Stories

Story submitted by Greg Smith (Navy):

I was stationed in HMAS COONAWARRA when Tracy hit…We were having Xmas function when we were told the cyclone we were expecting was going to hit Darwin. Everyone returned to dongas homes etc. I was woken sometime early morning when found my mattress soaked and water entering through deck-head. Tried to leave but door handle was electric. So, with torch overalls got in closet. Sometime later heard sirens so headed to designated meeting area and awaited Tracy arrival…It was thunderous when struck. It lasted for some time then the eye passed over…thought of us with torches and foot coverings were told to go and check as many surrounding buildings in area that we could find people…we’re told as no idea how long to Tracy eye passing over, told to go for approximate 20 25 min or hear whistle to return. We did this returned to area and resumed sitting with backs against whatever window protection was placed over them. Women and children sitting in middle or room. Then Tracy returned with a vengeance. After storm had passed started the job of cleanup.

Story submitted by Janice Banks (Navy):

My maiden name on Navy enlistment was Bale. I was LePage at the time of Cyclone Tracy. I was serving at HMAS HARMAN as a communicator. My husband at that time was on HMAS STUART and he had come down to Canberra to spend Christmas with me. On Christmas Day he was recalled back to Sydney to join the STUART and I was asked to report to the Natural Disaster Centre off Northbourne Avenue in Canberra. This was a tri-service operation. I remember a Colonel Jones (if I remember correctly). I helped with communications and general support in the operations room. We received messages reporting the damage in Darwin and lists of injuries and sadly lists of people who had passed. Some who had been identified and others not known. We worked tirelessly day and night organising supplies to be sent up on our LCH’s. Phone calls from desperate families wanting to know what was happening and how could they get their loved ones back down south. Trying to reassure them that we were doing everything we can to evacuate them down south. Roadblocks were set up to stop family members trying to get into the Northern Territory to rescue their families. Food, fresh water and petrol very scarce, so we didn’t want people going in to rescue them. I didn’t serve in Darwin, but we knew people serving there. It was a privilege to be part of a team all pulling together with one purpose to help the people of Darwin, everyone working together. I don’t have any photos, but I felt their heartache and desperation through reading the messages we received and phone calls from families wanting news of their loved ones.

Story Submitted by WOCD Larry Digney OAM (Retired CDT1 Navy):

Clearance Diving Team 1 response to Cyclone Tracy recovery efforts in Darwin, 1974/75

Author. WOCD Larry Digney OAM Retd. Extract from my book ‘Bubbles, Booze, Bombs and Bastards, A Clearance Divers Story’

On the evening of Christmas Eve 1974, the relatively small, approximately 100 kilometre diameter and extremely powerful tropical storm, Cyclone Tracy, struck the Northern Territory capital city of Darwin. Tracy was described as the most powerful storm recorded in Australia up until that time.

With wind speeds estimated by the Bureau of Meteorology at 240 kilometres per hour (only an estimate because the wind speed indicator at Darwin airport failed when the wind reached 217kph at 0305 on Christmas morning), it tore the city apart, totally destroying up to 90% of the 12,000 dwellings and about 70% of larger buildings and infrastructure.

Cyclone Tracy ultimately resulted in the death of 71 people including two RAN personnel who were aboard HMAS Arrow, a 32.5m, 146 Tonne Attack Class Patrol Boat. Arrow had a crew of 3 officers and 16 sailors when it sank after being battered underneath Stokes Hill Wharf. The degree of absolute destruction made it difficult to understand how there was not a whole lot more fatalities.

Late on Christmas Day 1974, the Commonwealth Minister for the Northern Territory in the Whitlam Government, Mr Rex Patterson and the Director-General of the Australian National Disasters Organization, Major General Alan Stretton, were the first to arrive at Darwin Airport to initiate and manage the badly needed relief effort. The population of 42,000 residents could not be sustained in the Darwin region because there was not enough accommodation, services or working infrastructure to support that level of occupancy. It was determined by General Stretton that a maximum of 10,500 people could remain, so the largest evacuation effort ever undertaken in Australia began with commercial and military transport aircraft flying over 25,000 evacuees to various locations around the country. The remaining 10,000 evacuees departed by road.
The only form of communication with Darwin for five days following the cyclone was Morse Code, so receiving information to fully understand the scope of the disaster was difficult at the time. It was determined very early on Christmas Day that one of the urgently required assistance capabilities was a team of RAN Clearance Divers.

I was a member of CDT-1 at the time and was on Christmas leave. I was spending an enjoyable Christmas Day with my wife’s family in Guildford, a suburb in Western Sydney and we were keeping a close watch of events in Darwin but little information was available because of the lack of communication capability. I received a phone call in the early evening and was informed that I was to report to Sydney airport by 0600 on Boxing Day (December 26) to travel to Darwin. Because I was on leave, I was not required to go to our team’s headquarters in Waverton to pack the necessary diving and support equipment, the duty members would do that and they subsequently brought the gear to the airport.

The team comprising LEUT Dave Ramsden, CPOCD Phil Narramore, POCD Colin Mitchell RIP, LSCD Eric McKenzie, LSCD Geoff Bascombe RIP, LSCD Bill Creedon RIP, ABCD Graeme Gray, ABCD Tom Gourley, ABCD Russ Gately, ABCD Graeme Kelly and I assembled at the airport early on Boxing Day. We loaded our equipment into an RAN Hawker Siddeley HS748, a 21m land based electronic warfare, training and transport aircraft. We left Sydney as early as possible en-route to a refuelling stop at Mt Isa. The HS748 has a range of 3132km (1946 miles) and the distance to Darwin from Sydney is 3151 km (1958 miles) and with no indication of fuel availability at Darwin, the plane was refuelled at Mt Isa so it could return at least back to there and refuel for its flight back to HMAS Albatross, near Nowra in NSW.

As we left Mt Isa and entered Northern Territory air space we could very clearly see the circular (Cyclonic) cloud formation of Tracy still evident to the south of Darwin out of the port side of the aircraft. As it transpired, we were the third aircraft to arrive in Darwin following the arrival of General Stretton. The evening before, another RAN HS748 had arrived before us carrying blood transfusion equipment and Red Cross workers. The carnage left by Cyclone Tracy was very evident when we landed, with 31 aircraft totally destroyed and another 25 severely damaged during the storm. The damaged aircraft were laying in various attitudes strewn around the airport, including many upside down on the runway.

It was self-evident that accommodation in Darwin at that time was at a premium. With most buildings in the city and the surrounding district destroyed or badly damaged, the only available accommodation for us, was a single room for sleeping all of us with attached amenities and a small kitchen in the WRANS quarters, at HMAS Coonawarra at Berrimah. Coonawarra Wireless Transmission Station had been in operation since 1939 and was a global communications hub. It was merged with HMAS Melville in May 1970, with the view of closing Melville, because it was situated on prime city real-estate. The completion of the merging of the two facilities was slow and by December 1974, it had not been completed. As HMAS Melville was destroyed during the cyclone, from December 1974 the entire Naval presence in the NT was centred in HMAS Coonawarra.

Our single room sleeping quarters comprised a dozen stretchers, placed about 450mm (18 inches) apart along the two longest walls. It was cosy to say the least. Our first day on the job saw us in a local sports store that had survived the cyclone and we were permitted to select some suitable ‘tropical’ attire and equipment to enable us to acclimatise to the Darwin weather in December and to do the tasks we were about to undertake. The boss was able to ensure we had suitable boats to undertake initial searches in the harbour, particularly around the wharves where many boats were damaged or had sunk. Our initial priority was to urgently attend to temporary repairs of navy and civilian vessels which were damaged but not sunk.

In keeping with our unofficial motto of ‘Can Do Easy’ we used all manner of patches to arrest the flow of water into vessels, which were barely being kept afloat with available pumps. We used mattresses and rubber sheeting and held them in place with cargo straps wrapped around the vessels until a more suitable permanent solution could be achieved. A couple of reasonably large prawn trawlers required assistance as they were holed and needed repair work, so we assisted them as expediently as possible. To show their gratitude the crew of the vessels provided us with boxes of uncooked tiger and king prawns every day. There was probably 50 pounds of prawns in every box and each evening of our 12 hours work and 12 hours of rest schedule, we cooked and ate prawns whilst consuming copious amounts of beer in our small living space. The crew of the trawlers showed us how to cook the prawns and how to identify when they were correctly cooked and that made them even better.

A retired Clearance Diver who had survived the cyclone and stayed in Darwin to assist in the clean-up was ex POCD George Graham. When he found out we had arrived in Darwin, George came to us and offered his assistance. Because of the work-load placed on us and trying to achieve as much as possible over a wide area, he was welcomed with open arms. He was reinstated as a Navy Reserve Petty Officer and could assist with diving supervision, which was a great asset to our team. Following our mission in Darwin George re-enlisted in the Navy as a leading seaman Clearance Diver and was promoted quite quickly to POCD and Chief, before becoming a Commissioned Officer, where he served with distinction.

There had been four RAN Patrol Boats in Darwin at the time of the cyclone. HMAS Advance and Assail cleared the harbour and rode out the storm, in what must have been horrendous conditions, with some minor damage. HMAS Attack was battered and forced aground in Doctors Gully and HMAS Arrow, after losing engine power was pulverised and sank beneath Stokes Hill Wharf. Petty Officer Leslie Catton and Able Seaman Ian Rennie unfortunately and tragically lost their lives when HMAS Arrow sank. There was also the tragic loss of two navy wives and two children. The RAN, with a working population of 1.5% of the local populace had suffered 12% of the casualties.

It is difficult to explain how dark the water was in Darwin Harbour at that time. If you closed your eyes tight and then covered your closed eyes with your hands, you may be close to having the visibility we had. Everything we achieved was with the use of our other ten eyes, our fingers. Once we located something on the seabed, it was extremely slow work to ascertain just what it was. We used our best endeavours to recognise everything we found. On one occasion I was searching around a sunken fishing trawler which had sunk alongside the wharf by feeling my way around and I came across a life buoy. I didn’t know if there would be a vessel name on the buoy or not, but it was worth taking the chance so I cut the line holding it in position and it floated to the surface where it was recovered by other members of the dive team. It turned out to have a name on it but was written in Korean. We were fortunate enough to be told by an observer what the name was, so at least we could identify it. That progressed to be quite an embarrassing episode for me, because when I finally surfaced after further searches on the trawler a TV reporter was present on our small dive boat. Whilst I was still in the water he asked questions about what we were doing and what my current dive entailed. I answered that we were systematically searching along the region of the wharves where vessels had been moored and inside the yacht mooring area and I had just found a sunken Korean trawler. He asked me how I knew it was a Korean trawler and when I explained the circumstances and told him that we had been given the vessels name by a person on the wharf. My embarrassment came when I couldn’t find a suitable description of the person because a good answer simply didn’t come immediately to mind. Eventually, after several “um’s and ah’s”, I was able to stammer out, “that Asian gentleman on the wharf told us”. My brother, Jerry, who was an Infantryman in the Army in Townsville at the time, saw the interview on TV. When he next saw me he asked what was going through my mind, because I looked like a lost soul who was stuck for words… which I was.

On another occasion I was searching an area near the badly damaged Fort Hill Wharf. Whilst on the bottom and feeling around, I moved up and tried to ascend to the surface but I ran straight into a large obstruction above my head. I had no idea that I had moved several metres under a large concrete slab that had previously been part of the wharf.

It took several days of intense work for us to complete the immediate urgent requirements to repair vessels in an attempt to prevent them from sinking. We also had to thoroughly search the area around Stokes Hill Wharf and Fort Hill Wharf to the east of Stokes Hill for any vessels which may have sunk and still potentially contained the bodies of deceased people. We also ensured that the berthing sites for the flotilla of soon to arrive large RAN support ships, were clear along the front of Stokes Hill Wharf. After ensuring that a systematic and thorough search had been sufficiently completed and the collected data catalogued, we were reasonably confident that no deceased people had been missed. We were then in a position to shift our focus and undivided attention to surveying and ultimately salvaging the wreckage of HMAS Arrow.

Our initial surveys confirmed that Arrow was settled in about 15m of water in a diagonal direction underneath Stokes Hill Wharf, with the bow protruding on the inside where the yacht moorings were located and the stern was protruding out the western, or Darwin Harbour side. Stokes Hill Wharf had been quite severely damaged where the Arrow had broken about nine pylons off as it smashed its way under the wharf. At least two of the wharf pylons had penetrated the hull of Arrow and had effectively ‘nailed’ her to the seabed under the wharf. This situation made it impossible to simply tow the vessel out from its resting place.

Before heavy traffic could travel on the wharf or before a sustained effort to recover Arrow was undertaken, considerable structural repair work was required to be completed on the Wharf itself. This important and difficult work was mostly carried out by other RAN technical staff who had arrived on the 13 RAN ships which participated in ‘Operation Navy Help Darwin’.

The initial reports from several of our divers, who had inspected the upper deck and superstructure, that Arrow was just a pile of twisted and battered metal, were dispelled when I did a thorough inspection of the hull. It was apparent that the hull was largely still intact, with large areas unbroken but certainly dented and bent, but everything above the main deck had been pulverised and smashed to pieces. The total lack of visibility where even with a torch switched on and pushed against our facemask we couldn’t ascertain if the light was on or off, made it a hazardous task to move around on the main deck. Jagged metal and sharp snag points made it a painstaking effort just to complete and catalogue our survey. We found the entrance to the lower deck and opened a hatch so we could try to ascertain the state of the inside of the vessel, but there were obstructions everywhere below deck. Floating debris, loose mattresses, boxes, clothing, bedding, tables etc. made it dangerous to initially penetrate too far inside Arrow.

There was a large 200 tonne barge that had been blown ashore during the cyclone and the bosses of the team determined that it would be ideal for us to use as buoyancy in a tidal lift attempt situation. The barge was towed back into the water and re-floated. All repairs necessary to maintain its integrity were completed before a number of large winches, which were already on the barge, with wire ropes on their windlasses were reinforced, re-welded to the deck and strengthened for our use. This was completed by navy personnel from HMAS Stalwart. A thick metal pipe was welded to the forward edge of the barge deck, so the wires which were used for our tidal lift attempt, passed over the side and down to the Arrow without being crimped around any sharp or acute edges.

Because Arrow was laying flat on the seabed, we could not get a wire under the hull, so we needed alternative lifting points. We attempted to smash the porthole glass and metal protective covers from the outside, but we could not swing our hammers hard enough. We eventually found our way into the accommodation spaces and opened the port holes. That way we could pass wire strops through the vessel and provide at least one lifting point.

I was searching around the upper deck of the arrow by feel, when I came across a hatch with a large number of bolts or screws holding it in place. When I informed CPO Narramore, we discussed where it might lead to so we went over to HMAS Attack and saw that the hatch was above the engine room and immediately above a walkway, which passed across the space between the starboard engine and gearbox. The deck plate forming the walkway was fixed in place by 16 screws and beneath it was a solid metal stub axle which provided the drive between the engine and the gearbox. After seeing the set-up in Attack, it was determined to be a very strong securing point for one of the lifting wires for our tidal lift attempt. Over a period of several dives, using only my fingers for vision, I was able to remove the deck hatch, enter the engine room, find the deck plate and securing screws, remove the screws and the deck plate and eventually secure a sturdy wire strop to the stub axle.

After we had our securing wires attached, we made a lift attempt using the large Darwin tide and the buoyancy capacity of the barge to achieve it. We used the winches to tighten the wires at low tide and then waited for the tide to do its job. The wires appeared to be bearing equal weight, and the front of the barge began to be dragged down by the weight of Arrow as the tide rose. Within a couple of hours, the front of the barge freeboard had reduced from about 2.5m, to maybe one metre, so the deck of the 30m barge was laying at quite a steep angle. Most of the junior members of the salvage team were sitting in a semi-circle around the entrance to a shipping container which we used to store our equipment over night. I was sitting on the floor of the container with my legs outside on the deck. We were chatting about things young sailors chat about, when there was an enormous bang, and the barge lurched upwards and rocked quite vigorously. In a matter of a second, I found myself flat on my back in the container with footprints of my mates all over me as they all sought the relative safety of the container. I was a mere obstruction to that objective and ultimately just a door mat.

A one metre diameter main cog on one of the winches had not been able to withstand the stresses of lifting a 140-tonne vessel and it imploded, causing the rapid loss of continuity in the lift. The tremendous forces on the remaining lift equipment generated by the initial winch failure caused two other winches to fail as well. There was some considerable remedial word and rethinking of the whole process before we continued, but continue we did. The winches were reassessed, strengthened again and eventually we achieved a successful lift.

It became apparent that the single large barge at the stern of Arrow was not providing enough lift to the vessel overall for us to succeed. Also, the barge was too large to go under the wharf and lift the whole vessel, so a second, smaller barge was procured to supplement the large barge and provide tidal lift to the bow of the vessel.

When we eventually lifted the Arrow off the seabed, we needed to tow it from under the wharf. Before we could do that, a strong tow line needed to be attached, and the best place was determined to be through the propeller ‘A’ frame beneath the stern. There was much discussion about how to attach the line because this was only a few days since the Arrow had rapidly crashed back to the seabed following the failed winch episode. I suggested we get a spear gun and shoot a line through and then pull the tow line through, but that was discounted.

I was, and still am, in full admiration of our boss on that job, Leut Dave Ramsden, because I was there when he said to Chief Narramore, “This is why they pay me the big bucks, Chief, this is my job”. He swam under the suspended Arrow and placed the tow line. When the tow line was attached, the first attempt to tow the Arrow out from the wharf was performed by a small navy tug. But it was simply not large or powerful enough, so we seconded one of the large prawn trawlers which was still operational, and we made another attempt to tow it out from underneath the wharf. As hard as that trawler could pull, it wasn’t enough to budge the Arrow. We still had a major issue; either the Arrow had not been lifted high enough to clear the wharf pylons that penetrated the hull, or the lift had taken one or more pylons up with it.

A third attempt using HMAS Stuart was made because clearly more power was needed. Stuart, a 112m long, 2700 tonne River Class Destroyer Escort with 30,000 horsepower would certainly provide that power. The first attempt by Stuart also failed because the tow line wasn’t strong enough and it parted. However, the subsequent pull-on January 13, 1975, with a stronger tow line, succeeded with the barges and Arrow suspended beneath, moving slowly away from the wharf.

The stern of Stuart really dug in during that second pull and as black as the water was in Darwin Harbour at the time, we could see the grey/brown silt from the seabed being stirred by the powerful Stuart propellers. Even as powerful as Stuart was, looking from the deck of the barge, it felt like Arrow was not coming freely. Then as though a huge weight had been released, the tow line slackened a little and the barges moved more easily through the water. The wharf pylon or pylons which we believed were holding Arrow back had suddenly released their grip on the hull and she slid through the water far more freely.

When she was clear of the general wharf area and moving more freely through the water the tow was transferred to the navy tug and she was towed towards Fanny Bay, several hundred metres away. When the slack came off the lifting lines on the barges, they were released, and Arrow was towed on the harbour bottom into Fanny Bay by the navy tug. The following low tide showed her fully exposed with the clear indication of the severe damage to the superstructure and the 40mm Bofors Gun evident to all.

Captain EE Johnston OBE, RAN was the Naval Officer Commanding North Australia Area (NOCNA) at the time, and he addressed us to convey his thanks and the gratitude of all Northern Territory citizens for our efforts. There were no awards provided for the efforts of the Clearance Divers in Darwin, but I was grateful to be mentioned in Captain Ross Blues book, United and Undaunted, along with CPOCD Phil Narramore and POCD Colin Mitchell where he wrote “CPO Narramore and POCD Mitchell are commended for their professionalism and leadership and LSCD Digney for his courage and determination for diving inside Arrow”.

In July 1986, then Commodore Eric Johnston wrote a statement as part of lecture at the State Reference Library of the Northern Territory in Darwin.

“The diving team had worked tirelessly. They had undertaken general harbour search and surveys; they had cleared the wharves and immediate approach areas, and they had salvaged and raised the wreck of HMAS Arrow. I believe the only time I lost my temper during the whole clear-up operation was when a well-known television commentator, encountering the clearance divers during one of their rest periods, asked them why they were bludging. This man does not know how close he came to joining the other debris in the harbour”.

Personally, I think Captain Johnston was far too kind in his statements about this reporter and commentator. He called him a man, the very best I could call him would be a low life weasel. We worked 12 hours on and 12 hours off, for 22 days straight, in conditions rarely encountered by divers. A TV commentator could not even contemplate the amount of work we did, let alone the conditions in which we operated.

We departed Darwin on 18 January 1975, 23 days after arriving.

Story Submitted by Gordon Lowe (Navy):

After being recalled from leave Christmas Day 1974 to rejoin HMAS Hobart and transiting to Darwin, I was assigned as the Executive Officers (XO’s) Regulating Leading Seaman responsible for the naval shoreside working parties (Nominal Lists) during Operation Navy Help Darwin each day, we commenced work on shore (Darwin) at 0500 and finished at 1500 daily (seven days a week) with only a short 20-minute break for a sandwich meal break delivered from the ship to each work site. Working parties (sailors) were active every day for the entire period that HMAS Hobart was anchored off Darwin – 4 January until 14 January 1975.
HMAS Hobart working parties worked approximately 10 hours each day and that was not included in the sea boat journey to and from the ship daily (30 minutes in each direction) making our days 11 hours, plus our shipboard duties watches when we returned onboard. (15 hours plus days) Saturday’s and Sundays were normal working days.
This year it will be 50 years since Operation Darwin Assist and Operation Navy Help Darwin, urgent support for amendment of the regulations for the National Emergency Medal is requested.
As the convenor, my colleagues Chris Mitchell and Bill Furey it’s our privilege to assist in this worthy cause. BZ to all who are assisting.

Story Submitted by Roger Fairbairn (Navy):

I was the Duty Staff Officer for FOCEA from 24 to 28 December 1974.
I took the call on 25 December 1974 at 10:00 from Captain Johnson RAN, Naval Officer Commanding North Australia. He explained to me in detail that Cyclone Tracy had hit the Darwin Area ferociously and that huge damage had been done to most buildings in the city and that the Naval Base had been largely put out of any capability. There was loss of Life, and three Patrol Boats had been badly damaged and were out of service, and one possibly sunk.
He requested that I immediately inform all FOCEA Shore Base Commanders and the Defence Support Facilities and to do my best to coordinate response activities that would be necessary to provide support to Darwin.
There was no protocol for any such activity to be conducted by FOCEA, so it was up to me to get action organised.
All Senior Officers were on Christmas Holidays and my attempts to contact the Admiral, Chiefs of Staff and Shore Base Commanders, were difficult and it took more than a day to inform all what had happened and what I had done in the interim to arrange and organise Logistics Support from Naval Stores Resources. By chance as I was the Secretary to the Chief of Staff Commodore Dollard RAN, I was probably the most knowledgeable Officer on the Staff that knew where the Naval Store Assets were located.

Story submitted by Patrick Watt (Navy)

Below I provide the context of my involvement in responding to Cyclone Tracy:

I was duty Engineering Leading Hand on Christmas Day 1974 on HMAS Hobart. During that day I was involved in readying the ship for immediate sea duty when it became clear we may be required to respond to the emergency in Darwin caused by Cyclone Tracy. On Christmas Day evening, after working all day, I was required to drive to key personnel homes around the Sydney suburban area to inform them to report for duty the next day. I did this until the early hours of Boxing Day morning and returned to the ship at 3am. After a short sleep, I was required to carry out usual morning watch rounds at 0600 and then for the remainder of the day, resumed work to close up boilers and get other engineering services ready for sea. I was permitted to go home to see my wife that night and we sailed for Darwin the next morning.
On Arrival in Darwin, I was part of the first contingent to go ashore to assist with the cleanup and restoration of services. The first few days I was involved in house debris cleanup and disposal of perishable items to limit the protentional of disease. After that, I was redeployed to the Nighcliffe swimming pool which had been badly damaged and had a lot of glass strewn around the area. The intent was to recommission the pool to provide some safe area for R&R for the cleanup crews and remaining locals. The area had to have all debris removed from the pool and surrounds, the buildings made safe, and the broken glass cleared from the grass areas. This was accomplished after a few days with power provided by generators to run the pool equipment and the pool was opened for use to provide some respite from the tropical heat. HMAS Perth would provide cleanup crews for a few weeks until it was required to return to Sydney to prepare for exercises due to take place with the US Navy in Hawaii.

Story submitted by Lee Melville: (Navy):

I was a 19-year-old ABQMG and was the Brisbane ‘s divers’ yeoman when the Brisbane sailed into Darwin Harbour on New Year’s Eve 1974 as part of the Navy Help Darwin operation. The Brisbane remained in Darwin until 31 January 1975. I had been on leave in Queensland with my foster family and Girlfriend (now Wife) when I was recalled from leave and flew to Townsville where I rejoined the Brisbane for the very fast cruise to Darwin. On the trip to Darwin my role was to thoroughly check and prepare all driving equipment to ensure that the drivers on board were ready to commence diving operations as soon as we got alongside stokes hill wharf at Darwin harbour to attach inlet grates etc. to Brisbane’s hull. We were also briefed on the harbour conditions and what to expect while diving in such difficult conditions including very poor visibility all sorts of rubbish and floating debris in the harbour, 40-foot tides, sea snakes, stingers, sharks, crocodiles etc. not very good diving conditions for young divers. With the very high tides we could only safely dive during slack water day or night which made our task even more difficult and dangerous. We were also tasked with inspecting and cleaning the grates twice a day and with also inspecting and cleaning the grates of other RAN Vessels in the Harbour. As the diver’s yeoman I also provided assistance to the CD2 team tasked with recovering the HMAS Arrow which had sunk diagonally under the Darwin wharf during the Cyclone. The Brisbane’s diving team also provided clean up assistance ashore when not required for diving duties. However, as the ships diver’s yeoman the majority of my duties were diving related!

Story submitted by Keith Chay (Navy):

My survival story has been published in Patricia Collins book Rock and Tempest.
I was the CPO in charge of the Naval Motor Transport operating within the Larrakeyah Army Barracks. I was in the final month of my two-year posting to Melville when Tracy hit Darwin. I returned to Darwin on posting to HMAS Coonawarra DNB in 1984 to 1989 when I was discharged. It was good to return to Darwin and caught up with many of my civilian friends who also got through Tracy.

Story Submitted by Lawrence Coomber (Navy)

I was working in Darwin soon after the cyclone, but although I was serving in HMAS Stuart at the time of the cyclone [CPOETW3] I missed the ship sailing from Sydney because I was on Xmas leave and holidaying in a tent at Korny Point SA by myself at the time; spear fishing; lobster catching; and drinking beer, and had no contact with the outside world. So, I must have been one of the few people in Australia who had no idea about what happened in Darwin.
When I finally visited a shop 30 kms away to replenish stocks, I learned about Cyclone Tracy. I immediately contacted Fleet Headquarters and was informed that I had missed my ship sailing. I was ordered to drive straight to Richmond RAAF Base which I did [14 hours] and as soon as I arrived [in civvies and I did not have any uniform clothing] I was put on a Hercules? and flew to Darwin. Well as it turned out of course, I actually beat my ship to Darwin and was seconded out to the Australian Army and put in charge of a 5-soldier squad including an Army truck; and we were tasked with many important tasks including roaming dogs and cats’ “management” as a public health requirement. I was given some Army Clothing to wear until I could rejoin the Stuart on arrival. I have many very memorable stories of that week I spent as a soldier working the suburban streets of Darwin, but they will have to wait until another day. Unbelievably as soon as I walked back onboard Stuart, the Swain [Nippy Prior if I remember correctly]; informed me I had been charged with “Failing to be on board when the ship was under sailing orders”. I fronted the captain’s table and told my story. He dismissed the case but scathingly remined me to always spend Xmas with family and friends. Good advice.

Story Submitted by LSPHOT Tony Fareso (Navy)

I have photographs from Darwin, as I was one of the Navy Photographers on site. Submitted a few already.
Some of my photos are on display in the Darwin Museum under a commander’s name! I was alerted by WA radio station to present myself to nearest naval base urgently, as I was a serving member of HMAS Melbourne. I was flown to Cairns, choppered out to join my ship. Upon arriving in Darwin harbour I was part of the team to photograph the devastation from a “Wessex Helo”, I was also involved in ground parties to control looting, clean out rotting meat from supermarkets and helped in debris clean up.

Story Submitted by Raymond Johnson (Navy)

As an ABRO onboard HMAS Parramatta after the cyclone struck Darwin, I volunteered to assist. I was told to pack a bag and be at the gates of HMAS KUTTABUL by midnight. I did this and then went ashore with a few other volunteers for pre departure drinks. A bus picked us all up at midnight worse for wear and we then joined a TAA flight to Townsville where we were transported to Lavarack barracks and told to get some sleep on steel framed wire beds with no mattresses. After breakfast that morning we were told that we were to join HMAS Brisbane at 1500hrs. when she arrived in Townsville for a quick refuel/re victual and then flat out to Darwin. I managed to sweet talk the Army SGT into letting me and 2 mates, go out and visit my wife’s uncle who was the sextant at the local crematorium for a few hours… on the promise that we would be waiting on the wharf when Brisbane got alongside. After quite a few cleansing ales we did indeed meet the ship on time. On arrival in Darwin, we were formed into teams and immediately went to work in the worst hit suburb of Knightscliffe, it was just like in those American movies where a Twister has ripped the place apart. Corrugated iron sheeting wrapped around the top of remaining power poles and hardly a house still standing. Because of Darwin’s tropical climate most of the houses were high set to allow for cooling breezes to get underneath and lower the temperature, the cyclone loved these houses and very few of them were left with anything above the floor. The work was backbreaking from 0800 – 1600 sorting out muddied remains of stinking animals buried under debris to cataloguing any belongings of value and organising trucks to remove them. I remember a 2 metre long tucker box freezer sitting up all alone on the floor of a house 3 metres off the ground with the caption…” Navy take this, do what you want with it we’ve headed south”. That afternoon when the truck arrived to move it someone had stolen it. My mate Ray K got to work at the brewery, which was also decimated, they set the work teams up a cold keg in a shed, he said he was almost crying when they had to get on the dozers and bury hundreds of pallets of canned beer. My brother Gary J was on HMAS Hobart, he worked in the city, said the department store he worked in was giving everything away, Gary told him we can’t take anything unless you sell it to us and give us a receipt. His wife enjoyed the dozen dresses he paid 10c each for. Oh, how I wished I was working one of those jobs instead of the filthy conditions that we worked in in Knightscliffe. What stuck in my mind though, was the positive attitude of all the locals. Well after 2 weeks of this the NAVY decided to fly me by Hercules back down south to join my new ship HMAS Torrens. Bye Darwin.

Story Submitted by Yvonne Corby (Nee Lowe) (Navy)

I was an 18yo WRAN (Women’s Royal Australian Navy Service) Communicator posted to Darwin, to the old HMAS Coonawarra on the Stuart Hwy, on 9th December 1974. No family, no friends so to speak of, and a “Dear John” letter from my then boyfriend in Canberra was awaiting me when I arrived! I was assigned a communications shift at the old 1RS (Receiving Station) located at HMAS Coonawarra.
I remember vividly Christmas Eve, the day before; the watch supervisor was keeping his eye on the cyclone movements via radio, and he predicted this would be no ordinary cyclone. At 4pm when I finished my shift, I walked back to the WRANS quarters. The sky was literally black with storm clouds.
As the evening progressed, a Christmas Eve function was organised at the Junior Sailor’s Mess. When the bar closed, we were ordered back to our quarters, instead of making the usual trek to the Berrimah hotel.
Around midnight, all cabins were cleared, and we began sheltering in the recreation room which was in the old WRANS quarters. As the winds increased and the door could not be held closed anymore, they moved us into more sheltered rooms where we spent the first part of Tracy.
We could hear the winds howling outside and then a massive crack, the whole top floor had sheered straight off. Some of us had only just been up there moments before to make sure there were no girls up there still. I can still remember one of the girls opening the louvres and saying, “there goes my wardrobe”. Amazingly enough, at one stage the door flew open and there was a family with three children from the marriage patch who had lost their home …. And this was in the first half!
When the winds died down, we were relocated to the Junior Sailor’s Mess and walked the way down the street. I remember holding onto two children’s hands and walking them there. At one stage, there was a crack of lighting which lit up the sky as we passed the captain’s house. You could see straight through the roof to the sky.
The second half was upon us. The captain took charge at the Junior Sailor’s Mess and ordered every adult to have an alcoholic drink …. To this day, I cannot stand the smell of Bundy and Coke ….
Seems like the whole of the depot was there, Sailors, wives, children, dogs, cats …. At one point the roof started to bounce above us. A broom was quickly found, and holes were knocked in the gyprock to release a ton of water. We were sitting under tables at that stage, surrounded by wives’ children, dogs and cats.
At daybreak we could still see the wind howling around us.
When the Captain announced all clear sometime later, we went back to our cabins to clean up the mess.
Everything was topsy turvy! There were buildings strewn all around the street. A boat had wedged itself under a house … the house owner didn’t own a boat ….
I was fortunate to find my cabin was still intact except for daylight through the roof above the wardrobe. Even though I was on the top floor, there was at least a couple of inches of water in the room …. And my camera floating …. The next few days were a blur … dragging corrugated iron to the tennis courts so that it could not fly around should another blow occur. Manning the industrial dryers to get blankets dry for the families, offering cups of tea and assurance to some of the wives who believed they had lost everything.
A few stories that stand out, one fellow woke up on Christmas morning, in his bed …. nothing else around him, roof and walls completely gone. Another rode out the cyclone in the big industrial dryer.
One sad story stands out, “Stevo” was on duty that night. He requested to go home to check on his family, a request that was denied. During the eye, the request was granted. He found his wife and two children had perished, crushed under the bed.
On the bright side, the sailors who regularly hung off the bar were the first to get their hands dirty. The RAN commandeered graders, tractors, and trucks very early in the piece. These lads were not backward in coming forward, using whatever heavy equipment they could to clean up the houses on the marriage patch and the aerial farm. It was not an unfamiliar sightseeing them racing graders and tractors across the aerial farm. We didn’t see them for days and when we did, they were exhausted!
We spent the next couple of days and weeks cleaning up and getting the depot back to fully operational status. It was literally all hands-on deck, from drying blankets to clearing out fridges on the marriage patch, not a pleasant task after two weeks of no power and most fridges full of Christmas fare.
Through all this the unspoken navy “all in this together” and “watch your mate” ethics shone through. Mateships lasting now 50 years have come to the fore and are now stronger and more resilient than ever.
Whilst working for ABC Radio from 1989 to 2007, I became the custodian for the audio recorded at midnight mass in the Christ Church Cathedral, prior to the Cyclone Tracy exhibition being opened at the Museum. I still cannot go into the Cyclone Tracy display.
Personally, I have experienced a few cyclones living in the tropics now, nothing is more terrifying than hearing the sound akin to a freight train off in the distance, a night that will be forever etched in my memory.

Story submitted cy Cecilia Craddock (Navy)

Finished Recruit School, HMAS Cerberus, and got home to Sydney on 24/12/1974. Like my fellow WRANRPs from Class 154 I was expecting to be on leave before reporting to HMAS Watson (5/1/1975?).
My mother woke me early one morning telling me all leave had been cancelled. (I’m not sure if leave was cancelled on Christmas Day or Boxing Day). The notice of cancelled leave was all over the radio.
I was sent to HMAS Penguin. Personnel were sent to many sites. I was sent to Sydney airport to meet people as they were coming off the planes during the evacuation.
My head was still spinning from the recruit school experience. Then this organised chaos was added.
We greeted people in various stages of shock with little, if anything, to their name. We assisted them to complete forms, register for assistance with various charities. Basically, helped them to find the help they wanted and/or what we felt would help them. We helped them find the never-ending lines of buses to take them to the accommodation that had been found for them.
We listened to their stories through their tears.
It seemed we had thousands of people all at once and walked each and every one of them from one end of the terminal to the other, walked back and did it as many times as necessary. Then nothing. The whole terminal would go eerily quiet. But never for long.
The Salvation Army and Red Cross totally amazed me. They were all so calm, never seemed overwhelmed no matter the level of distress or chaos. Apart from everything they were doing, they also helped matched up separated families.
Back at Penguin, I remember the hospital taking in some slightly injured but, can’t remember if those patients’ included civilians. There were, however, some civilians passing through Penguin to be fed, and showered. Kudos must go to the cooks who kept up a never-ending buffet for a few days there, and I must say the food was constantly amazing.
It was the most exhausting time of my entire life, as well as the most depressing time, the saddest time.
It was also the most uplifting time, the first time I saw how service personnel can adapt to any job as required, l the first time I saw the unquestionable support service personnel give willingly to the community, and the incredible network of support that service members give to each other without question.

Story Submitted by Jeffrey Kelly (Navy)

A very abrupt introduction to the life of a serviceman in support of the community.

Story Submitted by Geoff Craige – (Navy)

Posted for the second time to Melville early 1974 and did 2 years from 1964 at Larrakeyah Army barracks in their RAP.
My wife and I were allocated a house in the HMAS Coonawarra patch middle of 1974.
On the afternoon of 24th December 1974, we had a breakup lunch and drinks at Navy HQ in Darwin. We were advised of cyclone by skipper and told to take necessary precautions and advised that the patrol boats had left or were about to leave port.
Picked up my wife from work headed to see my brother who was the Station Master at Darwin railway office, had a bite to eat a drink and told not to worry had all the warnings year after year and nothing happened, then, headed home to Coonawarra.
Secured everything in our home, water in bath, extra drinking water and placed our puppy in our car, then went to our next-door Neighbour as she was home alone with two children as her husband had been called in for duty.
We then helped her prepare the house and placed a mattress in the bath and settled the two children in the bath and we settled in the lounge. It had started to rain, and the wind commenced firstly in spurts, but it seemed to become stronger and more constant. Will never forget that I fought an endless battle trying to keep the floor dry as the rain and wind increased.
Soon heard what sounded like galvanised iron on the road scraping and the wind and rain now fierce. I checked on the kids, they were awake so took them to the lounge to be with their mum and as I was walking with both kids a roof from a house timber frame, and all came through the bathroom wall over the bath and into the diving wall. At this stage had two kids screaming and mother hysterical so decided to get them all over to our house, we all made it and of course why the fuk did we do it.
Went upstairs our house okay at this stage, dried the kids, clean dry clothes and bite to eat, our glass louvre windows started popping, glass flying everywhere. Took them all downs stairs to work shed, covered with cushions and cardboard boxes, things seemed settled, but our house was shaking violently. On the other side of our house was a greeny who had a four-wheel drive, but it was blocked in the driveway by his wife’s car, he started it in reverse, but the wind took the car at speed down through the back wire fence, he had managed to jump clear before it took off. We felt things were all over the place with the wind and rain, up then calmer, decided to start getting ready for the eye, oh what an awesome feeling. I convinced our next-door neighbour with the two kids I should take the first child over so we could get to the depot during the eye, well could have been an unbelievable error. I was dressed in a t shirt, shorts and things, grabbed the young fella, he held on so tightly, I slowly made my way to the low wire fence, my back was being beaten by small sharp pieces of gravel. I lilted a leg over the fence and in seconds after lifting other leg was taken on my back at speed down to the wire back fence, oh shit I was not a happy soul. The young boy was screaming, I stood and started to make my way back up to the dividing fence, then, absolute silence, the eye!
Got together with males present as most of the noise now was coming from women and children. We started searching house by house, can’t forget that one stage we were worried about being electrocuted, now feel like a dickhead, no fukin power. Got all the children and women together, could hear vehicles, were they coming from the base and the next thing headlights and a bus, oh shit what a feeling. My greeny next door brought his 4X4 back to the depot, plenty it organised people and things were in order, so we went back to the patch to gather things including my wife’s purse and our car with our pup in it. Drove back to depot parked my Ed my car next to the depot rubbish truck, opened a window a little, plenty of treats then back inside. Women and children under tables next metal louvre windows, the naked congregated near the toilet facilities and we waited for the cyclone to run its course. We had not lost anyone, but what else was happening, my brother and family other residents of Army and RAAF base, felt so fukin hopeless.
Early Christmas morning, very little wind and little rain, what had happened? The galley got going on an emergency generator, what a great breakfast, the CO and others including me set about searching the patch that morning and all areas of the base were checked off and considering what had happened. We had Navy personnel living at Nightcliffe and other areas, so they were checked on. My next job was to set up the sick bay as the top floor was destroyed and we needed to be able to treat cuts and bruises so that there was no pressure on the RAAF hospital and Darwin Base Hospital. We thought we had been cut off no communication, had this just happened to us? but we were well organised but with little resources, the noise of that first plane flying over us, the biggest cheer I have ever heard, things started to take shape.
On Boxing Day, sick bay open and we were seeing a lot of lacerations, still stitching up after cleaning up. Mid-morning a leading hand came in and asked if I could give him a hand, followed him to his car, he opened his boot and there were his deceased Wife and son, tears rolling down his cheeks, oh fuk what can I do the poor bugger. If you ask me today what happened from then, can’t remember, I know I put. my arm around him and took him to the sick bay.
The rest of my time at HMAS Coonawarra is hard to put together, kept on assisting in many tasks but my recall is not that good.
Remember going to check on staff at RAAF base hospital, talked to Ken O’Keefe and others, went Larrakeyah and caught up with RSM Percy White.
Remember sleeping in canteen on floor with my wife, who was evacuated early, the fridge noise all bloody night.
The relief I felt when the ships started to arrive, can’t really explain, it was an enormous weight off my shoulders, they did a brilliant job, the doctors and medics.
I can’t recall all the detail but will attempt some, I was asked to go down to the wharf as one of the patrol boats had not got away on time and was crushed under the pier. There were deaths, don’t know what my job was, can recall being there but sorry it’s now in bits and pieces.
I am today a DVA client, on a gold card 100% pension.
My accepted conditions are PTSD, anxiety and depressive symptoms and alcoholism.
A percentage of this has been attributed to Cyclone Tracy.
I still suffer enormously with significant reaction to wind of any kind, I’m one of the lucky ones.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to tell my yarn about “Tracy”.

Story submitted by Andrew McCarthy (Navy)

I was on Christmas leave in Sydney from 817 Squadron. I had spent Christmas Day at my brother’s home and had got back to my parent’s house in the evening. I saw on the news that there had been some event in Darwin and didn’t think much of it before going to bed. The next morning there was a tapping on my bedroom window from a mate, Bob Stanton, who was also on 817 and in Sydney on leave. He said that all HS817 and HT725 Squadron members were being recalled to duty immediately. Rather than going back to HMAS Albatross we went down to Garden Island where HMAS Melbourne was moored. We got onboard just after lunch and the area around the ship was a hive of activity with trucks driving up onto the flight deck via the Bailey Bridge to deliver stores. I have no idea what we had or did for kit, but we were onboard. We found our mess and prepared to receive the Wessex from Nowra after we cleared the Heads as we sailed out later on Boxing Day.
As we sailed to Darwin, we prepared the Wessex for a freight and taxi role by stripping out the AQS-13A Sonar system and crew positions from the aircraft cabin. This was a pretty big job as not only the components had to be removed but all the mounting and racking parts. A maze of associated wiring then had to be safely stowed to avoid it being damaged. We got the aircraft back to a bare cabin status. Whilst all this was happening, we had to maintain Wessex in flying serviceability for communication, ferrying and pilot currency status.
HMAS Melbourne had three hangars, A, B & C. Hangars A & B were between the forward and aft lifts with hangar C located aft of the aft lift. All the stores and equipment that had been loaded in Sydney were stored in a line on the port side of hangars A & B almost to the deckhead. There was a walkway space between the stores and the port bulkhead of the hangars for access to bulky aircraft spares that were stored on the port bulkhead.
As we steamed north it got hotter and hotter to work on the aircraft in the hangar even when the lifts were partially lowered to get some form of breeze through. We had access to iced water but after copious quantities of that the thirst doesn’t really get quenched. Amongst all those recovery stores in the hangar somebody found some cardboard cartons of steel cans of Golden Circle Fruit Juices. The recovery of Darwin would not be serious affected by the loss of a can or two fruit juice from the side of the stack near the bulkhead and a drink of fruit juice with some ice in it was most refreshing. We were careful not to take too many cans from each carton to keep it all very stable. Unfortunately, one day there was a bit of a sea running and the depleted cartons could no longer hold up the stores above them resulting in a section of the recovery stores crashing down. That was the end of our fruit juice refreshments.

Story Submitted by Colin Coyne (RAAF)

Santa never made it into Darwin XMAS 1974
50th Anniversary since Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin
Recollection by Col Coyne [AMSDAR at the time]
Darwin had the normal wet season lead up to Cyclone Tracy with Tropical Cyclone Marcia 17 – 25 October 1974, Tropical Cyclone Norah 28 October – 4 November 1974 and Tropical Cyclone Penny 6 – 16 November 1974. While these cyclones did not impact Darwin we heard the cyclone alerts on local radio, so when the alerts went out for Cyclone Tracey on 20 December the cyclone was just over 100km from Darwin, nobody was concerned, adopting the Territory attitude of ‘it will turn away’.

OC Darwin, GPCAPT [AIRCDRE Retd] Dave ‘Crazyhorse’ Hitchins granted base personnel an early standdown at lunchtime for those working over the Xmas period, the cyclone was just west of Bathurst Island, so it was straight in to ‘Xmas party mode’ for the afternoon.

It was evening when the alerts started getting serious, with the impact of the winds and safety concerns beginning to rise. By 2100hrs debris was starting to hit the walls of the house we were in. The wind ferocity forced rain through the house louvres, so water was coming in, we just huddled around in the middle of the lounge room listening to the wind and debris crashing into the exterior of the house.

By 0123hrs on Xmas Day the eye of the Cyclone Tracey was 14km from Darwin, by 0145hrs the eye was over the RAAF base. The wind stopped, but it was pitch dark outside with only torchlight to look around. After about 40 minutes we could hear the wind in the distance so went back inside again.

Power had been lost, water was pouring in through the roof, running down the internal walls. The wind & debris noise was horrific having no idea when it was going to end.

By 0310hrs the winds reached 217kmh [135mph] when the anemometer at the airport failed, the official report concluded that the maximum winds in Darwin were 140-150 kmh with gusts in the range of 217- 240 kmh [135-150mph].

The cyclone struck with vengeance, the wind went straight to full force from the opposite direction at over 140kmh again dislodging the debris from against the house and hurling it back in the direction from which it came, smashing windows and holes in walls.

The wind slowly dissipated as we moved towards first light about 0530hrs. The site next morning was so hard to comprehend. We returned to our allocated-on bases MQ at 6 Bukartilla Road. As can be seen from the photo, the kitchen and dining/lounge area was missing, the kitchen sink was in the backyard.

OC Darwin, GPCAPT Dave Hitchins [AIRCDRE Retd] was out fishing during the Xmas break so the Dakota, which had been repositioned to Tindal before the cyclone, was sent to pick him up on Xmas morning. Upon his return to base a briefing of all personnel was called, the first thing on the agenda was to go around to all the married quarters and retrieve any salvageable foodstuffs from the household freezers and take to the Officers mess which had a cold-room with a generator backup.

All communication out of Darwin had been knocked out, no power, running water or sewerage facilities were available.

The Darwin telephone exchange was decimated, no mobile phones in those days, so contact ‘down south’ was non-existent until about mid-morning when Bob Hooper, the station manager of the OTC Coastal Radio Service an amateur radio enthusiast, was the first to broadcast news of the cyclone to the world.

The broadcast was picked up by Slim Jones VK8JT who made contact with Ken McLachlan VK3AH at Mooroolbark in Melbourne’s east. Shortly after that a very large network formed on the frequency to handle emergency traffic to administrative authorities and other organisations assisting in relief and evacuation work. The net control station was in Melbourne.

It didn’t take long for the RAAF to mobilise Herc crews, maintenance personnel, air movements, catering, air traffic control & medical evacuation staff, recalling those on stand down plus many others just returned to work offering assistance.

The first C-130 into Darwin arrived at 2220hrs, having diverted into Mt Isa northbound from Richmond, picking up the Government’s Director General National Disaster Response Organisation, MAJGEN [Retd] Alan Stretton. Stretton was on board a BAC 1-11 from Canberra. The aircraft did not have the navigational aids to get into Darwin outside daylight hours. All the navigation aids had been destroyed by the cyclone. The C-130 landed with the runway lit by vehicle headlights.

On board the first Hercules, A97-168, was a RAAF surgical team comprising 1 surgeon, 1 anesthetist, 2 medical officers, 2 nurses and 2 orderlies. The Hercules also carried medical supplies and a press party. Additional passengers, picked up in Mt Isa off the BAC 1-11, were a civilian surgical team comprising 3 surgeons, 1 anesthetist, 1 registrar and 3 nurses. This aircraft also carried medical supplies and one ABC cameraman.

Air Movements Section established their operations in the Bomber Replenishment Area [BRA] where at least we had a solid building for our stretchers with the only water supply being from the fire hydrant system being gravity fed from the large white-water tank near the Stuart Highway.

As soon as the pax/cargo were unloaded each aircraft taxied from the BRA to the military hardstand while being reconfigured from cargo to pax and medical evacuation litters for the transport of the most seriously injured.

The Herc crew members and maintenance personnel of 36, 37 & 486SQNs flew the tasks into Darwin and back out as soon as reloaded with injured patients and all available seating as the evacuation on Darwin residents commenced in earnest.

Initially incoming flights delivered nearly 20,000lb of blankets, an item certainly not required during the humid wet season in Darwin, they were just stored for return when things settled down. Herc loads ex Darwin far exceeded the normal pax load of 91, regularly departing with more than 150 pax & one C-130A with 246 pax plus a canary and border collie dog.

In total, 35,362 people were evacuated from Darwin to southern cities, with 25,628 of them evacuated by air. The evacuation was the largest in Australia’s peacetime history.
Other aircraft involved included 11SQN P3Bs, RAN HS-748s, USAF C141s, USAF C-130s, Indonesian C-130s, RNZAF C-130H, RAF C-130K, RCAF C-130, Ansett Airlines B727s & DC9s, Qantas B707s, Trans Australia Airlines (TAA) B727s, MacRobertson Miller Airlines F28s, and Connair (Connellan Airways) DC-3s & Herons.

RAAF News records the following statistics:
The Air Force’s transport squadrons worked tirelessly to bring in supplies and evacuate residents from Dec 26, 1974, to Jan 4, 1975. 36SQN’s (C-130A) contribution: 8 aircraft, 554 flying hours, carried 2864 passengers and 793,000lb freight

37SQN’s (C-130E) contribution: 11 aircraft, 700 flying hours, carried 4400 passengers and 1.3 million lb. freight. In one day, 19 Herc’s from the two squadrons made a total of 44 flights into Darwin.

Story submitted by Kym Yeoward (Army)

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 Herc’s from Richmond, to pick-up supplies for Darwin.
All 18 available Herc’s were mobilised – modern E models and even the old A models, which had been scheduled for resale. (The RAAF had 22 Herc’s – 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 social security (now 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 bubs 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 Herc’s could
arrive at any time, 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 Dec Our team packed pallets and loaded 71 flights will all manner of relief supplies
to 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 – forever – 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 Herc’s, 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 onto 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 airdrop 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. withheld).
7 December 2024

P.S.:
When we landed in Darwin, we spent several hours at the RAAF aircraft refueling depot, just next to the Stuart Highway – as that shelter was still standing, despite bent-over power poles nearby. Funnily enough, the refueling 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 Laber Touche 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.

Story submitted by Alan Strong (Navy)

At home in Byford Perth Western Australia on Christmas leave, my Mum tells me I have to report to HMAS Leeuwin because a cyclone has destroyed Darwin on Christmas day. The call up was broadcast on local radio and TV. Next thing I am at Perth Airport boarding a charter flight full of RAN personnel to Sydney on Boxing Day.
Arriving at Sydney airport at nighttime there was Navy busses to take us to Garden Island to join our Ships mine being HMAS Stalwart D215. Stalwarts’ personnel had been storing ship all day and part of the night which I was involved in as soon as I was onboard.
Stalwart sailed early next morning, when out of the Heads we did a Jack Stay Transfer with one of the Daring’s to bring meat on board, the boxed meat was stacked up on the focsle of the Daring, you could not see A and B turret. Being an AB I was involved with that.
My posting on the ship was Fleet Maintenance Unit (FMU) and I was an ABMTL (electrical) and worked in the Motor Rewind Workshop. While on route to Darwin preparation work was being carried out onboard, one of the tasks I was assigned to was the commissioning of the starting batteries for the portable Diesel Generators that had been loaded into Stalwarts forward hold.
We arrived in Darwin and came alongside Stokes Hill Wharf. Other Fleet Units were at anchor in the Bay, I remember HMAS Brisbane alongside Stalwart.
The first job that I remember was getting the Shell fuel depot up and running, a lot of water ingress into motors and switchgear. Fuel was the key to get things going in Darwin.
Other task I can remember was the air conditioning units in the hospital, a lift motor in a high-rise building, a refrigeration unit at Darwin Sailing Club and the slipway winch motor at HMAS Melville, something went wrong during a winching operation and the cradle ran back down the slipway. This caused over speeding of the motor and damaged the motor windings. A replacement motor was sourced from a conveyor system at the Port. Sadly, the very badly damaged HMAS Arrow was sitting on the mud flats at HMAS Melville.
Two entertainers arrived in Darwin to keep up morale. Debbie Byrne did a show in town and Rolf Harris did his show on the Flight Deck of HMAS Melbourne. The Fleet Units small boats crews were busy that night.
When I was duty watch myself and others were required to go to Darwin Airport to unload Aircraft, the tasks we carried out were done to the best of our ability with no complaining.
From memory the local radio station was broadcast from HMAS Brisbane, I was not involved in clean up duties as a lot of my ship mates were, the devastation I saw was a lot for an 18-year-old to take in but very proud to help out.

Alan Strong

Story Submitted by Trevor Ruddick (Navy)

At the time I was serving on HMAS BRISBANE as an ABMTP.
I was on annual leave when I was notified that I was required to return to my Ship. On returning to my ship the crew were informed that we were sailing to Darwin to assist with disaster relief.
After departing Garden Island and clearing Sydney Heads we were dispatched at 28 Knots to Darwin. We stopped in at Townsville briefly to Store & Bunker, as well as receiving three vaccinations then on to Darwin. On arrival in Darwin, we were formed into teams to go ashore and start the cleanup. From memory we worked 0700 through to 1800 7 days a week. Late January early February 1975 I was flown back my home port of Cairns to continue my leave. The Brisbane returned to Sydney with a skeleton crew on completion of the deployment in Darwin.
Regards
Trevor Ruddick.

Story submitted by Jeff Smith (Army)

Christmas 1974, I was at a friend’s house with my wife and celebrating Christmas when I received a phone call from the Army base.
They told me that Darwin had been almost destroyed, and we were going to assist so pack all my gear and report to Holsworthy at 6am Christmas Day.
I arrived at the barracks and were briefed about what was happening and we had to load 2 Patterson 6B water purification trailers to be flown to Darwin. There were I think about 20 or so off us
We then went to Richmond air base and boarded a C130 With Major General Stretton and some news crew and flew to Townsville, we were fed then had some sleep up at 6 breakfast and back on board and off to Darwin. We arrived in Dawin and looked out the small windows and they were right Darwin was a mess; all we could see were flattened houses everywhere.
We unloaded the Trailer from the aircraft and drove to Larrakia barracks where we were all briefed and told the trailers were not required. Our task was to go each house and empty out all the fridges and freezers of food as there was no power. We did that for over two weeks and each night we got back to base and stripped of our smelly clothes in the shower out the other side and issued clean ones, that was our daily routine until all the food was gone, but for the next week we still smelled putrid. Our next task was to do repairs to the base repairing walls roofs cleaning up debris etc. We were then relieved by a new crew, and we all flew home.

Story Submitted by Peter Richard Brook (Army)

On 25 December 1974 I dropped my wife off at Qantas Adelaide, where she worked. Then I went to my office at Keswick Barracks. The Duty Officer informed me that I was required to load my Army vehicle with blankets and proceed to Adelaide Airport to assist with people on the flights from Darwin. For the next three days I was meeting flights at Adelaide Airport and RAAF to organise transport to their accommodation. I did not return to my home for four days and nights, I slept on a camp stretcher in my office as I had to man the phones.

Story Submitted by Brenton Collett (Navy)

I was based at HMAS Watson waiting for a draft when Tracy hit on Christmas Day (my 18TH birthday), volunteers were called for so I volunteered and was seconded to HMAS Brisbane sailing on 26/12/74 to Townsville for supplies and vaccinations and arriving in Darwin on New Years Eve, I remember the Jimmy wouldn’t allow a beer issue. I worked in work parties in Darwin, Nightcliff, Casaurina, Fanny Bay and other areas and was amazed at the destruction, the thing that really stuck in my mind was the corrugated iron roof and fencing sheets wrapped around power and light poles like tissue paper as well as the flat floor base of the houses with no walls or roof. I stayed on Brisbane for 3 – 4 weeks and was sent back to NSW, RAAF Williamstown on a RAAF Hercules to return to HMAS Watson, fortunately I was drafted to Brisbane when she returned after Darwin. Tracy’s effect was such an eye-opener for me, the destruction was so devastating for the people of Darwin, I was so glad that I was able to provide a little help for the people so in need, the experience taught me many positive life lasting ethics, empathy, charity and the understanding that your world can do a 180 without much warning and you just have to face what is.

Story submitted by Peter Bellamy (Navy)

I was on X-mas leave with my family in Townsville Nth Qld. Not long after Cyclone Tracy my name was announced over the local radio stations to join HMAS Brisbane alongside Townsville taking on emergency stores and replenishing the ship, fuel, water etc. which I did and sailed with her to Darwin. When in Darwin I was transferred by boat to HMAS Hobart. Immediately I was deployed ashore in a work party, starting in the suburb of Nightcliff. To be honest I thought Townsville was hot, but Darwin was even hotter. The hottest was of course keeping 3 x 4 hour watches down the Fire Rooms onboard providing the ship with vital power for all ship’s services. The days were long because of the hours of daylight, the days were hot being the season of Summer. You returned to your ship completely buggered and sunburnt to shower, eat and try to get some rest, knowing that tomorrow would be the same as the day just finished. A sense of pride was obtained because of your help was greatly appreciated and a stronger bond was formed between your ship’s company other NAVY and Defence personnel plus others assisting Operation HELP. You never forgot what happened that day to Darwin with Cyclone Tracy and you never forgot what you did to help with Darwin’s recovery. After 1974 I made many more port visits to Darwin in my 44+yrs of service. You could still see some scars, but Darwin was recovering well post Tracy.

Story Submitted by Dennis Ryan (Army)

I was seconded from 11 Supply Battalion Brisbane to Darwin after Tracy. At 711 Supply Coy or what was left of it I operated the fuel bowser and also as a driver/ offsider on the cleanup trucks.
The sign in the photo section is of the 711 Supply Coy depot sign as you drove into Larrakeyah Barracks, and a further photo is of our food storage depot which suffered badly in the blow. Other photos are of myself and mates during the cleanup.

I was asked to stay on after the cleanup, so my detachment became a posting until 1977. I also worked with NT Police trying to locate the many Army generator sets that disappeared all over the NT and beyond after power was restored which meant extensive travel to some very isolated locations. I also worked with Staff Sergeant Max Cannon and Major Gary Hugo who were responsible for explosive ordnance disposal in the NT and top half of WA. Max had a leg wound from service in Vietnam and was unable to drive so I was his driver and assistant. Darwin Harbour was a great source of unexploded ordnance especially with Xmas tides when all sorts of small arms would wash up onto the beach. Max and I would collect sandbags full and dispose of at Frances Creek Ammo Depot. We also disposed of Mills grenades from Gove, Aircraft ammo from Batchelor where there was a WW2 airfield and a 250 lb aerial bomb at Adelaide River. We also disposed of a lot of old 25lb artillery rounds. Great times and I felt like I was doing something useful. I left in 1977 for a posting to Holsworthy which may have been for the best as my liver may have failed due to the NT propensity for drink. I remember the good times but also the devastation and sadness and the loss of community which many probably never fully recovered from.

Story Submitted by Reynold Delmenico (Navy)

I was sent ashore from HMAS Melbourne to cook for the Police and Officers who were ashore, stores were dropped off by helicopter from the Melbourne daily, I slept ashore on a stretcher.