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Cyclone Tracy was an Australian tropical cyclone that devastated Darwin on 24–25 December, 1974. It was recorded by The Age as being a "disaster of the first magnitude... and without parallel in Australia's history." It killed 65 people and destroyed over 70 percent of the buildings, leaving over 20,000 people homeless. Most of Darwin's population was evacuated to Adelaide, Whyalla, Alice Springs and Sydney and many never returned to Darwin. The town was subsequently rebuilt with newer materials and techniques.

The storm

On 20 December, 1974 the U.S. Environmental Satellite ESSA-8 recorded a large cloud mass centered in the Arafura Sea about 370km North-East of Darwin. This was tracked by the Darwin Weather Bureau's regional director Ray Wilkie and senior meteorologist Geoff Crane. On December 21 1974 ESSA-8 showed evidence of a newly formed circular centre near latitude 9 degrees South and longitude 132 degrees East. The meteorological duty officer at the time, Geoff Crane, issued an initial tropical cyclone alert describing the storm as a tropical low that could develop into a tropical cyclone.

Later in the evening, an infrared satellite picture from United States NOAA satellite NOAA-4 was received by the Darwin meteorological office which showed that low pressure had developed further and spiralling clouds could be seen. The storm was officially pronounced a tropical cyclone at around 10pm on December 21, when it was around 700 km northeast of Darwin. Over the next few days it moved in a south west direction, passing north of Darwin on December 22. A broadcast on ABC Radio that day stated that Cyclone Tracy posed no immediate threat to Darwin. However early in the morning of December 24, Tracy rounded Cape Fourcroy (the western tip of Bathurst Island) and moved in a south-easterly direction, straight towards Darwin.

By late afternoon, the city was heavily overcast with a low cloud and it was experiencing strong rain. Wind gusts appeared and were starting to cause physical damage. Between 10 pm and midnight the damage became serious, and the cyclone's effect became imminent to the residents. After midnight, the cyclone passed directly over Darwin, with its 'eye' centred on the airport and northern suburbs. Winds of 217 kilometres per hour (135 mph) were officially recorded by the wind gauge at Darwin Airport before the instrument itself was blown away. Unofficial estimates suggested that the wind speed had reached 300 kilometres per hour (185 mph). The winds and torrential rain continued until dawn. By 6 am, Tracy had killed 65 people — 49 on land, and 16 at sea, and Darwin had been substantially destroyed.

Due to the destruction of infrastructure, the distance between Darwin and the rest of the Australian population and the fact it was Christmas Day and most media outlets had only a skeleton crew rostered on at best, the news of the cyclone took some time to reach people. Most Australians were not aware of the cyclone until late in the afternoon.

The inital emergency response was from a leadership committee of high level public servants and police which stated that, "Darwin had, for the time being, ceased to exist as a city". Gough Whitlam, then Australian Prime Minister, was touring Syracuse at the time but immediately flew home on hearing of the disaster. The Government began a mass evacuation by road and air. All Defence Force personnel throughout Australia were recalled from holiday leave and the entire Royal Australian Air Force fleet of transport planes were deployed to evacuate civilians from the city and to bring essential supplies.

Tracy was the most compact tropical cyclone on record, with gale-force winds extending only 48 km (30 miles) from the center.

Reconstruction and effects on Darwin

In February 1975, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam announced the creation of the Darwin Reconstruction Commission, which was given the task of rebuilding the city "within five years". The damage to the city was so severe that some advocated the resiting of the entire city. However, the government insisted that it be rebuilt in the same location. By May 1975, Darwin's population had recovered somewhat, with 30,000 residing in the city. Temporary housing, caravans, hotels and even ocean liners were used to house people, as reconstruction of permanent housing had still not begun by September that year.

However, by the following April, after receiving criticism for the slow speed of reconstruction, the Commission had built 3,000 new homes in the annihilated northern suburbs, on top of repairs to those that had survived the storm. New building codes were drawn up, trying to achieve the competing goals of a speedy reconstruction and ensuring that the damage of 1974 was not repeated. By 1978, the city had recovered to the point of being able to house as many people has it had before the cyclone. However, as many as 60% of Darwin's 1974 population were no longer living in the city in 1980. In the years that followed, Darwin was almost entirely rebuilt, and now shows little resemblance to the Darwin of December 1974.

Until 1974, the Northern Territory had had minimal self-government, with a federal minister being responsible for the Territory from Canberra. However, the cyclone and subsequent response highlighted problems with this that led directly to the decision of Malcolm Fraser, Whitlam's successor as Prime Minister, to give self-government to the Territory in 1978.

Many of the government documents associated with Cyclone Tracy are due to become publicly available in early 2005, due to Australian Freedom of Information legislation allowing the declassification of confidential government documents after the passage of thirty years.

Cyclone Tracy in popular culture

Cyclone Tracy, due to its severity, has entered into Australian popular culture in a way that no other meteorological event had before, or has since. Probably the most famous work that it has inspired is the song by Bill Cate, Santa Never Made it into Darwin . Composed in 1974 to raise money for the relief and reconstruction effort, the song became so wide-known that in 1983 the Hoodoo Gurus released a song entitled Tojo Never Made it to Darwin, inspired by Bill Cate's song and about the Japanese bombing of Darwin in World War II.

In 1986 the Nine Network and PBL created Cyclone Tracy, a period drama mini-series based on the events of the cyclone. It was written by Michael Fisher, Ted Roberts, and Leon Saunders, and had Chris Haywood and Tracy Mann playing the lead characters, Steve and Connie.