There are so many stories still to be told, and so many yet to be heard. From simple acts of kindness to outstanding bravery, read some of our survivor stories here
Disclaimer: The stories shared on this website are the personal recollections of the individuals who have provided them. While we strive to present these stories accurately, the views and experiences shared do not necessarily reflect those of the website administrators. We are not responsible for the accuracy of the content or any consequences that may arise from its publication.
Christmas ’74, our first as newlyweds – John Verhoeven
Christmas-74-our-first-as-newlyweds-John-VerhoevenDownload ...
CYCLONE! – a collection of stories by Carroll Cox, circa 1975.
Written by Carroll Cox not long after the event, these accounts of Cyclone Tracy, submitted by her sister Connie, capture ...
Roslyn Leary – From Bagot to Melbourne via Hercules and TAA!
The drive home from the Bagot Aboriginal hospital ward after my night shift was dark, and the winds were wild ...
Dora Pearce – Cyclone Tracy 1974 reminiscences
By Dora Pearce, Hospital Scientist at Darwin Hospital 1974-1978 Before leaving the hospital on Christmas Eve we were advised that ...
Shirley Glaister (nee Twist) – I was 9 and my parents were so brave
I was nine when the cyclone hit. Our family—Dad (Ray Twist), Mum (Annette Twist), my brother Colin (6), and my ...
Dave Carr – Tracy, Recalled 50 Years On
In the lead-up to Cyclone Tracy's 50th anniversary, Dave Carr recounts his unforgettable experience as one of the young Kiwis ...
Sue Molina-Wilson – 13 years old survivor
13 years old survivor The night of Christmas Eve where we spent opening Christmas presents as a family’s traditional Christmas ...
Sue McIntyre – How we did everything wrong but came out alive
This is an original recording of Sue McIntyre's (formerly Sneath) recollection about a week after the cyclone. It's very lucid ...
My Cyclone Tracy Recollections – Barbara Benporath (now Wright)
Our-Cyclone-Tracy-Journey-the-Benporath-familyDownload ...
Twelve and Terrified: A Christmas Story by Brad Rowlands
Cyclone Tracy had a sound; it was the most terrorizing sound I have ever heard. The sound of literally millions ...
Iljas Adam Jamieson, Canberra Australia
When tropical Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin I’d been living there 18 months in a typical wooden house on high stumps, ...
Tracy – Danny Thomas (RIP)
From Danny's sister Georgia: "Danny was always passionate about Cyclone Tracy and that it be remembered as a significant event ...
If this wheelhouse goes, we’re dead! – John Howard
Darwin Harbour 24th December 1974 "If this wheelhouse goes, we're Dead Forward: This is the story of two young people's ...
Floating Off The Stairs: Antony Bullock
Cyclone Tracy – 25th December 1974 My name is Antony Bullock, and this is my story. Christmas Eve 1974 marked ...
Cyclone Tracy and Us, Christmas Day, 1974 – Ian and Dale Bachelor
(As recalled, Fifty Year’s on - Christmas Eve, 2024) At some point in almost everyone’s life, there will come a ...
Sheltering the Unborn, Surviving the Unseen – Julie Brimson
Cyclone Tracy, 24 December 1974 Julie Brimson It was sometime in early June 1974 when I found out I was ...
The Night From Hell – Michelle Walker Roberts, Deb Walker Hendry, Jannine Walker Hardy
Our Cyclone Tracy Memories (The Night from Hell) Michelle Walker Roberts (aged 21), Deb Walker Hendry (aged 14), and Jannine ...
Wet Floors and Wob’s Return – Joan Andropov
Cyclone Tracy – Darwin, 24th & 25th December 1974 In 2014, on the 40th anniversary of Cyclone Tracy, I retyped ...
Surviving Tracy: An 8-Year-Old’s Tale – Jack Nicaj (Gjoka Nicovic)
Cyclone Tracy Hi, my name was Gjoka Nicovic then, now Nicaj. I was 8 years old and remember most of ...
From the Eye of a Darwin Duty Meteorologist – Lloyd Stümer
Cyclone-Tracy-Viewed-from-the-Eye_Lloyd-Stumer-meteorologist_optDownload ...
Survival and Betrayal – Kaye Tukukino
I'm like most survivors; Tracy doesn't go away. In the unforgiving grip of Cyclone Tracy on Christmas morning in 1974, ...
Two years at Larrakeyah Barracks – Dennis Ryan
I spent two years at Larrakeyah Barracks, arriving about a month after Cyclone Tracy with thousands of other troops. After ...
Pregnant in the eye of Tracy – Shirley Lane
December 24, 1974. Living in Jingili near Rapid Creek. I was on maternity leave from the Attorney-General's Department, approximately eight ...
50th Anniversary Recollections – Hugh and Rosemarie Lake
My wife Rosemarie and I lived in Darwin at the time of Cyclone Tracy. We arrived in early August 1974 ...
The Stuart Highway 1975 – Hugh Lake
We all looked into our mirrors as we left Tracy behind we’d done nothing to upset her but she had ...
Against the Wind: The Dennis Family’s Stand at 13 Temira Crescent
Against the Wind: The Dennis Family's Stand at 13 Temira CrescentDownload ...
I went through Tracy twice!
I think that I was one of four men who went through Cyclone Tracey twice! ------------- On Christmas Eve 1974 ...
Cyclone Tracy – Recollections from Katherine by John Favelle
In 1974, I was the District Officer for the Commonwealth Department of the Northern Territory (formerly the Department of the ...
Paul Lyons – Journal 24-30 December 1974
From my diary - Also online at http://www.pikle.co.uk/journal/1974/Dec1974.html 24-30 December, Darwin CYCLONE TRACY And suddenly it is Christmas Eve. Work ...
A Cupboard, a Bottle of Scotch, and Christmas Carols – John & Tricia Phillips
Bath filled with water; windows taped. Ironically all the new sliding windows would be smashed to smithereens and only the ...
A Christmas of Chaos – Corporal Allen Hancock, 125 Signal Squadron, Darwin
Christmas in Darwin was always something quite different from that experienced anywhere down south. There really was no 'silly season' ...
Jeffrey Norton – Surviving Tracy 1974 – Recollections from a 4 year old.
In approximately October 1972 my family (Dad, Mum and 4 kids aged 2, 4, 6 + 8) moved from Victor ...
Gary Gibson – The Darwin Disaster – Electronics Australia Magazine
The below files are copies of pages from the now no longer published Electronics Australia Magazine. The article outlines the ...
Valda Lefebvre – Our Wedding Anniversary
My husband Lou and I had only arrived in Darwin 6 months before Cyclone Tracy with our three little sons, ...
Robert and Mary Fox – An Account of Cyclone Tracy
This is not my story but that written by late wife, Mary Fox, shortly after Cyclone Tracy. It is the ...
Lorraine Dickson – Cyclone Tracy and Evacuation
At the time of Cyclone Tracy I was living as a young Army wife in Larrakeyah Barracks where my husband ...
Darwin 1974 & a Letter Sent the Next Day – Frances Marilyn Roberts
I flew, with our four children, to Darwin on 2 November 1974, my birthday, with a couple of suitcases, just ...
David Curtis’s story
By Christmas 2024, it will be the 50th Anniversary of Cyclone Tracy, the fiercest and most destructive cyclone that destroyed ...
My recollections of Cyclone Tracy Christmas 1974 by Grahame Stewart
Each year during “Cyclone Season” (November to February) every week or two we would listen to the “Woomp Woomp Woomp ...
The Christmas Santa Never Came – Beth
The Christmas Santa Never Came (Santa never came, instead Tracey came)Christmas eve 1974 had more than the usual anticipation. Cyclone ...
Still here – Just! – Tim West
A lifetime spent in the Top End is full of near death experiences 'NDEs' but the one that holds the ...
Cyclones, Politics, and Stolen Dreams – Liz Elaine, Sonia and Louise Ball
Christmas Eve 1974: you couldn't actually say Cyclone Tracy caught Darwin by surprise because we all knew it was coming ...
Cyclone Tracy Memories Christmas 1974 – John King
Like many people I remember Tracy very well and was well aware of what a cyclone could do, we had ...
The water in the kitchen was pink – Sue Casey
Ray Casey is probably alive today because his wife, Mavis, and daughter, Sue, wrapped themselves around his bleeding and unconscious ...
Cyclone – Paul Bayetto
It was busy in the restaurant that night. Why wouldn’t it be? It was Christmas Eve. Insults and instructions were ...
The Evacuation – Robyn Mackenzie
Wondering if anyone can remember being evacuated from Darwin on a commercial flight that departed about 4pm on 26 December ...
Christmas Eve 1974 – Cathryn Doney
My story is not particularly spectacular, and no different from anyone else who went through that black, howling, ripping wind ...
Survived a night of Hell – Kathy Shepherd
It was a very uneventful Christmas morning, my husband was at work and I was home with my two young ...
Cyclone Tracy – Graeme Gilder
I had this 20 acre block in Darwin, or actually 21 miles out of the city centre, and on holidays ...
My Cyclone Tracy Story – Sean Kennedy
Christmas Eve 1974. I was 3 years and 24 days exactly, just a child, even a toddler, but that night ...
How My Family Was Affected – Tracey Collins
It was Christmas Eve and we were all excited as we would be leaving for a trip by car to ...
A Step Back in Time – Gail McNamee
My name is Gail McNamee; I grew up in Darwin, I experienced cyclone Tracy’s devastation on Darwin on Christmas Eve, ...
Were you here?
If you have a story to share regarding Cyclone Tracy, feel free to submit your story here.