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Speaker 1: We had planned on this week just being all about

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Speaker 1: Cyclone Tracy, with the commemorations for the fiftieth anniversary of

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Speaker 1: Cyclone Tracy getting underway this week, but it has also

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Speaker 1: been well, there's been so much happening in news, so

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Speaker 1: we will continue to cover off on all the issues

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Speaker 1: that impact you throughout this week, but we are certainly

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Speaker 1: going to have a major focus on Cyclone Tracy and

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Speaker 1: the fiftieth anniversary. Now, the system struck as we know

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Speaker 1: will It struck Darwin on Christmas Day back in nineteen

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Speaker 1: seventy four, dumping torrential rain with winds of more than

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Speaker 1: two hundred and seventeen kilometers an hour recorded before instruments failed.

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Speaker 1: It claimed sixty six lives and destroyed more than seventy

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Speaker 1: percent of the buildings in Darwin, leaving the city in

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Speaker 1: ruins and thousands of residents displaced. Now Northern Territory teacher

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Speaker 1: Anita wat joins me in the studio right now. Good

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Speaker 1: morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, Anita, good morning.

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Speaker 1: It's lovely to have you in this studio. Thank you,

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Speaker 1: And before I ask you more about Cyclone Tracy, will

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Speaker 1: you celebrated twenty years of teaching on Friday and you

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Speaker 1: also retired. Yes, all of that, and you were such

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Speaker 1: a beautiful educator. You taught my daughter Bronte, and I

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Speaker 1: could not speak highly enough about you. So when I

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Speaker 1: found out that you'd retired as well, I thought, I

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Speaker 1: can't not mention that this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie.

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Speaker 1: Well, I tell you what it's I think it's going

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Speaker 1: to be probably quite an emotional week for you guys

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Speaker 1: this week as the commemorations for Cyclone Tracy get underway.

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Speaker 1: It's fifty years. It's something that a lot of you

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Speaker 1: have really poured your hearts into as well to get

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Speaker 1: the commemorations underway. But Anita, tell me a little bit

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Speaker 1: about what life was like in Darwin in the seventies.

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Speaker 3: Look, it was one of the best places to grow

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Speaker 3: up in to be honest with you.

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Speaker 2: It was very laid back.

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Speaker 3: I think there were forty seven thousand people prep around then.

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Speaker 2: We didn't lock our cars, we didn't lock our houses.

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Speaker 3: We told mom we'd be home for dinner and when

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Speaker 3: the lights street lights came on, and literally that's how

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Speaker 3: it was. We would, you know, play cricket in the street,

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Speaker 3: stop the cars if they were in our way.

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Speaker 2: No, no, we didn't do that, but yeah, it was

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Speaker 2: pretty easy.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it would have been a different kind of lifestyle.

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Speaker 1: Did you like, So, how old were you? We don't

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Speaker 1: mind me asking.

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Speaker 2: Not at all.

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Speaker 3: Now this is going to give me away because my

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Speaker 3: students keep asking me how old I was, and I

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Speaker 3: kept telling him it's a secret. So when cyclone Tracy struck,

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Speaker 3: I was thirteen and about to turn fourteen.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So, and you know, like Darwin in those days was

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Speaker 3: very much a community minded.

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Speaker 2: Place, so you know, there would always be barbecues.

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Speaker 3: And someone to bring along a guitar and help some

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Speaker 3: sort of musical instrument and the beer, big sing along

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Speaker 3: and it was just it was amazing.

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Speaker 1: What was it like for your family as you were

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Speaker 1: leading into Christmas on that year? And then you know,

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Speaker 1: it started to get a little bit more information. I guess,

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Speaker 1: I guess about what was approaching or what did you know?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so I was aware that it was approaching and

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Speaker 3: my family, but my family continued pressing on with Christmas

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Speaker 3: plans as per normal. At that stage, both my grandparents

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Speaker 3: and my auntie and uncle had actually left Darwin, so

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Speaker 3: it then was down to just use as a family.

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Speaker 3: So the Christmas tree was up and all the presents

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Speaker 3: were around the tree, the house was decorated, and my parents,

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Speaker 3: being of European descent, everything was.

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Speaker 2: Done full on.

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Speaker 3: Nothing was ever done by halves, so it was always

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Speaker 3: a big deal.

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Speaker 2: Every event was to be celebrated properly. Yeah, you know.

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Speaker 3: So, yeah, I was working part time because back in

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Speaker 3: those days you could start work when you were twelve

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Speaker 3: with and just say you were fourteen and no one

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Speaker 3: asked for your age. And I was working at Woolwas

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Speaker 3: as a checkout chick in the city, the old Woolies

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Speaker 3: building that did not have an escalator. Yeah, but yeah,

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Speaker 3: so I was working there and I remember waiting on

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Speaker 3: the corner of Nukie and Smith Street for Mum to

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Speaker 3: pick me up because it was late night trading and

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Speaker 3: looking at the sky and thinking that's a weird color.

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Speaker 2: It was green actually, like a lot of people talk.

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Speaker 3: About an oily sky, and that was during the actual

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Speaker 3: cyclone itself, yes, but it was this greeny yellow color.

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Speaker 2: And I remember looking at that thinking that's really weird.

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Speaker 3: Anyway, Mum picked me up and a friend came over

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Speaker 3: as well, and we're all going to go to midnight Mass,

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Speaker 3: which obviously didn't eventuate.

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Speaker 1: And so taught me through what happened next she got home.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so I got home and you know, we had

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Speaker 3: something to eat and you know, finish final preparations for

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Speaker 3: the next day and everything else like that. And it

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Speaker 3: was then that winds started to really pick up as well,

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Speaker 3: because you know, bearing in mind that I knocked off

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Speaker 3: work at nine o'clock, so you know, it was all

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Speaker 3: starting to pick up. And so in the end we

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Speaker 3: decided we were not going to go to midnight Mass.

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Speaker 3: That wasn't probably a very good idea, and that was

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Speaker 3: a good.

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Speaker 2: Call, I feel.

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Speaker 3: And we were sitting in the living room now we

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Speaker 3: were we had a standard two bedroom housing commission house

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Speaker 3: that had one really massive room that Dad had divided

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Speaker 3: into two, and Dad, being fairly handy, had also built

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Speaker 3: like a room divider between the kitchen and the lounge

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Speaker 3: room so that, you know, yeah, just to make it

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Speaker 3: a bit more sort of separated. And I was sitting

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Speaker 3: on the lounge that Dad made all so yeah, and

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Speaker 3: looking down the hallway and I remember at one point saying,

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Speaker 3: I guess the roof's gone, and my parents.

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Speaker 2: Just looked at me and said, Dubbi, is that stupid?

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Speaker 3: And I went, well, there's a rain pouring in through

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Speaker 3: the manhole, and then it was battle stations. So we

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Speaker 3: all were, you know, like shuffled shuttled into the bathroom

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Speaker 3: and mum and dad went and got mattresses and stuff

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Speaker 3: like that to put on top of us.

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Speaker 2: And yeah, it was pretty scary.

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Speaker 1: Actually tell me then, you know you're hiding under the mattresses.

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Speaker 1: Where were your mum and dad in there with you?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, they were, they were, And you know, like Katie,

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Speaker 3: it was it was so intense because we couldn't really

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Speaker 3: see what was happening because you know, a tiny little

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Speaker 3: bathroom window and we were down on the floor, hunkered down,

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Speaker 3: but we could hear the noise. That noise I still

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Speaker 3: to this day struggled to hear. At the fortieth anniversary

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Speaker 3: or prior to that, I was gifted the sound recording

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Speaker 3: some sound recordings of the Cyclone. I have never actually

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Speaker 3: listened to them, no, And I cannot go into the

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Speaker 3: room where the sound recording is at the museum.

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Speaker 2: I've just not been able to do that. I did

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Speaker 2: go to a.

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Speaker 3: Performance at Brown Smart that was about Cyclone Tracy not

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Speaker 3: long ago, and they did play some of the sound then,

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Speaker 3: and I was kind of okay. My best Eidab was

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Speaker 3: sitting next to me and she.

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Speaker 2: Was not okay. I'm like, we can go yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 2: but we start through it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it must have been incredibly frightening. Like

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Speaker 1: I look at you and you were saying that you

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Speaker 1: were thirteen at that time, and I think to myself,

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Speaker 1: that's how old my daughter is. And I can't even

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Speaker 1: imagine what it must have been like for your parents.

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Speaker 1: Then with you and you've got a sibling, Yeah yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 1: hiding under then those mattresses. Yeah, really not having any

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Speaker 1: idea what is unfolding.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely absolutely, And you know, you don't sort

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Speaker 3: of really truly appreciate what they must have been going

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Speaker 3: through in terms of our safety and what their thoughts

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Speaker 3: were and everything else like that until you're an adult

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Speaker 3: and you experience cyclone season and you have children, and

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Speaker 3: you suddenly go, I know, you know, like I know

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Speaker 3: that whenever I know there's a cyclone coming, my anxiety

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Speaker 3: goes through the roof. And I know that when we

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Speaker 3: had Cyclone Marcus, which was you know, our most recent

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Speaker 3: big one, my son said to me, he rang me in,

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Speaker 3: he sick. Can you stop being brave and just come over. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: because I was living alone, and.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, it's it's quite scary.

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Speaker 1: So what happened? How did you know then, I mean

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Speaker 1: that the cyclone had indeed passed, and talk me through

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Speaker 1: what happened next at your place?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so as it eventually started to die down, that

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Speaker 3: with that came also first light.

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Speaker 2: So it was pretty much first light that we got

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Speaker 2: to see.

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Speaker 3: We lost our roof and we lost our ceiling, and

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Speaker 3: the walls remained, but the integrity of the walls was damaged.

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Speaker 3: So but we still had a front door, so you know,

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Speaker 3: we opened the front door. And I just to this day,

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Speaker 3: like I feel goosebumps every time I think about what

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Speaker 3: we saw, and I often relate to people who weren't

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Speaker 3: here for that. When you see photos of the destruction,

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Speaker 3: a lot of them appear to be black and white,

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Speaker 3: but an actual factor actually color, and it's because everything

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Speaker 3: was stripped.

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Speaker 2: Everything.

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Speaker 3: You know, if cars were not protected under car, well

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Speaker 3: they were stripped, unless of course they you know, were

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Speaker 3: in an area that wasn't didn't copp it as bad.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, so the leaves were stripped off, the trees,

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Speaker 3: everything was stripped, so everything did appear gray and and

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Speaker 3: I remember like our house was the second one in

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Speaker 3: from the corner, and my best ye at the time

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Speaker 3: lived in the street that that looked down our street

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Speaker 3: on the on the house that looked down our street

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Speaker 3: on Chapman Road, and I remember looking up at her

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Speaker 3: house thinking where are they?

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Speaker 2: Are they okay? Because they were.

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Speaker 3: In an elevated home. There was nothing left but floorboards

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Speaker 3: and bilons. That was it.

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Speaker 2: It was. It was horrendous.

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Speaker 1: Tell me, Anita, how did you guys fear in the

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Speaker 1: aftermath in terms of were were you or anybody in

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Speaker 1: your family injured? What about your friends and the people

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Speaker 1: around you?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, so no one in our family was injured, and

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Speaker 3: the the in the aftermath what most of the houses

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Speaker 3: in our street at our end of the street were

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Speaker 3: all damaged, severely damaged. There was one house that was

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Speaker 3: untouched and they were away, so the neighbors pretty much

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Speaker 3: commandeered that house. And in terms of getting water and

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Speaker 3: stuff like that, we used to put buckets underneath the

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Speaker 3: roofline to catch the rain all that sort of stuff.

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Speaker 3: So but that, you know, we were only there for

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Speaker 3: a couple of days and then we were moved on

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Speaker 3: to an evacuation center. Which at that time for us

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Speaker 3: was Nightcliffe High School where we all got to you know,

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Speaker 3: be jabbed and everything else like that. And there were

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Speaker 3: people lined up with tables with clothing and stuff like

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Speaker 3: that because we had nothing. And in terms of friends,

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Speaker 3: it took a long time to find out that information

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Speaker 3: how people fared, because we all just were scattered like

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Speaker 3: by the wind i gas.

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Speaker 2: You know, for want of a better phrase.

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Speaker 3: You know, We're all sent to different places depending on

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Speaker 3: what our parents opted for. My parents opted for Brisbane

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Speaker 3: because we had lots of family there, and then yeah,

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Speaker 3: so and then I was ended up staying down there

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Speaker 3: for three months.

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Speaker 2: Mom came back.

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Speaker 3: She was ansential worker yep, she worked for Australia Post

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Speaker 3: at the.

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Speaker 2: Time, or PMG as it was called then.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, and my father was an architectural draftsman, so he

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Speaker 3: also was considered to be quite necessary as well. And yeah,

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Speaker 3: the yeah, so we stayed. We went to gunder Windy,

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Speaker 3: which was an amazing place to stay.

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Speaker 2: Actually, yeah, it was really cool.

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Speaker 3: But I couldn't wait to get back home, no matter

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Speaker 3: how damaged everything was. I wanted to know how everyone fair.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and what was it like when you came back then?

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Speaker 1: And you you could see the aftermath and then the

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Speaker 1: you know, the rebuild that was required.

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Speaker 3: The rebuild in the aftermath was you know, like the

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Speaker 3: damage and everything was obviously, like you say, they quite considerable.

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Speaker 3: But again, you know, you like, it's not something you

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Speaker 3: pay a lot of thought to as a fourteen year old. Yep,

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Speaker 3: you know, as a fourteen year old, you're all all

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Speaker 3: about everything else rather than that. Yeah, and so yeah,

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Speaker 3: it was actually, yeah, it was pretty big deal. And

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Speaker 3: we stayed in a caravan because the house had to

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Speaker 3: be rebuilt and everything else like that.

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Speaker 2: So we lived in a caravan, which was pretty tight.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it would have been, no doubt about it. So, Anita,

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Speaker 1: as we now, you know, really lead into the fiftieth

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Speaker 1: commemorations and what I've no doubt is going to be

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Speaker 1: a pretty emotional time for a lot of Cyclone Tracy survivors.

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Speaker 1: How like, how are you feeling this week and how

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Speaker 1: are you you know, what what are you hoping that

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Speaker 1: we see at the fiftieth commemoration in terms of all

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Speaker 1: of the events, but particularly the unveiling on Christmas Day.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So so as you know, Katie, I'm on the

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Speaker 3: remembering Cyclone Tracy Incorporated Committee, and it's very.

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Speaker 2: Full on at the moment.

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Speaker 3: We are definitely and you know, we were told that

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Speaker 3: by lots of people that no one would come to

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Speaker 3: our event of any importance because it's it's had a

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Speaker 3: socially unacceptable time. Well we've kind of turned that on

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Speaker 3: its head.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely.

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Speaker 3: But the point was that for us it wasn't negotiable

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Speaker 3: because you know what, we saw the utter destruction at

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Speaker 3: first light on Christmas morning, and so for us that

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Speaker 3: had to be when the unveiling.

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Speaker 1: Was absolutely well, I couldn't agree more.

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Speaker 3: Yes, So you know, it was just so significant for

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Speaker 3: all of us. And so yeah, looking very much forward

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Speaker 3: to the unveiling as being our last event, looking very

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Speaker 3: much forward to having it all done and dusted, yep.

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Speaker 3: And also the welcome event at Fostery Pavilion, looking forward

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Speaker 3: to that as well, Looking forward to meeting so many

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Speaker 3: people that I've sort of befriended through the Cyclone Tracy Survivor's.

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Speaker 2: Page, and.

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Speaker 3: Looking forward to finally having a monument that recognizes the

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Speaker 3: severity of what we went through. There was a time

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Speaker 3: when we didn't think we were going to be able

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Speaker 3: to do it financially and I remember Richard saying to us,

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Speaker 3: you know, I said, what do we do do we

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Speaker 3: just walk away from it all? And there were three

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Speaker 3: of us on that there's three of us on that

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Speaker 3: committee that we're on the fortieth anniversary committee, and tried

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Speaker 3: to make that happen then, and we just burst into

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Speaker 3: tears and we said, no way, we are not giving up.

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Speaker 1: And this is part of our history, you know, like

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Speaker 1: it's a huge part of our history. And it's not

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Speaker 1: only part of our history, but it's also a real

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Speaker 1: sort of reminder of the resilience of the people of

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely, I think that's.

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Speaker 1: What needs to be really highlighted and remembered.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, one hundred percent. And you know, being in a

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Speaker 3: position to be on this committee and to help make

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Speaker 3: this happen has been a very proud moment for me.

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Speaker 3: And I know, and I'm getting a bit emotion, that's

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Speaker 3: all right. I know on Christmas Day, I'm going to

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Speaker 3: be very emotional because it will finally have, you know,

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Speaker 3: come to be.

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Speaker 1: I think a lot of you, I think a lot

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Speaker 1: of I think the whole of the Northern Territory. It's

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Speaker 1: going to be a very different Christmas, I think for

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Speaker 1: a lot of Territorians this year and feeling that emotion.

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Speaker 1: And you'd be very hard pressed to find a family

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Speaker 1: in the Northern Territory right now that doesn't have a

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Speaker 1: Cyclone Tracy survivor in their family or whose lives haven't

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Speaker 1: been impacted in some way, shape or form by Cyclone Tracy.

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Speaker 1: So I think that it's such an important thing that's

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Speaker 1: going to happen on Christmas Day this year. Now, just

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Speaker 1: before I let you go, how are you have you?

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Speaker 1: Are you all the way there with the funding?

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Speaker 2: No, unfortunately we're not.

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Speaker 3: We're still we still do have a bit of a

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Speaker 3: short and we're waiting to hear how that's going to

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Speaker 3: be met for us yep from the government. But yeah,

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Speaker 3: you know, time will tell, I guess and I'm you know,

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Speaker 3: either way, I can't see it not happening because it

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Speaker 3: doesn't even bear thinking about.

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Speaker 2: If it doesn't, it's got to go ahead.

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Speaker 3: And when I say not happening, I'm not talking about

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Speaker 3: the unveiling that is that is that is a definite goer.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but other events could. Yeah, I don't know, we

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Speaker 2: don't know.

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Speaker 1: Well, we'll wait and here please keeping up to date

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Speaker 1: though throughout the week. Anita, lovely to have you in

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Speaker 1: the studio this morning. Thank you so very much for

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Speaker 1: your time this morning, and another massive congratulations on what

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Speaker 1: has been an incredible career as a teacher.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Katie, thank you so much. As

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Speaker 2: a pleasure teaching your time.

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Speaker 1: Oh, thank you, thank you so much.