Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now this week we are certainly focusing and continuing our
coverage to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Cyclone Tracy and
my next guest was twenty one and working as a
sailor when the system struck Darwin on Christmas Day. His
name is Keith Pratt and he joins me in the studio.
Good morning to.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
You, Keith, Good morning Katie.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Thanks so much for coming into the studio. Tab a
chat with me this morning. Now. I think you told
me we see each other at different running events, and
you also umpire the footy, don't you.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Keep yourself busy and very fit by the sounds of it, Keith.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'd like to be fitter, but I've just had about
with Kansas. I'm recovering from that and trying to get
fit again.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Good on you. Good on you that you're looking yourself
looking after yourself in that way. Mate. Now, tell me
paint a bit of a picture for us of what
life was like here in Darwin for you in nineteen
seventy four.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Okay, so nineteen seventy four. I got married in July
up here, I was a young sailor. I was a
shift worker at the eleven mile transmitting station and my
then wife worked at the receiving station at NAVKOMSA Darwin
Naval Communications Station, Darwin which is now deb Defense Establishment Barramap.
(01:20):
So we had a house on board which was right
next to the boozer, which was very handy. And yeah,
we were just twenty one year olds then what wanted
to do. And you know, you never locked your car.
You left your keys on the on the sunscreen, so
if people need to move your car, they good. No
one ever thought of knocking stuff off. It was an
(01:42):
unreal place to live in because I was a daring
native anyway, I grew up in Darwn, so I just
trusted everyone.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yep. And so what was what was it like for
you on Christmas Eve? Talk me through where you were
and what you were doing on Christmas Eve.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So Christmas Eve was it was going to be our
last morning watch. So I was, as I said, a
shift shift, a watchkeeper, sorry, a shift worker. So we
did two nights, two days and two mornings, and then
we had three days off. So we were just coming
up to that We're going to have a Christmas lunch
at my place and the family been dropping stuff around
(02:19):
in my place. So I had two fridges that were
full of food and one fridge that was full of
beer and stuff everywhere, and we were getting ready for that,
so we went shopping. We bought a floor rug from
Norman Ross on the Norman Ross My God, and yeah,
we put that down on the floor. Then we had
(02:40):
a bit of a snooze because we had to start
work late. About nine o'clock. I got up and I thought, gee,
this storm's just not stopping. So I rang up the
bloke here was my boss at the time, but named
Mick Tickner. I said, mate, do you want to go
out early tonight because the people were leaving. I've got families,
so let's go out early, relieve them, then get home
(03:00):
to their families and we'll sit out the storm at work.
So he said, yeah, good idea. So I went and
picked him up and stopped at the barman and bought
a slab, as you do, and it was VB. Stubby's.
I was drinking in those days, and then we went
out to the transmitting station. We leave the guys out
there at I think it was nine thirty or thereabouts
(03:23):
instead of twelve o'clock, so I let them go home
early and settle in with their families. So about I
guess eleven o'clock it started to get really really bad,
and there was I think eight houses ate maybe ten
houses out at the transmitting station, and all the people
(03:43):
lived in them started to come into the transmitting station
because it was a more solid building right than theirs.
It was a two story or two and a half story,
had a mazzanine level, so they all started to come
over there. And we were going about our job, which
was providing communication access for ships at sea.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
And.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Then things started to get wet. The roof started to leak,
and we thought, wow, this storm's really bad. And my boss,
a black named Skull morse P the officer Greenie or
electrician yep. He said, come on, we'll go down to
the diesel shed, which is cyclone proof, and we'll shelter
there just in case.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So all of you went down there, No.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Mike and Ice where we were, because we were at
work so we had a job to do. Then probably
about twelve thirty I walked out and the top floor
was gone, The mezzanine level was just gone. There were
no transmitters up there, and that's why I went out
because the transmitter had dropped out, so I quickly changed
(04:48):
transmitters to a different one and I went back and
I said to Mick, we got trouble, a big storm
coming and yeah, I didn't realize just how big it
was at that stay. So in our control room that
started to leak and we were watching the water come down.
I said, mate, this is not good. And then I
(05:11):
went out to change another transmitter dropped out and we
were getting a telex from Onshore in Canberra tell us
that we were losing transmitters. So I went out to
change another one and the wall one wall of the
building was gone. I said, Mick, we need to go,
and he said, all right, mate, send a telex to
Canbra tell them where you know we're gone. So I
(05:33):
sent a telex and it said roof gone. So we
and then we had a little skate patch, probably about
six hundred square in the end of the control room.
We climbed out that you couldn't get out the other way.
All the transmitters were playing up against the wall of
the control room, which was probably about the size of this.
So we went down the stairs and the wind was
(05:55):
fairly howling by then. You can imagine we went down
to the diesel shep and we got in there and
we shut the door, and my car was parked just outside.
I thought, oh, that'll protect us a little bit. It
was in front of the door. And yeah, so we
settled in there in the car. No, no, in the shed,
my goodness, in the shed. He was about tall, maybe tall,
(06:18):
fourteen of us in this diesel shed, which was back
up power for the establishment that were working at And
then yeah, look, I'm not sure the timings of anything now,
but probably about one thirty ish, off went the roof.
(06:39):
So suddenly we were exposed to the elements and it
was pouring rain as you can imagine, just non stop rain.
So we thought, all right, the roof's gone. And there
was a bar going around the deep big diesel generator
in the middle of the room. There was this handrail
going around it. So most of us had our arms
hooked in there and just locking our arms in, just
(07:02):
try not to just trying not to blow away because
it was in that room. There was a sort of
a whirlpool thing going because the roof were gone, so
the wind was coming in, going around and then back out.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Keith, what was like how strong. Did that wind feel?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I'll get to that. So yeah, that's all right. We
weathered that and then it suddenly went really quiet. Wow,
what's this It's over? Thank God for that. So we
went outside and there was nothing, not a sound, and
you could have heard a pin drop in the car
(07:38):
park it was that quiet. So we started to walk
across the building, which there was nothing left. The top
floor was just gone, all our transmitters everywhere. And then
we could hear this noise and you know where that
building is, near the corner of mcmilln's Road and Stuart Highlight.
(07:59):
It was coming from Leanna, you know that way, and
it sounded like a train. I kid you not. It
sounded like a train coming through and it was the
wind coming back. I said to we need to go, mate,
and I stopped and grabbed the slab of beer out
(08:19):
of the car which was still there, and I was
opening stubbies with my teeth and handed out so everyone
had a looke warm stubby.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Absolutely, so during the eye you had a lukewarm stubby. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Probably. We had probably about maybe ten fifteen minutes. I
lost track of time, you just could not time anything.
And my car was sitting there, so I thought, this
is wonderful, opened the boot, got the slab out, and
people didn't even drink beer, were having this beer and
we had no water apart from the rain. A not
going to sit there with your mouth open, so you know.
(08:59):
Then we for the second half of the cyclone, and
it wasn't long into it that that wall blew down.
The southern eastern wall of the building went so where
no roof and one wall was gone. And at this
stage we're hanging on and some people were actually parallel
(09:21):
to the ground, just being blown off their feet. Oh
my goodness. It was pretty scary, and I thought, God,
do I let go or do I hang on? Oneer?
Where I end up? With all these stupid things go
through your head. I wonder where I'll end up if
I let go, And I wonder if it will blame
me to safety only stupid thing. Twenty one year old,
(09:44):
never been through anything like that before, so probably I
don't know. Hay past four it started to ease.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Up, So you're talking hours of these time?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Oh yeah, three three and a half hours or something.
We were hanging in that shed, exposed to the weather,
all freezing cold, shivering, and then someone said, if you're
wet yourself, it'll warm you down. I'll warm you up.
So if you're we in your pants, it'll warm up
a little bit. And that's the old skin divers. You
(10:18):
know that in a wetsuit. So I don't know how
many people did that, but I'll put my hand up.
I did. I'm not sure how well it worked, but
you know, once the rain started to ease off a bit,
we thought, all right, is this another one of those
calm patches. Let's have another beer. First thought, let's have
(10:40):
another beer. So yeah, I had a nickname. Someone said,
making you open the beers. I said, you all right,
opened a few beers and hand them out, and we're
into it. I thought, yeah, wait for this trained noise
to start up, and I thought that it comes from
the other side. So we went and looked through that
(11:01):
hole in the wall to see, you know, if we
could hear anything, see if we could see anything, what's
going on? And yeah, nothing happened. Nothing was quiet. So
we said, you know what looks more secure over in
that building. Let's go over there. So the building we
just evacuated had a dry patch underneath it, so I thought,
(11:21):
let's go over there. And if it comes back, we'll
take our chances here at least we'll be sheltered a
little bit. So we went over there and we waited
nothing come back, and then probably about nine o'clock we
heard a car engine. Thought, wow, what's this And it
was one of our short wheelbase land rovers from Koonawarra
(11:45):
and come out to see if we were there. No
phone lines or anything like that, and all they had
was this telex message which also went to the radio station,
which wasn't there anymore. But they didn't know how we
were if we were even So this is probably four
hours of four to five hours after the cyclone actually ended.
(12:08):
It took them nearly two hours to get out there.
There was just that much wreckage and stuff on the road,
So from the eight mile to the eleven mile took
them nearly two hours.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Holy moly, Keith, What was it like then in the aftermask,
you know, like getting out going and having a look
around and seeing that damage and seeing exactly how destructive
it had been for the rest of the town.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yeah, Look, we didn't get out and about for a while.
We got back to Konel worried. About ten thirty another
vehicle come out long wheelbase and firry democemus back. But
I didn't actually see my wife until ten thirty. I
think it was I didn't she didn't know where I was,
or she got was a message from the station saying
(12:59):
that they had to evacuate because the building has been
blown down around there e iss. So that's all she knew.
She did know anything about us. Yeah, and that was
you know, that's eleven hours after I left home.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Unbelievable. Look, we're going to take a really quick break,
and when we come back, I want to talk a
little bit more about the aftermath and that cleanup. So
we'll take a really quick break. If you have just
joined us, I am joined in the studio this morning
by Keith Pratt, who is indeed a cyclone Tracy survivor,
just twenty one when that system hit. You are listening
(13:34):
to Mix one oh four point nine. Now, if you
have just joined us in the studio with me this morning,
we've just been speaking with Keith Pratt, cyclone Tracy survivor,
he was twenty one years old, and just hearing his
incredible story. Now, Keith, we've spoken through the storm. You've
started to tell me a little bit about the aftermath.
(13:55):
What was it like in the days after in terms
of you know, I sort of realized I wasn't exactly
what had gone on, and going through the cleanup of Darwin.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Well, we didn't have much time to think about that.
The first thing we had to do when we got
back to kernel Warra was pick up all the scrap metal,
all the roofing roofing iron and put in the tennis
courts because there was always a concern that the winds
were going to come back and start blowing that roofing
iron around again. So we just spent all night doing that.
(14:25):
Going through the cyclone, we spent the next day cleaning
up at Kernewira and then one of the obser has
come up to me and he said, your family lives
in Darn, don't they. I said yeah, at Nightcliff, he said, mate,
we're going to give you a car. You need to
go out and check on them, because you know good
to us if you're focusing on them. I was electrician
in the Navy, or radio technician better term, so they
(14:50):
gave me a FOLLEL drive and I went out to
Nightcliff where my mum and dad and younger brother were,
and I finally got out there and it was just
a mess. It took so long to get anywhere because
you had to sort of map a rude out or
walk at first. Loggoing through a flooded river, you had
to walk at first and make sure you get through.
Even in the full drive, I go along bag It Road,
(15:13):
it was just tin everywhere, Tin and white goods, fridges,
washing machines, all that sort of thing, just on the
road and you had to go around them and light
poles down, a lot of wires down. But I don't
think there's any power going through the wires at that stage. Keith.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
When you look at Darwin now and when you look
at the way in which the city has been able
to rebuild, you know like it? Do you think it's
a real testament to the people of the Northern Territory
that you can go through something like that and then
you know, I rebuild to the point that we have.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah, Look, I like the old Darm better than the
new Darn. I have to be honest. I like all
the high rise stuff. You know, it used to be
a country town and it was a place where you
knew everyone, you trusted everyone, and we've got this influx
of Southerners that we needed to rebuild, but some of
them didn't go back like they were supposed to. They
(16:12):
hung around, and you know, they've made us. We were
a multi cultural place before that, and now we've become
Maori cultural in that we've included the Southern States in
our population. So you know, we don't care about race, color,
creed or where you actually live down South. You always
welcome here. And look, it's a great place. I still
(16:34):
live here. You know, I'm seventy one now, I've lived
here all my life. My children grew up here, they
still live here. My grandchildren are here, so I'm not
going anywhere soon, and neither are my kids by the
sound of you know. I've got three kids, two boys,
one girl. The two oldest ones are married with families.
(16:58):
My young blokes twenty one. I'm not quite sure what
he wants to do with his life just yet, but
I don't think he's going to go too far either.
His mother's a Darwin Native. That's probably not the right
term to you. She's indigenous, but she comes from Darwin,
a Darwin local, and she's born on Bathost Island. But
her family have been here for all of her life
(17:21):
as well, so not going anywhere soon. Love the place.
And we go south once a year for a footy game,
and the quicker we get out of where we're gone
that the better. It's too cold, too rushed enough for it,
too crowded. Yeah, I don't like it. So we come
back as soon as we can.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well, And the Northern Territory is lucky to have you,
you know, I think it's wonderful to have our long
term Darwin residents. And for me, the thing that I'm
really loving about sort of, you know, even though it's
a tough time, I think for all of the Cyclone
Tracy survivors, I can you know, I can hear it
in people's voices, I can see it in people's faces
as I speak to survivors. But the thing that is
(18:01):
really nice for me, and I think for anybody that
maybe didn't grow up here, is to get that history
from long term Darwin residents and also to just kind
of have a better understanding as well of how resilient
this place is. So we're going to be speaking to
quite a large number of Cyclone Tracy survivors throughout this week,
and I think it's a really important thing to do.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Absolutely, you know, we need to know what the history
of somewhere is to learn from it. And also those
stories are really good. I listen to your station all
the time when I can when I'm at home, and
I enjoy the stories. I get a bit turi over
some of them, and they're really quite heartbreaking, some of
(18:44):
the stories that come out of Cyclone Tracy. I have
no intention of going down to the museum and looking
at that stuff. I just can't do it. Yeah, I've tried.
I get a bit jumpy when big storms come, particularly
the ones, and I guess I've got every right to
do that. I don't go outside much when there's a storm,
(19:08):
and I just want to stay somewhere that I know
is solid. And you know that's fifty years later and
I still am concerned about the wind. But one thing
I never leave you is that sound.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, and after hearing your story, Keith, I can understand
why you'd still be concerned about the wind, mate, I
would be too. Thank you so much for joining me
this morning and telling me your story. I know it's
not an easy thing for you or any of our
Cyclone Tracy survivors to do, but like I say, I
really appreciate it. I know that our listeners do as well, mate,
So thank
Speaker 2 (19:38):
You, thank you very much, Katie, thank you
Now this week we are certainly focusing and continuing our
coverage to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Cyclone Tracy and
my next guest was twenty one and working as a
sailor when the system struck Darwin on Christmas Day. His
name is Keith Pratt and he joins me in the studio.
Good morning to.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
You, Keith, Good morning Katie.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Thanks so much for coming into the studio. Tab a
chat with me this morning. Now. I think you told
me we see each other at different running events, and
you also umpire the footy, don't you.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, that's correct.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Keep yourself busy and very fit by the sounds of it, Keith.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
I'd like to be fitter, but I've just had about
with Kansas. I'm recovering from that and trying to get
fit again.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Good on you. Good on you that you're looking yourself
looking after yourself in that way. Mate. Now, tell me
paint a bit of a picture for us of what
life was like here in Darwin for you in nineteen
seventy four.
Speaker 2 (00:55):
Okay, so nineteen seventy four. I got married in July
up here, I was a young sailor. I was a
shift worker at the eleven mile transmitting station and my
then wife worked at the receiving station at NAVKOMSA Darwin
Naval Communications Station, Darwin which is now deb Defense Establishment Barramap.
(01:20):
So we had a house on board which was right
next to the boozer, which was very handy. And yeah,
we were just twenty one year olds then what wanted
to do. And you know, you never locked your car.
You left your keys on the on the sunscreen, so
if people need to move your car, they good. No
one ever thought of knocking stuff off. It was an
(01:42):
unreal place to live in because I was a daring
native anyway, I grew up in Darwn, so I just
trusted everyone.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yep. And so what was what was it like for
you on Christmas Eve? Talk me through where you were
and what you were doing on Christmas Eve.
Speaker 2 (01:59):
So Christmas Eve was it was going to be our
last morning watch. So I was, as I said, a
shift shift, a watchkeeper, sorry, a shift worker. So we
did two nights, two days and two mornings, and then
we had three days off. So we were just coming
up to that We're going to have a Christmas lunch
at my place and the family been dropping stuff around
(02:19):
in my place. So I had two fridges that were
full of food and one fridge that was full of
beer and stuff everywhere, and we were getting ready for that,
so we went shopping. We bought a floor rug from
Norman Ross on the Norman Ross My God, and yeah,
we put that down on the floor. Then we had
(02:40):
a bit of a snooze because we had to start
work late. About nine o'clock. I got up and I thought, gee,
this storm's just not stopping. So I rang up the
bloke here was my boss at the time, but named
Mick Tickner. I said, mate, do you want to go
out early tonight because the people were leaving. I've got families,
so let's go out early, relieve them, then get home
(03:00):
to their families and we'll sit out the storm at work.
So he said, yeah, good idea. So I went and
picked him up and stopped at the barman and bought
a slab, as you do, and it was VB. Stubby's.
I was drinking in those days, and then we went
out to the transmitting station. We leave the guys out
there at I think it was nine thirty or thereabouts
(03:23):
instead of twelve o'clock, so I let them go home
early and settle in with their families. So about I
guess eleven o'clock it started to get really really bad,
and there was I think eight houses ate maybe ten
houses out at the transmitting station, and all the people
(03:43):
lived in them started to come into the transmitting station
because it was a more solid building right than theirs.
It was a two story or two and a half story,
had a mazzanine level, so they all started to come
over there. And we were going about our job, which
was providing communication access for ships at sea.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
And.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
Then things started to get wet. The roof started to leak,
and we thought, wow, this storm's really bad. And my boss,
a black named Skull morse P the officer Greenie or
electrician yep. He said, come on, we'll go down to
the diesel shed, which is cyclone proof, and we'll shelter
there just in case.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
So all of you went down there, No.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
Mike and Ice where we were, because we were at
work so we had a job to do. Then probably
about twelve thirty I walked out and the top floor
was gone, The mezzanine level was just gone. There were
no transmitters up there, and that's why I went out
because the transmitter had dropped out, so I quickly changed
(04:48):
transmitters to a different one and I went back and
I said to Mick, we got trouble, a big storm
coming and yeah, I didn't realize just how big it
was at that stay. So in our control room that
started to leak and we were watching the water come down.
I said, mate, this is not good. And then I
(05:11):
went out to change another transmitter dropped out and we
were getting a telex from Onshore in Canberra tell us
that we were losing transmitters. So I went out to
change another one and the wall one wall of the
building was gone. I said, Mick, we need to go,
and he said, all right, mate, send a telex to
Canbra tell them where you know we're gone. So I
(05:33):
sent a telex and it said roof gone. So we
and then we had a little skate patch, probably about
six hundred square in the end of the control room.
We climbed out that you couldn't get out the other way.
All the transmitters were playing up against the wall of
the control room, which was probably about the size of this.
So we went down the stairs and the wind was
(05:55):
fairly howling by then. You can imagine we went down
to the diesel shep and we got in there and
we shut the door, and my car was parked just outside.
I thought, oh, that'll protect us a little bit. It
was in front of the door. And yeah, so we
settled in there in the car. No, no, in the shed,
my goodness, in the shed. He was about tall, maybe tall,
(06:18):
fourteen of us in this diesel shed, which was back
up power for the establishment that were working at And
then yeah, look, I'm not sure the timings of anything now,
but probably about one thirty ish, off went the roof.
(06:39):
So suddenly we were exposed to the elements and it
was pouring rain as you can imagine, just non stop rain.
So we thought, all right, the roof's gone. And there
was a bar going around the deep big diesel generator
in the middle of the room. There was this handrail
going around it. So most of us had our arms
hooked in there and just locking our arms in, just
(07:02):
try not to just trying not to blow away because
it was in that room. There was a sort of
a whirlpool thing going because the roof were gone, so
the wind was coming in, going around and then back out.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Keith, what was like how strong. Did that wind feel?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I'll get to that. So yeah, that's all right. We
weathered that and then it suddenly went really quiet. Wow,
what's this It's over? Thank God for that. So we
went outside and there was nothing, not a sound, and
you could have heard a pin drop in the car
(07:38):
park it was that quiet. So we started to walk
across the building, which there was nothing left. The top
floor was just gone, all our transmitters everywhere. And then
we could hear this noise and you know where that
building is, near the corner of mcmilln's Road and Stuart Highlight.
(07:59):
It was coming from Leanna, you know that way, and
it sounded like a train. I kid you not. It
sounded like a train coming through and it was the
wind coming back. I said to we need to go, mate,
and I stopped and grabbed the slab of beer out
(08:19):
of the car which was still there, and I was
opening stubbies with my teeth and handed out so everyone
had a looke warm stubby.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Absolutely, so during the eye you had a lukewarm stubby. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Probably. We had probably about maybe ten fifteen minutes. I
lost track of time, you just could not time anything.
And my car was sitting there, so I thought, this
is wonderful, opened the boot, got the slab out, and
people didn't even drink beer, were having this beer and
we had no water apart from the rain. A not
going to sit there with your mouth open, so you know.
(08:59):
Then we for the second half of the cyclone, and
it wasn't long into it that that wall blew down.
The southern eastern wall of the building went so where
no roof and one wall was gone. And at this
stage we're hanging on and some people were actually parallel
(09:21):
to the ground, just being blown off their feet. Oh
my goodness. It was pretty scary, and I thought, God,
do I let go or do I hang on? Oneer?
Where I end up? With all these stupid things go
through your head. I wonder where I'll end up if
I let go, And I wonder if it will blame
me to safety only stupid thing. Twenty one year old,
(09:44):
never been through anything like that before, so probably I
don't know. Hay past four it started to ease.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
Up, So you're talking hours of these time?
Speaker 2 (09:57):
Oh yeah, three three and a half hours or something.
We were hanging in that shed, exposed to the weather,
all freezing cold, shivering, and then someone said, if you're
wet yourself, it'll warm you down. I'll warm you up.
So if you're we in your pants, it'll warm up
a little bit. And that's the old skin divers. You
(10:18):
know that in a wetsuit. So I don't know how
many people did that, but I'll put my hand up.
I did. I'm not sure how well it worked, but
you know, once the rain started to ease off a bit,
we thought, all right, is this another one of those
calm patches. Let's have another beer. First thought, let's have
(10:40):
another beer. So yeah, I had a nickname. Someone said,
making you open the beers. I said, you all right,
opened a few beers and hand them out, and we're
into it. I thought, yeah, wait for this trained noise
to start up, and I thought that it comes from
the other side. So we went and looked through that
(11:01):
hole in the wall to see, you know, if we
could hear anything, see if we could see anything, what's
going on? And yeah, nothing happened. Nothing was quiet. So
we said, you know what looks more secure over in
that building. Let's go over there. So the building we
just evacuated had a dry patch underneath it, so I thought,
(11:21):
let's go over there. And if it comes back, we'll
take our chances here at least we'll be sheltered a
little bit. So we went over there and we waited
nothing come back, and then probably about nine o'clock we
heard a car engine. Thought, wow, what's this And it
was one of our short wheelbase land rovers from Koonawarra
(11:45):
and come out to see if we were there. No
phone lines or anything like that, and all they had
was this telex message which also went to the radio station,
which wasn't there anymore. But they didn't know how we
were if we were even So this is probably four
hours of four to five hours after the cyclone actually ended.
(12:08):
It took them nearly two hours to get out there.
There was just that much wreckage and stuff on the road,
So from the eight mile to the eleven mile took
them nearly two hours.
Speaker 1 (12:20):
Holy moly, Keith, What was it like then in the aftermask,
you know, like getting out going and having a look
around and seeing that damage and seeing exactly how destructive
it had been for the rest of the town.
Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yeah, Look, we didn't get out and about for a while.
We got back to Konel worried. About ten thirty another
vehicle come out long wheelbase and firry democemus back. But
I didn't actually see my wife until ten thirty. I
think it was I didn't she didn't know where I was,
or she got was a message from the station saying
(12:59):
that they had to evacuate because the building has been
blown down around there e iss. So that's all she knew.
She did know anything about us. Yeah, and that was
you know, that's eleven hours after I left home.
Speaker 1 (13:13):
Unbelievable. Look, we're going to take a really quick break,
and when we come back, I want to talk a
little bit more about the aftermath and that cleanup. So
we'll take a really quick break. If you have just
joined us, I am joined in the studio this morning
by Keith Pratt, who is indeed a cyclone Tracy survivor,
just twenty one when that system hit. You are listening
(13:34):
to Mix one oh four point nine. Now, if you
have just joined us in the studio with me this morning,
we've just been speaking with Keith Pratt, cyclone Tracy survivor,
he was twenty one years old, and just hearing his
incredible story. Now, Keith, we've spoken through the storm. You've
started to tell me a little bit about the aftermath.
(13:55):
What was it like in the days after in terms
of you know, I sort of realized I wasn't exactly
what had gone on, and going through the cleanup of Darwin.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Well, we didn't have much time to think about that.
The first thing we had to do when we got
back to kernel Warra was pick up all the scrap metal,
all the roofing roofing iron and put in the tennis
courts because there was always a concern that the winds
were going to come back and start blowing that roofing
iron around again. So we just spent all night doing that.
(14:25):
Going through the cyclone, we spent the next day cleaning
up at Kernewira and then one of the obser has
come up to me and he said, your family lives
in Darn, don't they. I said yeah, at Nightcliff, he said, mate,
we're going to give you a car. You need to
go out and check on them, because you know good
to us if you're focusing on them. I was electrician
in the Navy, or radio technician better term, so they
(14:50):
gave me a FOLLEL drive and I went out to
Nightcliff where my mum and dad and younger brother were,
and I finally got out there and it was just
a mess. It took so long to get anywhere because
you had to sort of map a rude out or
walk at first. Loggoing through a flooded river, you had
to walk at first and make sure you get through.
Even in the full drive, I go along bag It Road,
(15:13):
it was just tin everywhere, Tin and white goods, fridges,
washing machines, all that sort of thing, just on the
road and you had to go around them and light
poles down, a lot of wires down. But I don't
think there's any power going through the wires at that stage. Keith.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
When you look at Darwin now and when you look
at the way in which the city has been able
to rebuild, you know like it? Do you think it's
a real testament to the people of the Northern Territory
that you can go through something like that and then
you know, I rebuild to the point that we have.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Yeah, Look, I like the old Darm better than the
new Darn. I have to be honest. I like all
the high rise stuff. You know, it used to be
a country town and it was a place where you
knew everyone, you trusted everyone, and we've got this influx
of Southerners that we needed to rebuild, but some of
them didn't go back like they were supposed to. They
(16:12):
hung around, and you know, they've made us. We were
a multi cultural place before that, and now we've become
Maori cultural in that we've included the Southern States in
our population. So you know, we don't care about race, color,
creed or where you actually live down South. You always
welcome here. And look, it's a great place. I still
(16:34):
live here. You know, I'm seventy one now, I've lived
here all my life. My children grew up here, they
still live here. My grandchildren are here, so I'm not
going anywhere soon, and neither are my kids by the
sound of you know. I've got three kids, two boys,
one girl. The two oldest ones are married with families.
(16:58):
My young blokes twenty one. I'm not quite sure what
he wants to do with his life just yet, but
I don't think he's going to go too far either.
His mother's a Darwin Native. That's probably not the right
term to you. She's indigenous, but she comes from Darwin,
a Darwin local, and she's born on Bathost Island. But
her family have been here for all of her life
(17:21):
as well, so not going anywhere soon. Love the place.
And we go south once a year for a footy game,
and the quicker we get out of where we're gone
that the better. It's too cold, too rushed enough for it,
too crowded. Yeah, I don't like it. So we come
back as soon as we can.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well, And the Northern Territory is lucky to have you,
you know, I think it's wonderful to have our long
term Darwin residents. And for me, the thing that I'm
really loving about sort of, you know, even though it's
a tough time, I think for all of the Cyclone
Tracy survivors, I can you know, I can hear it
in people's voices, I can see it in people's faces
as I speak to survivors. But the thing that is
(18:01):
really nice for me, and I think for anybody that
maybe didn't grow up here, is to get that history
from long term Darwin residents and also to just kind
of have a better understanding as well of how resilient
this place is. So we're going to be speaking to
quite a large number of Cyclone Tracy survivors throughout this week,
and I think it's a really important thing to do.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Absolutely, you know, we need to know what the history
of somewhere is to learn from it. And also those
stories are really good. I listen to your station all
the time when I can when I'm at home, and
I enjoy the stories. I get a bit turi over
some of them, and they're really quite heartbreaking, some of
(18:44):
the stories that come out of Cyclone Tracy. I have
no intention of going down to the museum and looking
at that stuff. I just can't do it. Yeah, I've tried.
I get a bit jumpy when big storms come, particularly
the ones, and I guess I've got every right to
do that. I don't go outside much when there's a storm,
(19:08):
and I just want to stay somewhere that I know
is solid. And you know that's fifty years later and
I still am concerned about the wind. But one thing
I never leave you is that sound.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
Yeah, and after hearing your story, Keith, I can understand
why you'd still be concerned about the wind, mate, I
would be too. Thank you so much for joining me
this morning and telling me your story. I know it's
not an easy thing for you or any of our
Cyclone Tracy survivors to do, but like I say, I
really appreciate it. I know that our listeners do as well, mate,
So thank
Speaker 2 (19:38):
You, thank you very much, Katie, thank you
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