‘Looks like a mango tree’: New Cyclone Tracy memorial ridiculed as Darwin Council faces scrutiny
‘Mango tree’ and ‘fallopian tubes’ were some of the epithets used to described Darwin City Council’s new memorial, with one first responder calling the controversial winning design ‘insulting’.
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Cyclone Tracy survivors have voiced their disapproval of a $700k monument commemorating the disaster, with one first responder calling it “an insult to everyone who lived through it”.
On Friday, Darwin Council unveiled the winning design for a sculpture marking 50 years since Tracy tore through the city on Christmas Eve, killing 71 people and leaving 41,000 homeless.
New Zealand design firm Phil Price won the tender with a “wind-activated kinetic sculpture” on the esplanade that will move with the coastal breeze.
However, the NT News’ readers, many claiming to be Tracy survivors, described it as a “kids’ playground”, a “mango tree” and “ripened ovaries on fallopian tubes” among other colourful epithets.
“A memorial is needed, but this has missed the mark in a big way – as a survivor, so disappointed,” wrote Vanda Stewart.
“I was here when Tracy hit and it didn’t look like that,” said Robert Hodgins.
More than 500 other Facebook commenters joined the chorus, some questioning the price tag amid the council’s other spending priorities and whether it consulted Tracy survivors before giving a tick of approval.
Speaking to the NT News, retired firefighter Jock McLeod, now 80 and living in Adelaide, said his first reaction to the design was: “Can someone please explain what this is supposed to be?”
“I looked at it and thought, ‘This has no relevance to Tracy whatsoever’,” Mr McLeod said.
Though he was just 30 when the cyclone made landfall, he still holds “vivid memories” of transporting bodies to the morgue, claiming that “Tracy took fifty Christmases away from me”.
In 2017, he was awarded a landmark cancer compensation claim for contracting the disease in his line of work.
“If someone can explain (the sculpture) to me, I wish they could,” he said.
“If they’re going to spend that much they can pay me and I’ll give them something cheaper … It’s a rip-off and an insult to us and the people of Darwin.”
Mr McLeod instead praised an existing memorial at Casuarina Senior College fashioned from twisted metal poles left in the wreckage.
“It gives you an idea of how strong those winds were,” he said.
“The normal Joe Blow coming to Darwin as a tourist isn’t going to see anything related to Cyclone Tracy with this thing.”
The design was selected by the Cyclone Tracy Commemoration Advisory Committee, established last year to set up a program of events and initiatives for the 50th anniversary.
Its 12 members include Lord Mayor Kon Vatskalis and chief executive Simone Saunders, along with representatives of Remembering Cyclone Tracy Inc, Larrakia Nation, the Defence Force and cultural institutions.
Darwin Council has been contacted for comment about how closely Tracy survivors were consulted and whether any alternatives were considered.
Phil Price Sculpture has also been contacted for comment.
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Originally published as ‘Looks like a mango tree’: New Cyclone Tracy memorial ridiculed as Darwin Council faces scrutiny
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