Midnight not the best time to finish shift when Cyclone Tracy hit

JOHN May was the ABC Radio announcer on duty in Darwin on Christmas Eve in 1974 when Cyclone Tracy hit.

The old Woolworths building on the corner of Smith St and Knuckey St in ruins after Cyclone Tracy struck Darwin on Christmas Eve

JOHN May was the ABC Radio announcer on duty in Darwin on Christmas Eve in 1974 when Cyclone Tracy hit.

He was on the 6pm to 12am shift and remembers getting a call from the station manager an hour before his shift was to end to ask if he could stay on and do the next shift because the next announcer, Bob Roberts, couldn’t get in.

Ordinarily he’d be only too happy to help but that night was different, he knew a “bad storm” was hitting Darwin and he wanted to get home to check on his wife and two-year-old son.

“Everyone told me I’d be crazy to go out in it,” he said. “It took me 40 minutes to drive from the city to Jingili.”

By the time Mr May reached his home the cyclone was almost at full force and he was dismayed to find his wife and son were not at home.

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“I couldn’t leave the house once I got there because it was really the guts of the cyclone ... My wife and son had gone to the neighbours’ and were safe,” he said. After his family were flown out, back to Melbourne, Mr May stayed on in Darwin to help with the clean-up.

Before joining the ABC in 1968 Mr May first came to Darwin where he worked at commercial radio station 8DN for two years.

He later returned to Darwin in 1971 to manage and launch the city’s first commercial television station, NTD Channel 8, now part of the National Nine Network, before making the switch to ABC. Mr May went on to enjoy a long and illustrious career in the media throughout Australia.

He has returned to Darwin for the 40th anniversary of Cyclone Tracy and anyone interested in catching up with him is welcome to contact the Novotel Atrium hotel in Darwin, where he is staying.

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