’Reduced to floorboards’: Gerard Maley recalls Cyclone Tracy survival tale

Deputy Chief Minister Gerard Maley was brought to tears as he recalled narrowly surviving Cyclone Tracy, huddled under a table and pelted with bricks as the roof flew off their shelter.

The Northern Territory’s Deputy Chief Minister was brought to tears as he recalled narrowly surviving Cyclone Tracy, huddled with his family under a table and pelted with bricks as the roof flew off their makeshift shelter.

Gerard Maley told his family’s story as part of a special commemorative motion in the Legislative Assembly, marking 50 years since the storm that changed Darwin forever.

Maley was just four years old at the time, living with his police sergeant father, mother and older brother Peter in Rapid Creek.

Deputy Chief Minister Gerard Maley was four years old when Cyclone Tracy hit in 1974. Picture GLENN CAMPBELL

At 9pm on Christmas Eve, his parents decided to evacuate to their weekender in Howard Springs – a simple structure built by his dad and some mates.

“It was a decision that saved our lives,” Maley says.

“My father told me my main concern was, ‘Where is Santa Claus, and how will he find us at the new house?’ My Dad said, ‘It is OK, son; I will phone him’.

“As the storm intensified my father moved us into one room. Rainwater began splashing our faces as the roof lifted up and down. It eventually gave way completely, flying upside down and landing in the paddock beside us.

“My father quickly moved us under the kitchen table, shielding me, my mother and brother with a mattress as bricks and debris came flying around. I remember sitting under the table with the bricks falling on top of it when the brick wall collapsed.

“When the worst of the winds and storm passed we crawled to our G60 four-wheel drive and that became our shelter for the night.

“Lightning illuminated the destruction around us.

“The house was rubble; bricks and tin were strewn everywhere. Despite the devastation, my father joked about how a few more screws on the roof might have made a difference.

“My brother and I played in the back of the car when the second half of the cyclone hit. Our horses escaped their paddocks. They were standing in the middle of the field with their noses to the ground and their backs to the wind. It was a remarkable display of instinct and survival.”

The Maley family home on Berry Place in Rapid Creek was reduced to floorboards in the storm. Picture: Supplied.

Driving back to Darwin once the storm passed, Maley says the devastation was shocking – their family home reduced to floorboards.

“Only part of the toilet was still intact, had we stayed there it is likely we would not have survived,” he says.

The sense of community in Darwin in the aftermath was “extraordinary”, he recalls, people helping strangers without hesitation.

“My father spent the days assisting others while my mother searched through the debris looking for treasures like wedding photos. We could not find any. There are no photos of my brother and I when we were young.”

The boys were evacuated to Sydney with nothing but the clothes on their backs – welcomed into a school where classmates recreated Christmas because the Maleys had sadly missed out that year.

Originally published as ’Reduced to floorboards’: Gerard Maley recalls Cyclone Tracy survival tale