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Cyclone Tracy Category 5
24th December 1974 began with a staff Christmas party in the City Mutual Building. We all knew the cyclone was immenent, we'd seen a couple of cyclones every year for the past 12 years and they were just heavy storms. We broke up about 7 p.m to go andattend our families.
We lived in a high-set house at Rapid Creek. By 11 p.m the wind had picked up and electricity cut off. I called my mate Peter to and help me tie down my caravan in the back yard. We drove some star pickets into the ground and lashed the van down. We secured everything as best we could.
By 1.00 a.m she was raging. I got my wife and four children to sit in the bath, propped a huge armchair in the doorway of the bathroom and sat there with a hurrican lamp to wait it out.
The wind sounded like a 747 overhead with engines on full. It was deafening and the wind gusts changed the atmospheric pressure all the time so our ears were continually being blocked and cleared. There was continuous lightning but we couldn't hear the thunder for the wind. Debri was slamming in to the house and the roof over the kitchen and dining room was torn away.
The ceiling started to bulge with water, I went around opening all the windows to reduce wind drag and poking holes in the ceiling with a broom. The water gushed through. By 2 a.m I was really concerned with the strength of the wind and the debris slamming into the house. The building continually wracked back and forthe by the wind gusts pushing and easing. I fully expected a limb or piece of timber to javelin it's way through the walls at any moment .
I placed the big chair in front of the bathtub where my family sheltered. (a fruitless gesture having seen later what could have happened., -A piece of jarrah 40 cm square by ten metres speared 4 m. into the ground., (I had to get a front end loader to pull it out.)
About 3.30 am the wind suddenly stopped. (The eye was passing overhead.) It went dead quiet. I looked through the louvers to my neighbours house - flattened. I yelled out and asked them if they were ok. They said yes they were in the bath. I asked them if they wanted to come over to my place they answered in the affirmative. I raced downstairs and over to their place, picking my way through debris, sheets of iron and such. I was to help them down but no sooner had we started when I looked to the West and saw an avalanche of debris and house parts bearing down on us. I yelled at them to go back. I had no time to get back to my place and threw myself on the ground next to the concrete step of their laundry and put my hands over my head.
The avalanche hit with the force of a locomotive, it took my breath away. I managed to look up and could clearly see my house in the flashing lightning. It was wracking with every gust of wind and shuddering with the impact of the debris. I could see it may fly to pieces any time and I wasn’t there. Being a yachtie I knew about wind gusts. I balanced and steeled myself for a dash across the space to my house. Although the wind was blowing at well over 150 and gusting to 200 kph. (Later we found this to be at least 250 kph.) I reckoned that if I kept myself low and dived through the fence, I might be lucky enough to escape serious injury from the debris flying between houses. The wait seemed like a lifetime, but was really only minutes for the right moment and went. I made it to the stairs and bolted up. I couldn’t get the door open because the house had wracked and jammed on it. In desperation I smashed louvers out with my bare hands and clambered through the hole. I hurried over to the Bathroom. My family was greatly distressed and absolutely relieved to see me because they thought I was dead.
By 4.30 am the wind had dropped sufficiently for me to look outside - 5km all around…Nothing but wreckage and busted trees. The devastation was utterly complete.
5 Stone Place Rapid Creek – Our Home after Tracey.
Our Street after Tracey
The house next door after Tracey Taken from the front fence
My Caravan dumped four houses away on a busted tree stump
CYCLONE TRACY December 1974
Survivors at 5 Stone Place Rapid Creek Darwin Northern Territory.
Rob Williams, Madelin Williams, David Williams, Jenny Williams, Sue Williams. Peter Williams
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