1
00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,440
Speaker 1: We are going to be heading across right now and

2
00:00:02,640 --> 00:00:06,240
Speaker 1: catching up and talking a little bit more about remembering

3
00:00:06,280 --> 00:00:09,160
Speaker 1: Cyclone Tracy, because a short video is being launched to

4
00:00:09,200 --> 00:00:14,680
Speaker 1: promote interest in commemorations for the fiftieth anniversary of Australia's

5
00:00:14,680 --> 00:00:17,560
Speaker 1: worst natural disaster. And it was Cyclone Tracy, as we

6
00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:22,919
Speaker 1: all know, which happened at Christmas, and it's you know,

7
00:00:22,920 --> 00:00:25,000
Speaker 1: I think for so many people when we talk about

8
00:00:25,040 --> 00:00:28,200
Speaker 1: Cyclone Tracy, there are so many mixed emotions. There are

9
00:00:28,240 --> 00:00:31,320
Speaker 1: so many people that get in contact with us with

10
00:00:31,400 --> 00:00:35,560
Speaker 1: their various different memories. You know, maybe they lived here themselves,

11
00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:38,280
Speaker 1: maybe your family lived here at that time. But the

12
00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:42,720
Speaker 1: video has been created to encourage Cyclone Tracy survivors to

13
00:00:42,800 --> 00:00:45,560
Speaker 1: register their interest in this year's commemorations.

14
00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:46,160
Speaker 2: Now.

15
00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:50,839
Speaker 1: Chair of Remembering Cyclone Tracy is Richard Kreswick and he

16
00:00:50,920 --> 00:00:53,320
Speaker 1: joins me on the line to tell us more about

17
00:00:53,360 --> 00:00:55,760
Speaker 1: the plans for a number of events which are going

18
00:00:55,760 --> 00:00:58,880
Speaker 1: to be happening this year. Good morning to you, Richard.

19
00:00:59,440 --> 00:01:01,440
Speaker 2: Good morning Katie. Nice to talk to you.

20
00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:03,720
Speaker 1: Lovely to talk to you. Thank you so much for

21
00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:06,560
Speaker 1: your time this morning. Richard, tell me a bit more

22
00:01:06,600 --> 00:01:09,920
Speaker 1: about the video firstly which has been produced.

23
00:01:11,520 --> 00:01:15,440
Speaker 2: Well, it runs three minutes, just over three minutes, created

24
00:01:15,720 --> 00:01:22,399
Speaker 2: by the Territory or Darwin Company, Exposure Productions and he hide.

25
00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:29,360
Speaker 2: It contains mostly library booked all library footage, some from

26
00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:33,560
Speaker 2: Cyclone Tracy, the first film that was ever shot and

27
00:01:33,720 --> 00:01:38,320
Speaker 2: got out of Darwin by Keith Bushnell, and then some

28
00:01:38,560 --> 00:01:44,680
Speaker 2: subsequent footage that he shot later on. There's some footage

29
00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:50,440
Speaker 2: of the jumbo jet that established a record by carrying

30
00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:54,440
Speaker 2: six hundred and ninety seven passengers and crew as part

31
00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:58,160
Speaker 2: of the massive evacuation that took place in the immediate

32
00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:03,480
Speaker 2: aftermath of Cyclone Tracy. He and it essentially ends up

33
00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:07,720
Speaker 2: with them telling how telling viewers how they can register

34
00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:13,640
Speaker 2: with us to be part of the commemorations.

35
00:02:14,080 --> 00:02:16,760
Speaker 1: It is going to be such an important year. Those

36
00:02:16,800 --> 00:02:20,160
Speaker 1: commemorations are going to be so incredibly important. And we

37
00:02:20,200 --> 00:02:23,880
Speaker 1: know that there are still so many Cyclone Tracy survivors

38
00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:26,720
Speaker 1: living here in the Northern Territory. But Richard, you are

39
00:02:27,000 --> 00:02:29,400
Speaker 1: a survivor of Cyclone Tracy, can you tell me a

40
00:02:29,440 --> 00:02:30,799
Speaker 1: bit about your experience.

41
00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:35,520
Speaker 2: Yes, I was working as a journalist with the ABC

42
00:02:36,720 --> 00:02:42,160
Speaker 2: ABC Television and ABC Radio and Television, and I was

43
00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:47,280
Speaker 2: on duty as the producer of television news, so I

44
00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:54,399
Speaker 2: produced what eventually became the last television news bulletin produced

45
00:02:54,400 --> 00:02:57,600
Speaker 2: out of Darwin prior to the cyclone. So, of course,

46
00:02:57,760 --> 00:03:02,359
Speaker 2: on that night, Cyclone Tracy his imminence was our lead story.

47
00:03:03,560 --> 00:03:08,040
Speaker 2: But we were asked not to blow it up, not

48
00:03:08,160 --> 00:03:12,119
Speaker 2: to make it too huge, because it was Christmas Eve

49
00:03:12,160 --> 00:03:16,640
Speaker 2: and we didn't want to panic the local citizenry. And

50
00:03:16,919 --> 00:03:21,320
Speaker 2: at that stage the cyclone was predicted to actually cross

51
00:03:21,360 --> 00:03:25,040
Speaker 2: the coast north of Darwin, and we were only going

52
00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:27,680
Speaker 2: to get the outskirts of it, so to speak. But

53
00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:31,600
Speaker 2: of course, as we all know, it became a direct

54
00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:34,080
Speaker 2: hit and the devastation was incredible.

55
00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:40,040
Speaker 1: Richard, I cannot imagine what it must have been like

56
00:03:40,720 --> 00:03:44,600
Speaker 1: knowing that, you know, knowing that that cyclone was coming,

57
00:03:45,160 --> 00:03:48,280
Speaker 1: not realizing that we were going to get that direct hit,

58
00:03:48,360 --> 00:03:51,520
Speaker 1: but then looking at it from that real news perspective,

59
00:03:51,760 --> 00:03:54,960
Speaker 1: and you know, having to let people know what was

60
00:03:54,960 --> 00:03:57,320
Speaker 1: going on, but really being told not to make too

61
00:03:57,400 --> 00:03:59,840
Speaker 1: big a deal of it. You must have felt pretty conflicted.

62
00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:07,240
Speaker 2: Well, we'd had Cyclone Selma three weeks prior, and that

63
00:04:07,720 --> 00:04:10,400
Speaker 2: had come to within about fifty or sixty kilometers of

64
00:04:10,480 --> 00:04:16,560
Speaker 2: Darwin and then in a really amazing pattern of directions

65
00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:20,280
Speaker 2: flung off to the west, and that had been more

66
00:04:20,360 --> 00:04:23,680
Speaker 2: or less the pattern of previous cyclones. So there was

67
00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:29,440
Speaker 2: a degree of complacency attached to the two cyclone Tracy,

68
00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:34,400
Speaker 2: as well as not wanting to panic the citizenry, and

69
00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:39,800
Speaker 2: so being Christmas Eve, everybody was doing what they did,

70
00:04:39,800 --> 00:04:42,360
Speaker 2: not Eve. I mean, there were office parties all over

71
00:04:42,400 --> 00:04:48,440
Speaker 2: the place and then into evening parties, and you had

72
00:04:48,440 --> 00:04:53,400
Speaker 2: to be a fairly serious person if you were actually

73
00:04:53,480 --> 00:04:55,359
Speaker 2: going to make cyclone preparations.

74
00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:58,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, And this is the thing, isn't it. We so

75
00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:01,839
Speaker 1: often do that even now ow in the Northern Territory,

76
00:05:01,839 --> 00:05:04,680
Speaker 1: even you know, with with our history, particularly when you

77
00:05:04,720 --> 00:05:08,400
Speaker 1: look at at cyclone Tracy, tell us what I mean,

78
00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:11,080
Speaker 1: what was it like for you in the aftermath?

79
00:05:11,400 --> 00:05:21,159
Speaker 2: Then well, I'm sorry, You're right, I am. I was

80
00:05:21,160 --> 00:05:24,640
Speaker 2: in an elevated house ABC house in Jingly, yep. And

81
00:05:24,760 --> 00:05:29,000
Speaker 2: I had a Housemats stayed with me. My wife, being

82
00:05:29,040 --> 00:05:32,080
Speaker 2: a teacher, was on school holidays and she was in Bali.

83
00:05:32,839 --> 00:05:38,040
Speaker 1: So I'll I'll let you get your breath back, Richard,

84
00:05:38,120 --> 00:05:41,440
Speaker 1: and and you do that. But yeah, I mean as

85
00:05:41,480 --> 00:05:43,280
Speaker 1: I said earlier, I know that so many of our

86
00:05:43,320 --> 00:05:48,679
Speaker 1: listeners do have memories of Cyclone Tracy, So I very often,

87
00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:51,360
Speaker 1: you know, over the last few years, I have had

88
00:05:51,400 --> 00:05:53,279
Speaker 1: people get in contact with me when we get to

89
00:05:53,400 --> 00:05:58,240
Speaker 1: around that Christmas time and people talking to me about

90
00:05:58,440 --> 00:06:01,320
Speaker 1: their experiences with psych Tracy. I mean, even as we

91
00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:05,560
Speaker 1: are talking, I'm receiving messages from people that you know

92
00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:08,560
Speaker 1: that are saying that, yeah, that they lived here when

93
00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:12,320
Speaker 1: the cyclone struck. But Richard Jare in terms of the aftermath,

94
00:06:13,160 --> 00:06:15,640
Speaker 1: what was it like for you living in an elevated home.

95
00:06:17,200 --> 00:06:22,640
Speaker 2: Well, I'm our house lost the three bedrooms and Eric

96
00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:26,599
Speaker 2: and I went to the bathroom, which was the recommendation

97
00:06:27,040 --> 00:06:31,040
Speaker 2: of things to do. And although there's incredible noise and

98
00:06:31,160 --> 00:06:34,919
Speaker 2: wind and rain and it was incredibly cold, which is

99
00:06:34,960 --> 00:06:37,159
Speaker 2: amazing to think of in the wet season in Darwen,

100
00:06:38,080 --> 00:06:42,159
Speaker 2: we survived without a scratch. And we had three cats,

101
00:06:42,240 --> 00:06:44,920
Speaker 2: my three cats with us in the bathroom. Yes, and

102
00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:51,159
Speaker 2: we well, when the dawn came and we were able

103
00:06:51,200 --> 00:06:53,680
Speaker 2: to look out of the bathroom window, we looked onto

104
00:06:53,680 --> 00:06:57,600
Speaker 2: this scene of devastation that was a bit like Hiroshima,

105
00:06:57,640 --> 00:07:02,279
Speaker 2: as everybody says. And we were blown away because, like

106
00:07:02,440 --> 00:07:05,760
Speaker 2: so many people, you think, while it's happening to you,

107
00:07:05,880 --> 00:07:07,920
Speaker 2: why is this happening to me? What have I done

108
00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:13,120
Speaker 2: that makes me deserve this particular treatment? And then of

109
00:07:13,160 --> 00:07:15,400
Speaker 2: course you look out the window and you see that

110
00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:18,680
Speaker 2: it wasn't just you, it was everyone. And I think

111
00:07:18,760 --> 00:07:22,400
Speaker 2: there's a lot of that feeling around that it was

112
00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:26,400
Speaker 2: just me until people went outside.

113
00:07:26,600 --> 00:07:30,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's exactly right. So Richard Issha is going to

114
00:07:30,880 --> 00:07:35,440
Speaker 1: be so incredibly important with these commemorations, I mean fifty years.

115
00:07:36,920 --> 00:07:39,680
Speaker 1: What events are planned so far and what are you

116
00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:41,600
Speaker 1: hoping to hear from locals?

117
00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:45,960
Speaker 2: Well, it's a bit hard to say what events are

118
00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:48,760
Speaker 2: being planned. There are things that we would like to see.

119
00:07:48,840 --> 00:07:53,080
Speaker 2: We'd like to see a welcoming function that we would

120
00:07:53,080 --> 00:07:57,040
Speaker 2: like to see a permanent memorial, and the city Council's

121
00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:00,600
Speaker 2: taken control of that and they're working towards that. We

122
00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:04,560
Speaker 2: would we're planning or we would like to see an

123
00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:08,840
Speaker 2: ecumenical church service. We're thinking of a theatrical event, but

124
00:08:09,000 --> 00:08:11,840
Speaker 2: ways to just to bring people together.

125
00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:16,800
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's totally fine. I think that's really

126
00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:19,240
Speaker 1: it is such an you know, a really important thing

127
00:08:19,280 --> 00:08:21,880
Speaker 1: to do in bringing people together, and still so many

128
00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:25,000
Speaker 1: Cyclone Tracy survivors here, and I reckon it will be

129
00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:27,480
Speaker 1: so important to all of them to be able to,

130
00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:30,920
Speaker 1: you know, to get together and remember that tough time.

131
00:08:32,080 --> 00:08:38,520
Speaker 2: Indeed, we've, as the film tells you, we're trying to

132
00:08:38,559 --> 00:08:42,679
Speaker 2: reach Cyclone Tracy survivors. And it's not just those who

133
00:08:42,760 --> 00:08:46,280
Speaker 2: went through the cyclone itself, but those who we call

134
00:08:46,760 --> 00:08:51,079
Speaker 2: adjacently traumatized, people who are away for some reason or

135
00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:56,320
Speaker 2: another and lost all of their possessions, their houses, whatever,

136
00:08:57,360 --> 00:09:00,199
Speaker 2: and in many cases weren't able to actually return to

137
00:09:00,320 --> 00:09:04,680
Speaker 2: Darwin for some time. And so they're part of the

138
00:09:04,720 --> 00:09:08,360
Speaker 2: survivor community that we're trying to reach. And we've got

139
00:09:08,400 --> 00:09:12,400
Speaker 2: this survey Monkey survey where we're asking people to register,

140
00:09:13,160 --> 00:09:17,560
Speaker 2: and we've had well over one thousand people register since

141
00:09:17,600 --> 00:09:21,679
Speaker 2: we put that up in August, most of them from Darwin,

142
00:09:21,880 --> 00:09:25,480
Speaker 2: but a lot from interstate, and we know there are

143
00:09:25,480 --> 00:09:29,319
Speaker 2: people overseas. So that's why we're trying to the video

144
00:09:29,400 --> 00:09:30,680
Speaker 2: out there for them.

145
00:09:31,040 --> 00:09:33,719
Speaker 1: Richard. Where can people get in contact with you if

146
00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:37,640
Speaker 1: they do want to be involved in that survey or

147
00:09:37,679 --> 00:09:40,080
Speaker 1: if they're wanting to, you know, to find out a

148
00:09:40,080 --> 00:09:42,360
Speaker 1: bit more or to be involved in some way.

149
00:09:43,800 --> 00:09:48,319
Speaker 2: I'm directing people to sign up to the Cyclone Tracy

150
00:09:48,400 --> 00:09:55,040
Speaker 2: Survivors Facebook page because that's where we're posting progress information

151
00:09:55,400 --> 00:09:59,640
Speaker 2: and what's happening, and people who do that and keep

152
00:09:59,679 --> 00:10:03,160
Speaker 2: their eye notifications on will know what is what is

153
00:10:03,200 --> 00:10:08,280
Speaker 2: happening when it's happening. As for signing up to the

154
00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:16,920
Speaker 2: Survivor's Register, they can do that by the QR code

155
00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:22,200
Speaker 2: by going to to hour to that Cycloned Tracy Survivors

156
00:10:22,520 --> 00:10:25,679
Speaker 2: Facebook page where they can download a form and return

157
00:10:25,760 --> 00:10:30,880
Speaker 2: to us or every MLA office in the Northern Electorate

158
00:10:30,920 --> 00:10:34,560
Speaker 2: office in the Northern Territory has access to the forms

159
00:10:35,120 --> 00:10:39,400
Speaker 2: and the QR code and would help if people are interested.

160
00:10:39,440 --> 00:10:42,439
Speaker 2: So go to your MLA's office if you will, if

161
00:10:42,480 --> 00:10:43,920
Speaker 2: you want to do that as well.

162
00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:46,680
Speaker 1: Oh Richard, thank you so much for your time this

163
00:10:46,760 --> 00:10:50,160
Speaker 1: morning and for persevering while you were choking having a

164
00:10:50,200 --> 00:10:54,719
Speaker 1: bit of a cough. I hope you're all right, Thank you, Adelaide.

165
00:10:57,400 --> 00:10:59,440
Speaker 1: Got to come back to Darwin mate, then you won't

166
00:10:59,480 --> 00:11:01,640
Speaker 1: have to worry about that. It just clears up your

167
00:11:02,120 --> 00:11:05,679
Speaker 1: clears up your coughing or really good to catch up

168
00:11:05,679 --> 00:11:08,800
Speaker 1: with you, Richard. Yeah, sorry you guys.

169
00:11:08,679 --> 00:11:11,640
Speaker 2: Going to say, I'm actually with Keith Bushnell, who shot

170
00:11:11,679 --> 00:11:16,440
Speaker 2: that original film on Kangaroo Island, and we've been we've

171
00:11:16,440 --> 00:11:20,520
Speaker 2: been doing some reminiscing and also looking through some film

172
00:11:20,559 --> 00:11:23,520
Speaker 2: from that time. So I will be back in Darwin.

173
00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:26,600
Speaker 1: So yeah, well, we look forward to seeing you and

174
00:11:26,640 --> 00:11:28,640
Speaker 1: look forward to talking to you throughout the year as

175
00:11:28,679 --> 00:11:31,920
Speaker 1: some of those plans come together. Richard krezwek lovely to

176
00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:33,680
Speaker 1: speak with you today. Thank you for your time.

177
00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:36,880
Speaker 2: Thank you for your time. Katie appreciate it.

178
00:11:36,960 --> 00:11:37,800
Speaker 1: Thank you