ahh the good old days i love those days better than now not everyone helps eachother anymore they just r selfish i wasn't alive then but yeah i heard alot about it and i like it
Wow! this makes Yasi look like a little thunderstorm. Which is the most dangerous storm, a cat.5 over ocean or a cat.3 over populated land?Tracy sure is the most deadly. You know what comes in small packages!
@banner1835 Just stop for a minute and think what that Cat 5 would have done to Cairns if it have been a direct hit, which at about 10pm was quite likely as it was tracking directly for the city. There is one road in, an airport on a floodplain that is more or less on the seafront, the hospital is on the main esplanade with breathtaking sea views just across the street. A 3 meter strom surge and all of that would be gone. Tracy was horrific, Yasi had the potential to be catastrophic.
@banner1835 dude alot has changed between 1974 and 2011. the houses in 1974 were like shacks bascially and not cyclone built. today the houses are much better built and are actually built to cat 5 standards and not to mention people take the cyclone watches and warnings a lot more seriously, on top of getting told of a potential cyclone threat almost a week in advance
my dad and his parents survived this! my grandma served people their food because they have one of the strongest housees ever!!! they were in the eye of it :l
This cyclone was way worse then yasi mainly because there was so much warning coming up to yasi .. i wasen't alive for tracey but what i have heard it was the worst disaster in the world in 1974 300 people injured i dont know how much died
This cyclone was way worse then yasi mainly because there was so much warning coming up to yasi .. i wasen't alive for tracey but what i have heard it was the worst disaster in the world in 1974 300 people injured i dont know how much died
Our whole family was there in 74 (I was born on the 23rd of december just before Tracy hit). My mother to this day says that hearing that cyclone warning on films or TV shows still sends a chill up her spine. Dad is shown working as a police officer in the other version of this doco "When Will The Birds Return".
My mum and dad were in Tracy. They were in a caravan park at the time and they only had a tent and a Land Rover, lol crazy stuff. They had to shelter in the car, and they watched as a neighbouring caravan exploded and landed on their tent. The couple from the caravan survived and mum and dad sheltered them in the car along with them. When the eye went over, they all got out of the car and had a pee, then got back in lol. ATM I'm thinking of everyone in FNQ going through Yasi. Good luck!
My young cousin John lost his life to Tracy. I live in Canada but I've been searching for the rest of my cousins family since I became an adult. Does anyone know the best way to find those relocated after Tracy?
Hi Grubco - nice channel. Just wanted to point out that this film is not news footage as such (no reporters). It is actually a documentary made by Film Australia and directed by Chris Noonan. It was being shown in cinemas around Australia a week after the event. There was also a follow up documentary called When Will The Birds Return that was shown on TV a year later. If you would like to see more Film Australia and Government made documentaries please have a look at our channel. Thank You.
Hi Grubco - nice channel. Just wanted to point out that this film is not news footage as such (no reporters). It is actually a documentary made by Film Australia and directed by Chris Noonan. It was being shown in cinemas around Australia a week after the event. There was also a follow up documentary called When Will The Birds Return that was shown on TV a year later. If you would like to see more Film Australia and Government made documentaries please have a look at our channel. Thank You.
This cyclone was a very tightly organized storm judging from the distruction was much like Hurricane Andrew had sustained winds probably around 160mph and gusts near 200mph. The look of the structures it appears to look like F-3 damage.
My goodness! I come back to this footage every now and again just to remember.
I was only a little kid when my family went through this, and now all these years later seeing all of that destruction and tragedy turns me back into a frightened child once more...
I was in the RAAF, working in the communications centre.
My wife and our two toddlers lived just behind Medical Section on the base. Our married quarter Quonset hut was destroyed. That night, we stayed in a mates house between Fire Section and Bagot Road. We only lost half the roof, ceiling, back bedroom and kitchen.
Kid, the RAN were bloody Saints!. Some saw things no-one should've seen, some of the rotting 'meat' was other than turkey.
This is a really sad video.. to see all the destruction and think about what people might have felt.. seeing friend get drifted out to sea.. or have really bad injuries!
I visited Darwin a couple of years ago and there was an exhibit at a local museum about Cyclone Tracy. They had a tape recording from a church of a priest who was recording music when the Cyclone struck. The sound of the wind was awful. To actually live through that must have been horrific.
hi, i'd heard that not too long before tracy struck, all the blackfellas had left town because they knew it was coming - has anyone else heard this as well?
Wow - to all of you who were there when Tracey struck - you would NEVER forget something like that unless you went through it, you could never really understand it.
the sound of the cyclone warning siren still sends shivers up my spine and makes me feel sick to the stomach 34 1/2 years later. I too remember vividly that night as though it were yesterday. Cyclone Tracy changed mine and my family's life forever. We live with the horrifying memories everyday.
Me too. I cannot listen to the cyclone warning siren, it's bloody awful.
As for Bill and Boyd's song about Santa not making it to Darwin, same thing, I have very mixed emotions if I hear the start of it, I rush to turn it off.
I was the only male in a group of two women and four toddlers, as the house came apart, I was scared shitless, but I had no choice, keep it together, keep 'em safe.
I was 7 years old and living with my parents and one older brother in Mindil Beach Caravan Park (now the Casino). I remember vividly the sound of the wind and my mother telling my dad we should pack up the caravan and move up to Darwin High School. My mother tried to make me sleep and I remember Michael Jackson singing Ben on the radio which help to relax me. At about 11:00pm my dad said the wind was too strong so started packing up and we moved up to Darwin High School......
I remember my father tying up the caravan and then grabbing us one at a time holding onto dear life as he took us inside the High School. The wind was amazing and I haven't heard anything like it since (I still live here). Other people in the caravan park had the same idea and there ended up being about 6 or 7 families huddled inside one of the female toilets in the centre of the main building. Even that far in water was still coming in under the door. It was scary as hell and the next morning
Cyclone Tracy may have been a small storm compared to many but what made it so destructive was the fact it doubled back on itself twice. First through North Darwin, then back through the centre and then back again through the South in a reverse Z pattern. She certainly made sure she didn't miss much.
That news caster near the end said Darwi should expect winds of "120km/h." Call me crazy, and I know they now say the sustained winds at landfall were sustained around 205km/h or 125mph, but that damage looks just as bad as Hurricane Andrew in Homestead. I know the buildings were weak construction, but this video shows cars that have been flipped and thick, steel suspension poles twisted to the ground. I bet the winds were sustained to at least 145mph in some areas.
i'm doing research on this for school and i've discoverd that the wind gauge at darwin airport recorded winds up to 217km/hr before being blown away... they estimated that there were winds up to 300km/hr
Yeah, I think gusts to 300km/h sound about right. Plus the hurricane, even though it was the tiniest little thing (smallest major hurricane ever by a long shot), it moved really slowly so the winds lasted a long time.
Truly an amazing clip. Thanks for sharing it. I live on the U.S. Gulf Coast (Southeast Texas) and have lived in Louisiana for about eight years. What I don't understand is how the world didn't heed the lessons of Darwin and what Cyclone Tracy wrought on that city. This scenario should be in the playbooks of any emergency preparedness personnel in the path of such destructive storms. Those lessons would have come in handy in 2005 for sure.
You can find all news articles for this (and almost anything) in Google. Use Google News and on the date selection, select 1975 (or before 199?, etc). Your screen will then be full of archive articles from '75. (I just tried it - it works).
Hi all, I was 8 when ct hit our home in Bishop st. stuart park. I remeber nailing a cupboard to the wall with some rope. We were luck y to have a chesney caravan to move into in the morn.
My dad was there. Said he was packin it. The roar was deafening and the primary school he was sheltering in was breaking apart as they watched. Only 10y.o. Imagine that.
Thanks for sharing this video and my best regards to those who survived it. I understand Cyclone Tracy was a very small storm in coverage, but was very compact and very devastating. I am from Pittsburgh, PA, United States and was 8 years old at the time but remember seeing footage of Darwin on the news several days after Christmas in '74 and you can't imagine my shock! It must have just been horrendous, but it is amazing how many people did survive
I don't think your question souns phony. It was Christmas eve in 1974 and there was a cyclone coming towards Darwin - but it didn't move very much and people were partying as you do when it is Christmas and suddenly the cyclone moved VERY fast and headed straight for the capital city of Darwin, some people were in bed asleep - back then, houses were pretty much all double storey and not as strong as they are made now, and that cyclone knocked everything down like a pack of cards - I survived it
we all pretty much went to a bathroom, I was roped under a sink with my Mums arms around me. There is of course an eye of a cyclone where the winds die down for a brief time before the other side of the cyclone hits, we tried to avoid the broken glass and the flying iron of roofs. Some tried to hold up doorways and stop walls from collapsing, the best thing to do was to crouch, hang on to something heavy and protect yourself with clothing and a mattress over you helps to stop things hitting you
eek must have been terrifyin. iv already done my project though..... for intrest.. how can you get to safety of there was no real railway for the plane to land on sice it was destroyed??
The woman & kids had to evacuate, we slept on the floor of a school for 3 days & they cleared a part of the airport so that planes could land & evacuate us. Apparently, the plane we flew out on which went to Adelaide, is still in the record books as being the plane that carried the most people ever (way overloaded, kids on the floor & on peoples laps) Recently a museum tour of cyclone Tracy things tourned around Australia, even the book, where we signed our names in before getting on the plane
@trowuttatwo i remember doing this..sleeping on the floor at casuarina high school and using turned up lockers for toilets and washing your hands from the rain water running off the roof.....
my family lived there for about three years my sister was born there i was about four we moved back to uk just a cpp of weeks before the cyclone hit we were the davenport family any one rember us
it was only a category 3.... unbelievable.... but yet the houses built back then werent as strong as what we had now. It seems like a category 5 because of the sight of all the destruction, but compared to the technology we have today, they were a house of cards.
was 3 years old when it hit. remember the noise was deafening and the next morning the roof was gone and the house was full of water (2ft) lucky we had a brick ground based house. nearly all the elevated stilt houses were complete destroyed. was upset because the christmas tree and all the presents were blown away. disaster still burnt in my mind even at that age.
What Darwin needed in the proceeding days,after Cyclone Tracey,was a dirty great fire to go through the place to finish the place off completely and properly.
A dirty great fire would have eliminated the potential spread of disease. Remember that the Great Fire of London in 1666 was instrumental in alleviating The Black Death. The only thing is is that were was no substantial outbreak of bubonic plague in Darwin in 1974. But imagine this: someone rolling his head around and repeating over and over,"fire...fire...fire" as fire raged through the ruins of Darwin. And those WITH fire insurance would have been well served. Thank-you for your consideration.
I was 3 when she hit. My family sheltered in our bathroom in Alawa, Mum Dad and 7 kids. We were later joined by neighbours whos houses had disintegrated making 16 people but we all survived - sadly many others didnt... I like to think that was our Christmas present that year, that my family survived! We lost everything but we are still here... Thanks for posting the footage sends shivers down my spine...
I was 6 years old and also sheltered in a bathroom with the members of all the people who lived in our block of three flats. You and I went through something amazing and how lucky we were. To think, at a time when there was no mobile phones or internet, the clean up of Darwin was truly incredible.We were air lifted to Adelaide and it is still apparently down in the record books for a plane carrying the most people in our history. I remember sitting in the aisle of the plane with all other kids
It was very frighening as I was only like 6 years old and I remember Mum and I under the basin in the bathroom hanging on and we were roped together and a bunch of us stayed in that bathroom all night and the walls basically fell down and the roof was ripped off and heaps of iron was flying all around. Cyclones have a middle or what is called an 'eye' of the storm where for a short while the winds stop and then start up again, we only got out in the clothes we had on pretty much, it was scarey
I was there age 2. We have photos of our piano blown onto the front lawn. I love the emergency announcement,"Secure anything" like your roof!"Stay calm" while your house blows away!
:(
irfan7751 1 week ago
ahh the good old days i love those days better than now not everyone helps eachother anymore they just r selfish i wasn't alive then but yeah i heard alot about it and i like it
MrAaronball 1 month ago
i love old stuff like this how sad
MrAaronball 1 month ago
very Sad evern though i wasn't there
MrAaronball 1 month ago
Uh this is sad :(
91bpatrick 2 months ago
Every christmas eve, this is all that runs through my mind.
emmerdilemma 3 months ago
The alarm at the start scared the absolute crap out of me!
shadowzone69 6 months ago
I remember this being all over the UK news.
matelot95 7 months ago in playlist Cyclone_Tracy
my uncle had his leg severed by a piece of sheet metal
zman1508 9 months ago
Wow! this makes Yasi look like a little thunderstorm. Which is the most dangerous storm, a cat.5 over ocean or a cat.3 over populated land?Tracy sure is the most deadly. You know what comes in small packages!
banner1835 9 months ago
@banner1835 Just stop for a minute and think what that Cat 5 would have done to Cairns if it have been a direct hit, which at about 10pm was quite likely as it was tracking directly for the city. There is one road in, an airport on a floodplain that is more or less on the seafront, the hospital is on the main esplanade with breathtaking sea views just across the street. A 3 meter strom surge and all of that would be gone. Tracy was horrific, Yasi had the potential to be catastrophic.
dazza027 6 months ago 2
@banner1835 dude alot has changed between 1974 and 2011. the houses in 1974 were like shacks bascially and not cyclone built. today the houses are much better built and are actually built to cat 5 standards and not to mention people take the cyclone watches and warnings a lot more seriously, on top of getting told of a potential cyclone threat almost a week in advance
jkillO5 5 months ago
my uncle woke up under a table after this, and he didnt remember the cyclone
Aelitagirlrox101 10 months ago
is the opening window thing because the Super Outbreak hasn't hit the US yet?
thesimpsonsking1 10 months ago
my dad and his parents survived this! my grandma served people their food because they have one of the strongest housees ever!!! they were in the eye of it :l
98Brucey 11 months ago
My stepdad was a baby when him and his family were caught in this horrific disaster.
They survived by hiding under their house.
bella92siepre 11 months ago
my friend got hit by that
BOSSYFORD2 1 year ago
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jaslester2009 1 year ago
Awesome stuff... thanx for putting ths up...will check out the filmSust. link next!
OzClawhammer 1 year ago
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This cyclone was way worse then yasi mainly because there was so much warning coming up to yasi .. i wasen't alive for tracey but what i have heard it was the worst disaster in the world in 1974 300 people injured i dont know how much died
burnley03 1 year ago
This cyclone was way worse then yasi mainly because there was so much warning coming up to yasi .. i wasen't alive for tracey but what i have heard it was the worst disaster in the world in 1974 300 people injured i dont know how much died
burnley03 1 year ago
I think many Australians have forgotten the horrendous damage and loss of life caused by Tracy...far, far worse than Yasi!
HorseLoberr 1 year ago
fucking noise at the start is ridiculous...
electricmaster23 1 year ago
@electricmaster23 That was the cyclone warning sound on all radio and TV stations
HorseLoberr 1 year ago
What amazes me about Tracy is the fact that it was so small.
i thought that centrifical force would rip a storm that size apart.
living on the US Gulf Coast ive seen cyclones but just not that small.
traemaxwell 1 year ago
@traemaxwell I live on the Gulf Coast as well and thought the same thing. Tracy was the size of a large thunderstorm
elekktrode 4 months ago
Our whole family was there in 74 (I was born on the 23rd of december just before Tracy hit). My mother to this day says that hearing that cyclone warning on films or TV shows still sends a chill up her spine. Dad is shown working as a police officer in the other version of this doco "When Will The Birds Return".
rodc7 1 year ago
It was just terrible. 100s Died and the city was flattened. There was no warning. Families flew out of their bathrooms when the walls gave way.
eppingoz 1 year ago
My mother survived this sleeping under a matress...
liveliam1 1 year ago
omg tats bad but bit worried bout yasi it looks very bad n dangerous hope ppl ok in QLD
littleshuffler3 1 year ago
My mum and dad were in Tracy. They were in a caravan park at the time and they only had a tent and a Land Rover, lol crazy stuff. They had to shelter in the car, and they watched as a neighbouring caravan exploded and landed on their tent. The couple from the caravan survived and mum and dad sheltered them in the car along with them. When the eye went over, they all got out of the car and had a pee, then got back in lol. ATM I'm thinking of everyone in FNQ going through Yasi. Good luck!
Mygoldfishisevil1 1 year ago
this dosnt look like a 1974 film
kylandpl 1 year ago
This is incredible, it looks like Darwin was air raided, it's just shocking stuff to look at.
platinumare 1 year ago
omg i seriously hope yasi does'nt hit townsville
comoz1 1 year ago
@comoz1 im in townsville, were fucked.
happychappy4513 1 year ago
@happychappy4513 hey man im fucked to im from mission beech
skaterwhore123 1 year ago
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Global Warmin Terror
Fk U lying Australian government, hostile US plant !!!
WEATHERZONE MODERATOR FKHEADS!!
FKYOU RETIRED WEATHER MAN YOU SLT FK OOOFFFFF
Elvensteel0 1 year ago
Cyclone Yasi could well be much worse than Tracy. Yasi is one big terrifying MONSTER !
AussieTheOztralian 1 year ago
My young cousin John lost his life to Tracy. I live in Canada but I've been searching for the rest of my cousins family since I became an adult. Does anyone know the best way to find those relocated after Tracy?
celinebritgirl 1 year ago
shit there is a cyclone coming to where i live D:
TheAuzzieChick 1 year ago
@TheAuzzieChick ones comming to cairns tomorrow :D
toombsy89 1 year ago
atleast the two dogs survived
TheAuzzieChick 1 year ago
My dad and half brother was in cyclone Tracy. They and their house survived =D
nikstarz96 1 year ago
Is that a video that is shown in the National Museum in Darwin? I think I remember some of that footage...
bresophil 1 year ago
Omf........g!!!! I had my volume on high!!!
inyomawth 1 year ago
the guy in it says we woke up on boxing day....it was xmas day.........i was 3
emocinur 1 year ago
Music sounded bit too cheery when the ice was delivered.
y0utubemetube 1 year ago
Happy sno white music 5:07
peterm3964 1 year ago
Spooky music 2:40 tooooo spooky ..
peterm3964 1 year ago
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Hi Grubco - nice channel. Just wanted to point out that this film is not news footage as such (no reporters). It is actually a documentary made by Film Australia and directed by Chris Noonan. It was being shown in cinemas around Australia a week after the event. There was also a follow up documentary called When Will The Birds Return that was shown on TV a year later. If you would like to see more Film Australia and Government made documentaries please have a look at our channel. Thank You.
FILMAUSTRALIA 1 year ago
Hi Grubco - nice channel. Just wanted to point out that this film is not news footage as such (no reporters). It is actually a documentary made by Film Australia and directed by Chris Noonan. It was being shown in cinemas around Australia a week after the event. There was also a follow up documentary called When Will The Birds Return that was shown on TV a year later. If you would like to see more Film Australia and Government made documentaries please have a look at our channel. Thank You.
FILMAUSTRALIA 1 year ago 11
@FILMAUSTRALIA Thanks for the info. Yeah this old stuff is cool to watch now.
GrubcoTV3 1 year ago
looks like some of the communities i go to......
scottyovdingwall2000 1 year ago
Its surprising that only 71 people died... and this all happened on Christmas Eve too...
serpent49374 1 year ago
The upside of this disaster was the rebuilding of Darwin into a pleasant, well-planned, brand new city with much better building codes.
bannol 1 year ago
lol its like a nuke got dropped
XtremeDamage447 1 year ago
wow i cant belive it i kive in darwin my parents were in darwin i could not of imagine this its so sad how did people survive
1239kieran 1 year ago
Wow...looks just like Andrew's damage...only nearly 20 years earlier.
PelicanGuy 1 year ago
This cyclone was a very tightly organized storm judging from the distruction was much like Hurricane Andrew had sustained winds probably around 160mph and gusts near 200mph. The look of the structures it appears to look like F-3 damage.
cyclonejimcom 1 year ago
My goodness! I come back to this footage every now and again just to remember.
I was only a little kid when my family went through this, and now all these years later seeing all of that destruction and tragedy turns me back into a frightened child once more...
spkenn36 2 years ago
oh no one is heading towards new zealand now thats my home gone !
wifiman1 2 years ago
I was when it happened and I still remember it was a disaster and at christmas time I remember and have thought for those who lost everything
carolynsil 2 years ago
Horrific!!
petalovespongy 2 years ago
Comment removed
Cammie37 2 years ago
@Cammie37.
I was in the RAAF, working in the communications centre.
My wife and our two toddlers lived just behind Medical Section on the base. Our married quarter Quonset hut was destroyed. That night, we stayed in a mates house between Fire Section and Bagot Road. We only lost half the roof, ceiling, back bedroom and kitchen.
Kid, the RAN were bloody Saints!. Some saw things no-one should've seen, some of the rotting 'meat' was other than turkey.
Kiss your Father for me.
twinstu50 1 year ago
I was one year old when this hit and survived because my Father bore the weight of a wall on his back while covering his family under him.
Yaumul 2 years ago 15
We carnt belive that this really happend ! It look so terible ! ps: the dogs were so cute!
TheStupidNews1 2 years ago
Im from darwin. and Yep... it was a bad one.
mraperish 2 years ago
The winds of cyclone tracy was almost that of an f5 tornado that lasted 6 hours on morning of 25 december-its amazing 100's weren't killed.
How about the music from this newsreel-you can tell its an old australian newsreel that it plays such cheerful music during such a horrific event....
Pictures of its devestation can only be compared to the bombings of Nagasaki and hiroshima in WW2.
y0utubemetube 2 years ago
This is a really sad video.. to see all the destruction and think about what people might have felt.. seeing friend get drifted out to sea.. or have really bad injuries!
JordanJodie98 2 years ago
I visited Darwin a couple of years ago and there was an exhibit at a local museum about Cyclone Tracy. They had a tape recording from a church of a priest who was recording music when the Cyclone struck. The sound of the wind was awful. To actually live through that must have been horrific.
BBblue87 2 years ago
hi, i'd heard that not too long before tracy struck, all the blackfellas had left town because they knew it was coming - has anyone else heard this as well?
rednoddy1977 2 years ago
@rednoddy1977 - sounds like an old wives' tale to me.
JBofBrisbane 1 year ago
Wow - to all of you who were there when Tracey struck - you would NEVER forget something like that unless you went through it, you could never really understand it.
Roddo08 2 years ago
mullet-colony of the North
Bolinas1971 2 years ago
@Bolinas1971 .
Yeah!, we had to have some diversions, the T.V. was bloody awful!.
8DN was pretty desperate back then.
twinstu50 1 year ago
Cyclone Tracy is on record as being either the 'smallest cyclone' OR the 'largest ever tornado'.
Perhaps a better way to describe it is 'the biggest precision strike on record'.
Santa never made it to Darwin.
naganokumas 2 years ago 3
santa got thrown into the sea
lolghurt 2 years ago
the sound of the cyclone warning siren still sends shivers up my spine and makes me feel sick to the stomach 34 1/2 years later. I too remember vividly that night as though it were yesterday. Cyclone Tracy changed mine and my family's life forever. We live with the horrifying memories everyday.
midianmagik 2 years ago
@midianmagik .
Me too. I cannot listen to the cyclone warning siren, it's bloody awful.
As for Bill and Boyd's song about Santa not making it to Darwin, same thing, I have very mixed emotions if I hear the start of it, I rush to turn it off.
I was the only male in a group of two women and four toddlers, as the house came apart, I was scared shitless, but I had no choice, keep it together, keep 'em safe.
Jeez, it was hard!.
Even now.
twinstu50 1 year ago
I was 7 years old and living with my parents and one older brother in Mindil Beach Caravan Park (now the Casino). I remember vividly the sound of the wind and my mother telling my dad we should pack up the caravan and move up to Darwin High School. My mother tried to make me sleep and I remember Michael Jackson singing Ben on the radio which help to relax me. At about 11:00pm my dad said the wind was too strong so started packing up and we moved up to Darwin High School......
falcidi 2 years ago
I remember my father tying up the caravan and then grabbing us one at a time holding onto dear life as he took us inside the High School. The wind was amazing and I haven't heard anything like it since (I still live here). Other people in the caravan park had the same idea and there ended up being about 6 or 7 families huddled inside one of the female toilets in the centre of the main building. Even that far in water was still coming in under the door. It was scary as hell and the next morning
falcidi 2 years ago
was amazing. What we saw the next day will never leave me until the day I die...
falcidi 2 years ago
Cyclone Tracy may have been a small storm compared to many but what made it so destructive was the fact it doubled back on itself twice. First through North Darwin, then back through the centre and then back again through the South in a reverse Z pattern. She certainly made sure she didn't miss much.
gragrn 2 years ago
That news caster near the end said Darwi should expect winds of "120km/h." Call me crazy, and I know they now say the sustained winds at landfall were sustained around 205km/h or 125mph, but that damage looks just as bad as Hurricane Andrew in Homestead. I know the buildings were weak construction, but this video shows cars that have been flipped and thick, steel suspension poles twisted to the ground. I bet the winds were sustained to at least 145mph in some areas.
CyrusNixes 2 years ago
i'm doing research on this for school and i've discoverd that the wind gauge at darwin airport recorded winds up to 217km/hr before being blown away... they estimated that there were winds up to 300km/hr
EmmaLlamaMouse 2 years ago
Yeah, I think gusts to 300km/h sound about right. Plus the hurricane, even though it was the tiniest little thing (smallest major hurricane ever by a long shot), it moved really slowly so the winds lasted a long time.
CyrusNixes 2 years ago
Truly an amazing clip. Thanks for sharing it. I live on the U.S. Gulf Coast (Southeast Texas) and have lived in Louisiana for about eight years. What I don't understand is how the world didn't heed the lessons of Darwin and what Cyclone Tracy wrought on that city. This scenario should be in the playbooks of any emergency preparedness personnel in the path of such destructive storms. Those lessons would have come in handy in 2005 for sure.
SETexdude 2 years ago
That must of been so scary. At least it gave Darwin a chace to start from scrach and build a better city
bvonny 2 years ago
that looks horrible. must have been terrifying.
btw
anyone know where i could find a newspaper article on this, from 1974-75? Im doing it for a school assignment.
oxoxchocolateoxox 2 years ago
You can find all news articles for this (and almost anything) in Google. Use Google News and on the date selection, select 1975 (or before 199?, etc). Your screen will then be full of archive articles from '75. (I just tried it - it works).
GrubcoTV3 2 years ago
ok thanks alot. I tried google (thats the only search i use) but i didnt think to use google news. (why didnt i think of that~!)
oxoxchocolateoxox 2 years ago
you actually have to pay for those i think
EmmaLlamaMouse 2 years ago
Hi all, I was 8 when ct hit our home in Bishop st. stuart park. I remeber nailing a cupboard to the wall with some rope. We were luck y to have a chesney caravan to move into in the morn.
AMMOANT 2 years ago
My dad was there. Said he was packin it. The roar was deafening and the primary school he was sheltering in was breaking apart as they watched. Only 10y.o. Imagine that.
loadquicker 2 years ago
The wind had to be pushing 175 MPH all the trees leaves have been stripped bare
elekktrode 3 years ago
It's Tim again. I'd love to hear from anyone else who lived through Cyclone Tracy. What were your feelings?
maltesetim 3 years ago
Thanks for sharing this video and my best regards to those who survived it. I understand Cyclone Tracy was a very small storm in coverage, but was very compact and very devastating. I am from Pittsburgh, PA, United States and was 8 years old at the time but remember seeing footage of Darwin on the news several days after Christmas in '74 and you can't imagine my shock! It must have just been horrendous, but it is amazing how many people did survive
maltesetim 3 years ago 2
I don't think your question souns phony. It was Christmas eve in 1974 and there was a cyclone coming towards Darwin - but it didn't move very much and people were partying as you do when it is Christmas and suddenly the cyclone moved VERY fast and headed straight for the capital city of Darwin, some people were in bed asleep - back then, houses were pretty much all double storey and not as strong as they are made now, and that cyclone knocked everything down like a pack of cards - I survived it
trowuttatwo 3 years ago
Actually, change that question... LAST QUESTION!!! im sorry..
what did an indevidual do to reduce the impact of the hurricane? Any one ?
magnumheaven659 3 years ago
we all pretty much went to a bathroom, I was roped under a sink with my Mums arms around me. There is of course an eye of a cyclone where the winds die down for a brief time before the other side of the cyclone hits, we tried to avoid the broken glass and the flying iron of roofs. Some tried to hold up doorways and stop walls from collapsing, the best thing to do was to crouch, hang on to something heavy and protect yourself with clothing and a mattress over you helps to stop things hitting you
trowuttatwo 2 years ago
eek must have been terrifyin. iv already done my project though..... for intrest.. how can you get to safety of there was no real railway for the plane to land on sice it was destroyed??
I
magnumheaven659 2 years ago
The woman & kids had to evacuate, we slept on the floor of a school for 3 days & they cleared a part of the airport so that planes could land & evacuate us. Apparently, the plane we flew out on which went to Adelaide, is still in the record books as being the plane that carried the most people ever (way overloaded, kids on the floor & on peoples laps) Recently a museum tour of cyclone Tracy things tourned around Australia, even the book, where we signed our names in before getting on the plane
trowuttatwo 2 years ago
wow thats amaizing! must be wonderful to tell your stories to the world
magnumheaven659 2 years ago
@trowuttatwo i remember doing this..sleeping on the floor at casuarina high school and using turned up lockers for toilets and washing your hands from the rain water running off the roof.....
midianmagik 1 year ago
Can you please tell me where you found this movie please would be good for brief i'm doing on cyclone tracy ?
braddy2020 3 years ago
my family lived there for about three years my sister was born there i was about four we moved back to uk just a cpp of weeks before the cyclone hit we were the davenport family any one rember us
ginnpussy 3 years ago
it was only a category 3.... unbelievable.... but yet the houses built back then werent as strong as what we had now. It seems like a category 5 because of the sight of all the destruction, but compared to the technology we have today, they were a house of cards.
SANHEDRIN666 3 years ago
was 3 years old when it hit. remember the noise was deafening and the next morning the roof was gone and the house was full of water (2ft) lucky we had a brick ground based house. nearly all the elevated stilt houses were complete destroyed. was upset because the christmas tree and all the presents were blown away. disaster still burnt in my mind even at that age.
nipponbaka 3 years ago
ABSOLUTELY UNBELIEVABLE- bombings by THEM in ww2 and then the cyclone. scary stuff
DHK5345 3 years ago
The music is annoying.
ajayvius 3 years ago
I love the way they say "secure your outdoor items so it nothing is a windborn missile. Houses were windborn missiles
FireFlames012 3 years ago
i wasnt there and i was glad not to but ive lived in darwin all my life and another one of those wont mka me move its the best place in aus.
fattyjoe05 3 years ago
What Darwin needed in the proceeding days,after Cyclone Tracey,was a dirty great fire to go through the place to finish the place off completely and properly.
Richardhedditch261 3 years ago
What?
ajayvius 3 years ago
Comment removed
Swampdog36 3 years ago
A dirty great fire would have eliminated the potential spread of disease. Remember that the Great Fire of London in 1666 was instrumental in alleviating The Black Death. The only thing is is that were was no substantial outbreak of bubonic plague in Darwin in 1974. But imagine this: someone rolling his head around and repeating over and over,"fire...fire...fire" as fire raged through the ruins of Darwin. And those WITH fire insurance would have been well served. Thank-you for your consideration.
Richardhedditch261 3 years ago
The power of the wind is incredible
liquidstl 3 years ago
I was 3 when she hit. My family sheltered in our bathroom in Alawa, Mum Dad and 7 kids. We were later joined by neighbours whos houses had disintegrated making 16 people but we all survived - sadly many others didnt... I like to think that was our Christmas present that year, that my family survived! We lost everything but we are still here... Thanks for posting the footage sends shivers down my spine...
spkenn36 3 years ago 2
I was 6 years old and also sheltered in a bathroom with the members of all the people who lived in our block of three flats. You and I went through something amazing and how lucky we were. To think, at a time when there was no mobile phones or internet, the clean up of Darwin was truly incredible.We were air lifted to Adelaide and it is still apparently down in the record books for a plane carrying the most people in our history. I remember sitting in the aisle of the plane with all other kids
trowuttatwo 3 years ago
hello dear survivor? how did it happen? ? i have this question, how did tracy occur?
If you dont want to answere it, i wont mind u reprasing the question even. I just need understanding
soz i sound really phony,
Thanks,,
i
magnumheaven659 3 years ago
It was very frighening as I was only like 6 years old and I remember Mum and I under the basin in the bathroom hanging on and we were roped together and a bunch of us stayed in that bathroom all night and the walls basically fell down and the roof was ripped off and heaps of iron was flying all around. Cyclones have a middle or what is called an 'eye' of the storm where for a short while the winds stop and then start up again, we only got out in the clothes we had on pretty much, it was scarey
trowuttatwo 3 years ago 2
Wow. Thanks.. Last not so phony question..
how did u get to safety? surely the airline would be down?
and wow that is amazing! i feel so happy that im talking to a survivor
I
magnumheaven659 3 years ago
woopsy sorry late thank you
Thank you very much
magnumheaven659 2 years ago
Woah. So scary. D: I wasn't born yet though...
bloodymarionette123 3 years ago
what struck me flying back into darwin in January 75 was all the trees had gone. Luckily I didnt go through but was in Brissy on holidays.
shikira 3 years ago
I was there age 2. We have photos of our piano blown onto the front lawn. I love the emergency announcement,"Secure anything" like your roof!"Stay calm" while your house blows away!
PouLeeps 3 years ago 2
Amazing, thanks for bringing this to us.
aus2045 3 years ago 2
Thanks for this. I live in Darwin, no one has forgotten...
territorygal 3 years ago 2
Thanks, i'm searching this on Internet but I can't find it because this footage is really rare.
RowanAthikson 3 years ago 2
No problem, happy to share it.
GrubcoTV3 3 years ago