Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spent his Christmas Day in Darwin reflecting on one of the worst natural disasters ever to hit Australia.
Fifty years ago, soon after midnight on Christmas Day 1974, Cyclone Tracy tore through Darwin, leaving a trail of destruction that killed at least 66 people. It damaged or destroyed more than 80 per cent of all buildings in the city and left a repair bill initially estimated at $500 million (billions of dollars in today’s money).
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese helps unveil artist Techy Masero’s Cyclone Tracy memorial – Five Decades, Five Flowers, Forever Remembered – in Darwin on Christmas Day.Credit: AAP
On Wednesday, Albanese said the city’s recovery was a testament to the resilience of the locals who lived through the category 4 tropical cyclone and its winds of more than 217km/h, as well as all those who helped during the emergency.
“While the modern city of Darwin has grown and thrived, changed and evolved, the unique character of this place and the special warmth of the people who call it home endures stronger than ever,” Albanese said on Wednesday morning.
“Today as we reflect on the destructive force of nature at its very worst, we also remember the strength and kindness of Australians at their very best.”
The cyclone triggered Australia’s largest evacuation and reconstruction operation during peacetime, with a little over 35,000 of the city’s 47,000 people evacuated – about two-thirds by air and the rest by road – according to the federal Attorney-General’s Department.
It took four years for Darwin’s population to recover to pre-cyclone levels. Albanese called the city’s reconstruction unprecedented.
In London, then-prime minister Gough Whitlam cut short a European tour and took a Qantas flight home. As The Age noted at the time: “One of the first duties of a prime minister is to make symbolic demonstrations of the public will.”
On Wednesday, Albanese took Whitlam’s advice and joined survivors of the disaster, some of the city’s current residents, Governor-General Sam Mostyn and Defence Force chief Admiral David Johnston – a survivor of the cyclone – in Darwin to mark the tragedy.
“No matter the challenge, we face it together and we look after each other. We learn from what we’ve been through we hold on to what matters most,” Albanese told the hundreds of people, including survivors of the disaster, who had gathered on a rainy wet-season morning to mark the anniversary.
Mostyn said: “Today I think the emotion should run high. Today’s the day that we feel the full weight of the trauma you felt in those early days [and] the recovery you showed and taught the country.
“It’s your voices, your stories that are now the touchstone for those who have come since.”
The prime minister and the governor-general unveiled a new memorial dedicated to the people who lost their lives.
In memory of those lost at sea and killed by the disaster, artist Techy Masero created Five Decades, Five Flowers, Forever Remembered. A metal awning that represents the contorted corrugated iron that flew around the city is surrounded by five frangipani flowers made from polished concrete and steel.
Albanese in Darwin on Christmas morning.Credit: AAP
“Techy has described the frangipani flowers scattered by the wind as the inspiration behind her work,” Mostyn said. “Her vision and execution deserves congratulations; to you, survivors, this memorial is yours.
“This is your tenacity, your love for Darwin and commitment to ensuring that what you and your community went through will not be forgotten.”
The prime minister, who was a child in Sydney when Cyclone Tracy hit, spoke of the devastation.
“An entire city almost wiped off the map,” Albanese said on Wednesday.
“Across Darwin, families huddled fearfully in the safest places they could find, whispering prayers, holding each other tight, waiting for the howling darkness to pass.”
His words resonated with survivors whose sobs became audible, their tears wiped away by each other as the trauma of Tracy resurfaced.
There was a sense of collective grief as the memorial was unveiled revealing the names of those who have been recorded as dying in Cyclone Tracy, but Albanese reminded the crowd that many more had never been counted.
“For many First Nations people, their loss wasn’t recorded as families returned to their traditional homelands,” he said. “Today, we gather to pay our nation’s respects to all those taken from their loved ones that fateful night.”
He paid tribute to those who rebuilt Darwin, an act he said showed profound courage.
Wreckage left in Tracy’s wake. Credit: Nine
The ceremony concluded with families, survivors and dignitaries embracing each other as they stood where the tropical cyclone first made landfall half a century ago.
In a statement, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said the spirit of the people of Darwin and their determination to rebuild the city had inspired the whole country.
“As the intense and slow-moving Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin directly, families sought shelter in bathrooms, under tables and beds, in cars, or wherever they could. We can only imagine the fear that would have gripped those poor residents and the nightmare they endured,” he said.
“The rebuilding and resurrection of the Northern Territory’s capital city over three years was a mighty mobilisation of national blood, sweat and tears – spurred on by the indomitable spirit of the people of Darwin.”
With AAP and James Massola