Santa Never Made It Into Darwin For Christmas

Santa never made it into Darwin for Christmas 1974!

The capital city of Australia’s Northern Territory, Darwin today has a population of about 105,000 people, and is the smallest of Australia’s capital cities.

Darwin is a tropical city, and is similar in climate to Singapore and Jakarta (Indonesia).

The area has distinct wet and dry seasons, with severe storms and cyclones occurring during the wet season, which lasts from November to April.

Photograph Darwin CBD 2005

The city was struck by Cyclone Tracy, which destroyed 70% of the city on December 24 and 25, 1974!

The cyclone (hurricane in the US), had been predicted as a category 4 storm, but is believed to have reached category 5 just before landfall.

The Following Photographs by Bill Bradley

Photograph A wrecked power pole base after the storm.

71 people were killed, and more than 70 percent of Darwin’s buildings were destroyed, causing $837(AU) million in damage when the storm hit.

Note: Damage costs estimated in 1974 Australian dollars.

Apart from the death toll and destruction, more than 20,000 people were left homeless.

Over 30,000 people were evacuated to other Australian cities.

Darwin had a population of about 49,000 before Cyclone Tracy struck.

Although the area had experienced major cyclones before, in 1897 and in 1937, there had never been a storm as severe as Tracy.

Photograph Wrecked houses after ‘Tracy’.

Since 1974, new building codes have been introduced, along with new building methods, designed to better cope with cyclonic winds.

Darwin was almost totally rebuilt twice during the Twentieth Century, after being almost totally destroyed by Japanese air raids during World War 2, and again by cyclone Tracy in 1974.

Today, Darwin is a thriving, cosmopolitan city, and is Australia’s northern gateway to the world.

A Film Australia Newsreel About Cyclone Tracey!