Disaster at Darwin
Thirty years ago, on Christmas Eve, Cyclone Tracy devastated Darwin, including the RAAF base. Members who lived through the catastrophic windstorm spoke to CPL Simone Liebelt.

A wrecked aircraft and a destroyed hangar that had held reserve operational equipment. The aircraft, of Indonesian origin, had been secured against cyclones by concrete-filled 44-gallon drums.

More than 100 of the married quarters were destroyed.

A RAAF bus tossed on its roof and crushed as winds reached 300km/h.

AFTER Cyclone Tracy struck Darwin, the Air Force was the first to act in the biggest emergency evacuation in Australia.

Like the city, much of RAAF Base Darwin was left in ruins after Tracy unleashed winds of up to 300km/h late on Christmas Eve 1974.

Over six hours, the ferocious windstorm killed 65 people and injured thousands, leaving a damage bill of about $800 million and more than 25,000 people homeless.

On the base, many of the buildings were destroyed, including more than 100 married quarters, all communications and navigational aids were cut and the airfield was littered with debris.

Personnel raced to clear the airfield as the transport squadrons at RAAF Base Richmond geared up for a major evacuation effort.

Air Vice-Marshal John Monaghan – who was recently appointed Chief Information Officer – was a 20-year-old Air Force cadet visiting his parents for Christmas.

His father was CO Base Squadron Wing Commander Bill Monaghan, the temporary Base Commander when Tracy struck.

“During the cyclone I thought how unlucky we were to have lost our roof and how inconvenient it was to be stuck with my mum in the bathroom alcove to escape the debris blowing through our house,” AVM Monaghan said. “The next morning ... I was amazed to look out and see the devastation and realise that we had been lucky.

Someone’s large cabin cruiser was upside down in our front yard, the Dakota was upside down almost in the OC’s front yard and roofing iron was wrapped around just about everything.”

Like most serving members in the area, his leave was cancelled, after which he assisted in the recovery effort by repairing roofs around the base.

Kerry Farrow, Business Manager of RAAF Base Townsville, was a Leading Aircraftman administration clerk who had been called in to assist WGCDR Monaghan in the operations centre during the storm. He recalled the roof of the base switch room being blown off, cutting all their communications and leaving two WRAAF operators inside.

“Luckily we had an Army signals operator with us, so we sent the girls a message in Morse code with a torch to tell them to stay where they were,” Mr Farrow said. “The next morning, after staying in there in about 18 inches of water, the girls came out laughing about it for about an hour and then collapsed from shock.

“Another thing I remember was seeing a 35,000-litre fuel tank in the lightning skidding sideways across the airfield. It was full but nobody was in it; it just kept going until it hit the trees.”

He said a lot of weird things happened during and after the cyclone, such as the base intello, who didn’t smoke, carrying around five packets of cigarettes during the storm, and men dressing as women to try to get on aircraft during the evacuation.

“We ran out of water and I found a fire hydrant right down the bottom of the base that had some water backed up in it, so I went to have a bath,” he recalled. “So here I am under this thing having a wash, when two ladies tapped me on the shoulder and said, ‘Can I borrow your soap?’ I’d never seen them before in my life!”

Roy Butcher, Business Manager of RAAF Base Darwin, was a Corporal equipment clerk on base with his family.

“The worst thing was hearing the crashing of steel and iron and having to wait and see if the house was going to stay there, or if we were going to go with it,” Mr Butcher said. “We were sheltering in the bathroom until the fibro started to break up around us, so we went into the kitchen, and one wall was facing right into the path of the wind.

I was standing on the sink trying to hold up the wall, and it was just like it was crashing around me but I was too scared to jump down. Holding up that wall sticks in my mind whenever I see a married quarter.

Experiencing the fury of Tracy was something he would never forget.

“Anyone who said they weren’t scared, wasn’t there or was asleep or drunk at the time,” he said. “It was very frightening and traumatic but everyone had a bit of survival instinct in them, so you just had to do the best you could. One of the things that really hit me afterwards was seeing some of the big steel power poles bent right over and trees without a single leaf on them. Luck was on our side that night.”

In the aftermath, the Air Force evacuated more than 9000 people on Hercs and conducted its biggest peacetime posting exercise. Eight hundred airmen posting and attachment authorities were issued in one week.

Four members received Order of Australia medals, with many others receiving awards for their outstanding service.

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