St John volunteer commended for Cyclone Tracy service

St John volunteer Pat King was on the ground as Cyclone Tracy roared in, lending a helping hand in many people’s time of need.

As Cyclone Tracy rolled in on that fateful Christmas Eve, some workers in the city of Darwin and surrounds were sent home early.

It was a Tuesday, and St John volunteers worked every Tuesday evening, but on December 24, 1974, Pat King left her job at the fire brigade early in the afternoon to don her volunteer uniform.

Anticipation, Ms King says, was the only feeling – being alert with anticipation.

“Going to the station was normal, it was starting to get quite stormy, the trees had leaves, the cars were fine, the neighbourhood was fine, everything looked normal as it did every other day,” she says.

Ms King was in the communications room, telling people over the phone how to manage injuries and keeping in contact with the ambulance teams, of which her husband Lindsay was a member.

“It was about 1am, Lindsay radioed in saying he was having trouble holding the ambulance on the road and he needed to come back to the station,” Ms King recalls.

“Houses in Darwin were breaking up by then but he was still out, and the other ambulance was too.”

Volunteers worked through the night as the storm raged on around them, until an airconditioning unit in the communications room was blown out the window.

“I think I went into shock momentarily,”
Ms King said.

“But that’s all time allowed, until I pulled up my socks and kept going again.

“It was a sort of, not chaos, not panic, but it was having a purpose, having a job that needed to be done and focusing on doing it.

“I didn’t know much of what was happening outside of that room, in fact I think the only time I stepped out of that room was when the airconditioner came down.”

Pat King stands beside her personal story on a Cyclone Tracy commemorative sign at the St John Parap Station. Picture: Sam Lowe

Not long after, the room was deemed unsafe and volunteers were forced to relocate downstairs. The communications tower fell, landing on top of an ambulance as they were making their way downstairs
to safety, but fortunately no one was
injured.

Ms King says she didn’t remember when she left the station to go home.

“I don’t remember when I left, but the next day when we stepped outside instead of seeing the houses across the road, you could see houses streets away,” she says.

“When we left, many of the houses were damaged, some demolished, there were a lot of sheets of tin, trees down, it was chaos, there were no leaves on the trees, that was probably one of the big things.”

On Tuesday, December 3 this year, nearly 50 years since Cyclone Tracy hit, Ms King received a commendation for her service during the disaster.

Fifty years on, Ms King still remembers the impact Cyclone Tracy had on Darwin.

“When I think about Tracy, I’ve never had any problem talking about her, but once you’ve lived through it, it’s a shared experience,” she says.

“It was incredible just the way Australia came together at that time.”