Peter Copland on Cyclone Tracy

My first involvement with Tracy was on my return from Tennant Creek on the afternoon of Friday 20 December. I think the WF3 radar needed a pre-Christmas pat. Jack Byrne and his family had taken Christmas leave, so the three of us left (Ian Parsons, Geoff .... and myself) were on our own-some. There was a low pressure area to the north east, but of not much interest to anyone. This changed the next day with the issue of the first cyclone alert. I spent some time checking the WF44 radar.

Things were looking more serious on Sunday 22 December. Spent several hours at the Aviation Museum at East Point. Dragged around several aero-engines, searchlights and other heavy objects to try to tie down the aeroplanes and bits thereof; I like to think that the B25 now in the Darwin Aviation Museum is there because of two engines and a searchlight tied to it that Sunday.

Monday 23 December. Tracy was still west of Bathurst Island and nothing much was happening. The weather in Darwin seemed rather normal; hot and plenty of sun. Everyone was finishing their shopping and going to their parties and drinks with their mates. Mention of the approach of a cyclone was met with a certain amount of disdain; "cyclones don't effect Darwin. Look at that one a few weeks back, all that scare-mongering for nothing". We were quite busy checking as much of our equipment as possible.

Tuesday 24 December and Tracy was now heading slowly for Darwin. One of our neighbours in Fannie Bay, one Ian MacRaild and family, and ourselves owned camper vans. By midday they were loaded with clothes, kids' Christmas presents and some Christmas dinner, and were buried in a machine workshop at the Darwin High School, where Ian was a senior master. Still, no one was terribly worried, and preparations for the Bureau's Christmas party were going ahead as normal. I guess I must have been a bit of a dampener for the party.

Bureau of Meteorology