This is an original recording of Sue McIntyre’s (formerly Sneath) recollection about a week after the cyclone. It’s very lucid and descriptive, and may help other survivors who are still trying to piece things together, in terms of timelines and events. Sue was in the Northern suburbs, the hardest hit areas.
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Here is Sue’s written account of the event.
How we did everything wrong but came out alive
By Sue McIntyre (formerly Sneath)
Our small family of 3, Frank Sneath (my former husband), myself Sue and daughter Karli lived in Kailis Street Wanguri, can’t remember the number, we had been there less than a year as it was a new suburb near Casuarina
Frank was a telegraphist (remember telexes) and I worked for Qantas in reservations, we were there for a 3 year transfer with PMG, arriving October 1972 just after Karli’s 1st birthday.
This story is transcribed from a recording my parents asked me to make a few days after arriving in Perth.
I finished work at 2pm Christmas Eve and picked up Karli from day care, did last minute shopping and visited father Xmas, Karli was excited about him coming and bringing her presents.
We heard the news about an approaching cyclone and followed the advice, putting everything outside away, taping louvers, filled the bath tub but thought here we go again, another false alarm. We didn’t have a phone so I rang Mum and Dad from the public phone box at 7.30pm to wish them Merry Christmas just in case the phones weren’t working well on Xmas Day.
After dinner, Karli was put to bed and presents were laid out, later, we were aware the wind was picking up a bit more than usual. After we went to bed the rain really started and water was coming in the bottom metal louvers and I was laying out towels to try and stop it going any further dreading the cleaning up we’ll have to do on Xmas Day as we were hosting Xmas Day lunch.
Our bedroom was at the end of the house and we had walls of louvers on both sides, it felt like it was rocking a bit and I was worried the windows might break, so we moved to the spare bedroom in the middle of the house. When Karli woke up we put her in bed with us. About 2.30am we heard a bang and Frank got up with the torch to investigate. Just then the ceiling split in the middle and landed on either side of the bed, Frank dropped the torch with the shock so we were now in complete darkness, I handed Karli over the ceiling and I climbed out. We ran into lounge just as the whole house imploded, we ran out the front door and down the steps, having no idea what to do I followed Frank with Karli in his arms. He ran across the yard and hurdled the side fence, to our next door neighbours Jack and Rhonda, and banged on the back door. Their 10 year old son Ricky said “something had come from our house and now their TV is smashed”! The bathroom was closest room and 6 of us stood in bathroom which began disintegrating as we watched doors, furniture, pot plants flying past, we moved to the toilet, 6 of us around the toilet bowl. Karli never uttered a sound but would put her arms out alternatively to be held by me or her Dad the whole time. Karli’s eyes were huge and she was shivering so we wrapped her in a towel. Frank was still in his undies and asked Jack if he had some shorts he could wear, so he got the shorts then heard a huge noise, opened the door to find the bedroom had disappeared. This was not looking good as the toilet was the last bit of house standing. About 3.30am we started making our way down the stairs against the wind which was blowing sand straight into our eyes forcing us to go backwards. The wind was screaming and we had to scream at each other to be heard. I was wearing a nightie and suddenly the wind made my nightie like a parachute and carried me back up the stairs, luckily I grabbed the handrail on the landing. Frank then had to come back up with Karli, to get me as I hung onto the rail and the 3 of us came down backwards together. I rushed in first into the storeroom after that fright and was standing against the brick wall which was made with those huge bricks. Jack was then hit by a brick from the wall and we all moved out quickly but I was last to get out. Frank said I looked like Wonder Woman, I put my arms up and shrugged off a wall of bricks but in reality I was just in front of the wall and I could feel the sensation of them just brushing past my back. Where do we go now, get under the car, we can’t fit, there’s no room. Luckily the car was unlocked and we all jumped in. For some reason there were 4 in front and Jack and myself in the back. We covered ourselves with blankets and got down as far as we could. The side air vent window on the passenger side broke so Frank spent hours with his foot then his hand covered in some material in the hole to keep wind out and rain out.
It never stopped blowing and the roofing iron screamed, the sound was terrible and it was so cold. We never felt the eye and as it got to daybreak we were dreading it coming back again. We had recently seen the movie The Poseidon Adventure and the theme song was “There’s Got to be a Morning After”, I sang this song to myself silently over and over all night.
Finally, daybreak, and we gingerly looked out the car window. All we could see was utter destruction, nothing left, no one to be seen, trees and plants stripped bare. We thought we were the only people alive in Darwin and somehow we had to alert the rest of Australia but how to do it. Just then there was knocking on the window and we all screamed. It was a very brave policeman from down the road who was checking every house, he told us everyone was alive and no injuries, we couldn’t believe we all lived through this.
One of the first things we found after getting out of the car were two unbroken bottles of beer on the lawn, where did they come from? Karli was toilet trained and hadn’t done a wee all night, I tried to get her to squat but she wanted a toilet, I then found bricks to build her a type of toilet and she happily went. We also saw that one of those huge iron power poles had snapped at the base and was lying right across where we had run the night before. Our locked storage shed was undamaged, but there were no standing walls in the house, everything collapsed inwards.
Friends of ours from 2 doors down, Josie, Michael and their baby were all born in Darwin and had decided to go a friend’s ground floor flat in CBD on Xmas Eve as he had a nasty feeling about this cyclone. On the journey to Wanguri they couldn’t get over how the utter destruction just got worse and worse then found their house completely destroyed. They said we couldn’t stay here and they would take us to the flat which only had 2 broken louvers. So we picked up a few clothes including footwear as glass was everywhere and went with them. We weren’t alone, there were 19 of us in the flat. Whenever we heard roofing iron scraping on the road we would flinch, that sound haunted me for a long time. Although crowded it was a good atmosphere and morale was high. No one was visibly upset, I think we thought if we cried we all would.
Boxing Day we returned to the house and found the most amazing things that didn’t get blown away including our car keys. One amazing sight was my pressure cooker which was stored in the cupboard under the sink was firmly wedged in the sink. Our cars, parked in the carport under the house, were wrapped in iron and had blown back about 3 feet. The cat, which we thought was a male had surprisingly presented us with kittens a week or so before. I couldn’t find her kittens and she hissed and arched her back when I approached, I left as much cat food as I could for her. I found the empty birdcage and Karli wanted to know where her bird was, I said she flew away with her friends
We realised how lucky we had been when we found the solar hot water tank had landed on the bed we had been lying on when the ceiling split, a few seconds indecision could have killed us.
The kids thought it great as the only drinks they could have were fizzy drinks. At first we lived well, barbequing Christmas food but then it went off fairly quickly and the smell was revolting so we had to bury it.
I remember driving along a highway and found a broken fire hydrant with water pouring out, we stopped, stripped off and we all had a shower, others joined us, one even had shampoo, such luxury
We were told to register our names for evacuation and I was told that as Frank was a Telegraphist he was essential services so I would be evacuated soon, well it didn’t happen, we listened all day for our names. Finally it was decided this wasn’t working sowe had to reregister. On Sunday 29th we went to a school at 8am and waited all day for our names which happened at 5pm. It was a long horrible day, with the heat, humidity, cranky, bored crying kids, latrines dug for us which stank and no one wanted to use, worn out mothers and we were all filthy, sitting on the ground.. I’m not sure if I imagined this as it wasn’t on the tape but I think they shot some dogs because of the risk of disease. We were then bussed to airport to find utter chaos, one mother had a marking pen and said we should write our kids name on their backs with phone number, I only had 1 child but others had 3 and 4 and were at the end of their tether. There were men dressed as women trying to get out.
At last we boarded an MMA plane at 7.30 pm and I’ve never been so thankful to get on a flight, out of shirts and bags came pets that had been smuggled aboard. First stop was Kununurra and in the terminal were these wonderful women providing us with essentials like soap, toothpaste and toothbrush, sanitary items, sandwiches and cups of tea with presents for kids, Karli was given a colouring book and crayons. A woman held me while I cried for the first time. I still get emotional thinking of those incredible women, I think it was the unexpected kindness. Next stop was Port Hedland and we had heard that cholera was suspected in Darwin, we were only allowed in part of the terminal and I wondered if we would have to go into quarantine in Perth.
We finally arrived I think about 1am, to be met by more incredible women from Red Cross who wrapped us in hand knitted woollen patchwork blankets, we weren’t at the terminal but a huge hangar. There were lots of desks set up manned by people who asked us questions about what happened to us, where we went etc., I was then given $10, Sir Frank Packer gave every mother who arrived this money, it doesn’t sound a lot but could provide food for a week in those days. I don’t know if amount varied with number of kids you had. Then a lady introduced herself as a friend of my Mum, she said if you look over at that window you will see her and there she was waving. Mum had been there every day and night waiting for us and had never given up hope. As I got to the door I saw my sister Jane and I sort of collapsed into their arms. When we got home my Dad who wasn’t one to show emotion was waiting on the verandah and wrapped his arms around me and said” Susie darlin’, you’re home”, with very wet eyes. Next morning Mum bathed Karli and she broke down when she saw her name and their phone number written on her back.
I can’t remember when Frank got to Perth but my sister married John Hall on 14th February and he arrived shortly before the wedding. He had been working flat out with communications.
Advice I would give to anyone facing a cyclone, get outta town is number 1 but failing that submerge somehow in the filled bath, 2 litre bottles of drinking water, stay fully clothed, have keys on you, if you go to bed have kids with you and thongs under your pillow. Have the underneath storage shed unlocked as well as the car, store clothes, important documents, food, water and blankets inside the car.
Good Luck!