Melbourne. Alas I broke my right ankle on a hard landing, when jumping from a Cessna 172 at 2,500 ft. A surgeon inserted a steel pin.
Unfortunately during a cold winter visiting Melbourne in 2018, the scar tissue broke apart
and formed a venous ulcer. Just now – December 2024 – it’s finally healed, after twice-a-week dressing by community nurses. I’ve now moved to lower-leg compression stockings.
RAASC: Royal Australian Army Service Corps – which was re-formed into the new
RACT – Royal Australian Corps of Transport in 1975.