Towards midnight on Christmas Eve, Cyclone Tracy started to unleash its full fury on Darwin which made it a Christmas that will be forever be etched in the memory of those who survived it.

The city was close to being wiped off the map in just a matter of hours as not only extreme winds hammered the far northern city but torrential rain was also causing massive problems.

Wind speeds of 217 km/h registered at Darwin Airport before the equipment was itself blown away and there are estimates of maximum speeds of up to 300 km/h.

With so much destruction of both homes and infrastructure, the population of about 45,000 was reduced to about 10,000 by a mass evacuation of people to other Australian cities. 

Many of the families that left never returned and the rebuilding attracted people from many different places resulting in a young, diverse population who rebuilt the city.

After the cyclone building codes were upgraded dramatically to try to prevent such extensive damage next time a cyclone passed by. And the rebuilding was largely done by the Housing Commission using only a limited number of designs on a large scale. At one stage nearly 90% of homes in Darwin were owned by either Government Departments or large national companies such as banks.

Up to this point Darwin hasn’t experienced winds of a similar nature to Cyclone Tracy but the city is well prepared to do battle if required.