Tracy: 50 Years, 50 Stories

by Richard Creswick (editor), Derek Pugh (editor)

Cyclone Tracy demolished Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory when it struck during the night of Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning, 1974. Over almost ten hours the small, intense, but slow-moving weather system left a swathe of destruction across the entire town. Few buildings escaped.

Sixty-six people died, many of them on vessels which put to sea, while many hundreds were injured.

The destruction of essential services made a reduction in the population of about 40,000 imperative and what followed was the greatest peacetime evacuation of an Australian community with nearly 10,000 leaving by road and more than 20,000 evacuated by air.

But as some of these stories show, many stayed or returned quickly to help rebuild the city they loved. Every survivor has a story and just over 50 of them have responded to the invitation to tell theirs, some for the first time, in their own words.

We admire them for their resilience and thank them for their contribution to this remarkable collection.

364 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 1, 2024

Reviews

[Daniel Wong · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Creswick and Derek Pugh have done a remarkable job collecting personal account of survivors of Cyclone Tracy that devastated Darwin on Christmas Day 1974. I recommend this book to readers to gain some understanding of what happened based on personal accounts and to be mindful that ongoing trauma remains in many of us who survived that night.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first super interesting and I learnt so much about this event, what it must have been like to live through, and a glimpse of what Darwin was like immediately before and after. But after about the first 20 stories you find they get repetitive, and with one or two exceptions, the contributions are fairly dry factual recounts, not well crafted pieces of storytelling.