Tropical Cyclone Tracy......30 Years on

[AussieMark]

Cyclone Tracy: 30 years on
December 25, 2004

SOME Darwin residents feel Cyclone Tracy - the force that devastated the city 30 years ago on Christmas Eve - was the best thing to happen to the city.

They insist the vast $600 million in Federal Government funding which flowed in for rebuilding after it was flattened by the 1974 disaster have made it the increasingly urbane city it is today.

After the devastation of Tracy, the then-frontier town slowly rose Phoenix-like and, as with its other capital city cousins, property, population and development has boomed.

It has harbourside apartments worth $1 million-plus, a billion-dollar development and its own satellite mini-city.

But former Northern Territory administrator (quasi-governor) John Anictomatis doesn't appreciate the view that the cyclone – which killed 66 people and flattened 7500 homes – was "the best thing that ever happened".

"People who didn't have much experience of it may say that," he said. "My dad suffered a massive heart attack during the cyclone and didn't recover, and passed away a couple of months later.

"It was frightening."

And Mr Anictomatis, a Greek immigrant who arrived as 10-year-old in 1955, doesn't "frighten easily".

"I spent 11 months in Vietnam with 9 Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, and I wasn't as scared on my first patrol in the jungle as I was going through the cyclone that night," he recalled.

His home was ripped apart.


"We'd been hearing about cyclones for years and never took much notice. When at 1am I looked out the window when there was lightning happening, I saw a Kombi van flying by. That's when I realised it was serious.

"My wife and I got dressed and put our shoes on and as we were in the passageway between the bedrooms and bathroom the whole thing caved in and blew out."

The only positive result he can think of was the overhaul of local construction laws.

"We have some of the strictest building codes in Australia after the cyclone, though it does put a lot of costs on to building. We have to bolt, or connect, the rafters to the foundations."

The cyclone and its aftermath are forever etched in Roseanne Brennan's memory: "I don't think you go through something like that and it ever leaves you."

She, her three children and pet dog survived by huddling under the kitchen table.

"By 10 the house was rocking. We'd taped the louvres to stop the glass shattering. It was a monster of a thing that hit us. At 11 there was a crash at the end of the house.

"The house in front of us . . . its roof had lifted, and like a domino effect landed on our house. Water came in the roof. The house was just sucked away," she said.

"A lot of people were found clinging for dear life to toilet bowls and basins. One family got in the bath and it shot out of the house with the wind."

Children were struck dumb, too frozen in fear to cry.

Darwin's always had a reputation as a mecca for people seeking a second chance, a tropical sea-change. That trend to seek a haven elsewhere gathered greater momentum after Cyclone Tracy.

"People moved here after the cyclone – a lot of Queenslanders coming for work because there was a real need for tradesmen," Brennan said.

Mining is the NT's biggest industry – $3 billion worth of mineral and energy projects, and a big defence sector to guard our northern borders.

Tourism is the second-largest sector, generating about $1 billion a year. If the NT is to achieve greater financial independence, tourism is going to play a key role.

There are ambitious plans.

One is a $1bn plan to redevelop the city's waterfront over the next 15 years.

The NT Government will put up $100 million, the rest from a consortium of bankers and local construction firms.

Stage one would include a 1500-seat convention centre, apartments, and a seawall to keep out the crocodiles and stingers that stop swimming in Darwin's grey-blue waters.

Darwin has its millionaires, who rode the recent wave of economic growth and built family palaces at Cullen Bay.

This bay is flanked by a trendy restaurant strip, and in its marina rows of yacht masts wag in the breeze, awaiting weekend sailors.

Cullen Bay is far and away the most valuable part of Darwin. Properties are worth well over a million dollars.

Yet not so many years ago it was virtually unpopulated.

But there are also protesters angry that development has gone too far and the city will become another Gold Coast.

In 1974, the population was 40,000 – today it's about 130,000, if you include the city's outer tendrils.

Back then you could buy big tracts for $260,000. Now, that's the median house price. In the past year alone, house prices rose 19.8 per cent. In more exclusive suburbs such as Cullen Bay, $260,000 wouldn't buy a parking space.

"When I first came here 42 years ago there were only half-a-dozen houses," real estate agent Mick Smith said.

"The last two years there's been a big boom, mainly because Sydney and Melbourne hit a wall and investors looked a lot further afield. They all come running up here."

But many fear Darwin is losing its frontier allure, that it may become just another city, a pile of high-rises devoid of tropical character. Or a replica of Melbourne or Sydney.

Dr Michael Stacey, who has lived and worked in Darwin for seven years, is amazed by the change: "It's gone from being a fairly low-level to medium-level sort of city to something that's looking closer to the Gold Coast.

"Though there has been an enthusiasm for development, at some stage that's going to outstrip the requirement, and be counter-productive in the long term for investment."

Real estate agents are usually pro-development. But Mick Smith is sceptical about building on Myilly Point.

"If we need more buildings, then surely there's better places to put them than on prime [public] sites," he said.

Darwin's Planning Minister Dr Chris Burns takes an even-handed approach.

"When you look at Darwin's history, Darwin was bombed in the Second World War. The cyclone flattened large tracts of it.

"I understand what people say about the Gold Coast. But by the same token Darwin is developing. My job is to see it maintains the vibrant, tropical spirit of Darwin."

But Mr Anictomatis believes Darwin will never be a copy of a southern metropolis, and is confident it will retain its "frontier-town" charm: "This part of the world will never become a Sydney or Melbourne. There's got to be progress. You can't expect it to stay the same."