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Cyclone Tracy, Darwin. Christmas, 1974
Title:
Cyclone Tracy, Darwin. Christmas, 1974
NFSA ID
32745
Year
1974
From the Film Australia Collection of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA). Made by Film Australia in 1975 and directed by Chris Noonan (Babe), this short film documents the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy, which devastated Darwin in the early hours of Christmas Day, 1974.
The cyclone flattened 80% of the city, forced the evacuation of three-quarters of its population, and claimed 66 lives. Within hours, Film Australia crews were on the ground capturing the destruction and the resilience of Darwin’s people.
Now restored to 4K for the 50th anniversary, this powerful and immediate record of one of Australia’s most significant natural disasters preserves the story of a community rebuilding in the face of unimaginable loss.
In the early hours of 25 December 1974, Darwin was virtually destroyed by Cyclone Tracy. The city became the site of possibly the greatest natural disaster in Australia’s history, causing the death’s of 66 people, destroying more than 70 per cent of Darwin’s buildings, including 80 per cent of houses. Three-quarters of the city’s 43,000-strong population were evacuated. This footage is of genuine human drama in the face of great adversity.
The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia acknowledges Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work and live and gives respect to their Elders both past and present.