By Dora Pearce, Hospital Scientist at Darwin Hospital 1974-1978
Before leaving the hospital on Christmas Eve we were advised that we were “On Call” should Cyclone Tracy eventuate. Just before midnight, I telephoned the hospital to ask if I was required at the hospital because I suspected that as weather conditions deteriorated, they would become too extreme and unsafe for driving.
We were lucky, as it turned out, because our first floor flat remained intact – if wet with spray through the louvre windows. We felt the pressure drop during the eye of the cyclone and then felt and heard the horrendous rage of the wind as it changed direction. My parents, Claire and Arthur, had joined us to celebrate Christmas 1974, but my father’s wartime experiences during the Darwin bombing exacerbated the trauma of Tracy’s onslaught.
At daylight, we saw the devastation of neighbouring houses and my husband, Bruce, drove me to the hospital, around debris and fallen power poles, only to find that the hospital laboratory was damaged, too.
A substitute laboratory was set up in a small back room of Pharmacy so that we could crossmatch blood for emergency transfusions – opening and closing the incubator door to maintain the required 36 degrees Celsius! The Casualty Department floor was ankle deep in blood-stained water – so we sloshed about in our open-toed sandals to access bags of the required blood type from the blood storage fridge, soon supplied with donated blood bags from interstate in this emergency. I recall that the Pathologist’s face was ashen grey as he coped with the ensuing tragedy of Tracy’s onslaught, but the details of carrying out our roles as hospital scientists under such pressure elude me now…
As I recall, after the main hospital laboratory was (somewhat) functional, another hospital scientist and I alternated nights “On Call” for two weeks due to a staff shortage – some staff were on holiday leave, others had also suffered from the devasting impacts of Tracy’s might! But limited electrical power and lack of air conditioning meant that some laboratory equipment was blocked with condensate, so some standard blood tests could not be performed.
As a hospital scientist, I was deemed to be essential personnel but was required to carry a permit to prove that I was allowed to stay in Darwin! Bruce helped out clearing debris around Darwin Hospital and sought out and assisted friends who remained in Darwin, noting the destruction of homes – flattened to the floorboards – of friends who had been evacuated or driven off down “the Track” to escape Tracy’s aftermath.
We got to know our neighbours, swapping warm beer for red wine and canned oysters. Bruce built a BBQ on our balcony, camp-style. Free groceries, fruit and vegetables were supplied at centres set up at Schools and meat was provided at the Northmeat bulk terminal. Because there was no electricity for cooling or cooking in our block of flats, a generator was acquired that could at least run the washing machines in the shared laundry, if not boil an electric kettle, and with no running water on tap, Claire collected rainwater in buckets to flush the toilet! Claire and Arthur were evacuated to Adelaide about one week later.
For respite, we attended free entertainment: concerts at the Darwin Amphitheatre by Rolf Harris, Dinah Lee, Johnny O’Keefe and Jade Hurley, and a String Quartet at Nightcliff High School, during which the violinist swatted mosquitoes with his bow. Camaraderie was high among hospital staff and survivors remaining in Darwin to carry on with life and help each other out as best we could.
Next time, we will heed any cyclone warning!