13/01/1975

It has been almost a month since cyclone Tracy hit us here in Darwin. It has been quite depressing over the last few weeks, not even celebrating New Years because of the terrible natural disaster. Our family has started to rebuild our home, along with many other people in our town. Our extended family helped us financially by donating us money to rebuild our home. It has been hard not having anything left but rubble, we did collect something from our house.  9,000  homes in Darwin were destroyed, out of the city’s total of 12,000 homes which left thousands of people homeless. Overall an estimate of 49 people died on land and another 16 people died at sea, a total of 65 – 71 people dead or still missing. the total damage estimated to hundreds of millions of dollars. The whole city has to be rebuilt from the houses to the rewiring of telephone and electricity poles, Many buildings were not built to withstand cyclonic forces. Lots of people have suffered from health issues because the sewerage system was damaged, and sewer lines blocked and overflowed, plus there was a lot of rotting garbage that caused disease.

At first the Norther Territory Police had made emergency preparations at Darwin and Casuarina  Police Stations. In the first wave of damage 150 people were sheltered at the police stations, but after that there was way to many people left homeless so the police organised schools as shelters with voluntary people helping with cooking, medical help, hygiene, collecting clothing and bedding donations.  The help services were seeing to road blockages, attending medical emergencies and directing people away from fallen power lines. The army and the navy also helped with the unpleasant and dangerous tasks such as searching for bodies, cleaning out refrigerators which were filled with rotting food,searching through the rubble.

The Federal Department of Housing and Construction organised officers to begin clearing debris and restore power and communications. Electrical contractor crews cleared fallen power lines organised portable generators wherever available. The officers also worked to repair and restore water pumps and pipelines to get water and sewerage systems working again. Hundreds of police from interstate began to arrive to help out. Emergency supplies and equipment were brought to Darwin from other cities. Equipment included generators and emergency accommodation. The RAAF (Royal Australia Air Force) transport fleet helped bring in supplies to Darwin, and evacuate over 9,500 people to southern centres.