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Speaker 1: Now we continue our coverage to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary

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Speaker 1: of Cyclone Tracy, one of the country's most devastating natural disasters.

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Speaker 1: And my next guest was eight years old at the

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Speaker 1: time that Tracy struck and lived in Stuart Park and

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Speaker 1: I understand his father played a key role in the

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Speaker 1: aftermath of Tracy. Philip Edwards joins me on the line.

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Speaker 1: Good morning to you, Philip.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Katie. How are is today? Ye're really good.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time, Philip. That's what was

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Speaker 1: life like for you growing up in the seventies in Darwin, Ah.

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Speaker 2: It was great until the cyclone come through and we

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Speaker 2: had a we're actually having a small Christmas party the

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Speaker 2: night before and then we got told to go to

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Speaker 2: bed and then we got waken up before midnight and

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Speaker 2: to get in the hallway and grab the mattresses and

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Speaker 2: put down in the hallway. And we had about fifteen

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Speaker 2: people in our hallway and we tour and bedrooms exploded,

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Speaker 2: the roof came off. It's very terrifying, scary. I fell

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Speaker 2: asleep a couple of times. My mum wake me up

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Speaker 2: a couple of times. And when the roof came up,

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Speaker 2: we thought, I know that our house is going to

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Speaker 2: go and the bloke next door kept on coming home

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Speaker 2: and Dad told him to go home and stay there,

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Speaker 2: and that was Oh, it was very scary.

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Speaker 1: I bet it was. I mean eight years old, you know,

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Speaker 1: and you had people at your house as well. So

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Speaker 1: what had you had a bit of a party that

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Speaker 1: night before or the night off?

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Speaker 2: Yes, we did. Yeah, we were having like a good

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Speaker 2: friends over, just having a probably pre Christmas drinks and

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Speaker 2: all that until the wind got a little bit stronger

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Speaker 2: and they all come upstairs.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, so what's stayed with you from that night?

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Speaker 1: But I mean one of the things I've heard quite

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Speaker 1: regularly is that, you know, the advice was to sort

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Speaker 1: of hide or to shelter in the room, but to

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Speaker 1: have that mattress, and that's obviously something that you guys

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Speaker 1: did that night too.

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Speaker 2: Well. It kept us out of the water too, because

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Speaker 2: we wake up next morning and there was probably around

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Speaker 2: about three or four inches of water in the house

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Speaker 2: and that's why Dad had to get the hand drill

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Speaker 2: and grew holes and the floor just let the water out.

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Speaker 2: The mattress has kept us on top of the water.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So Philip, were you guys in a double story

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Speaker 1: or in a ground level. It was a ground level

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Speaker 1: home by the sounds of USh.

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Speaker 2: No, no, it was a house on stilts Corner, Westralia.

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Speaker 2: And Mary actually we lived next to the next door

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Speaker 2: to Toshi Marcellus. Actually, yeah, right, and so.

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Speaker 1: How like talk me through how much damage there was,

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Speaker 1: you know, to the house. And a lot of people

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Speaker 1: know Toshi as well. You know what was it like

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Speaker 1: in your street there in Stuart Park.

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Speaker 2: Well, the house behind us, the leaves. He's actually Jimmy Lee,

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Speaker 2: he's actually very good amdlance officer. He lost everything, set

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Speaker 2: the toilet and they went running down the road to

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Speaker 2: another friend's house, the house across the road, the brick

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Speaker 2: house that only lost about four tiles off the roof.

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Speaker 2: But yeah, there was lots of rubbish all around the yard, trees, fallen,

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Speaker 2: power lines down. Oh yeah. And we all went to

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Speaker 2: Darwin High School after they calmed down a bit.

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Speaker 1: And I understand that your dad had had quite a

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Speaker 1: big role to play in the aftermath.

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Speaker 2: Talk me through that he did. He was in charge

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Speaker 2: of Darn High School, hanging out all the food and

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Speaker 2: helping people out. There was a big knob that came

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Speaker 2: up from down south and asked Dad, what do you want?

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Speaker 2: And Dad said blankets. He said blanket it's just too

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Speaker 2: hot and he said, no one of them, so people

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Speaker 2: can sit on them all to keep comfort. And he

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Speaker 2: said the second thing I wanted is do all of

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Speaker 2: glass leaned up around this high school. So they did that. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: He also organized the people to get on the.

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Speaker 1: Plane right, and that would like logistically that would have

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Speaker 1: been an incredibly difficult thing I would imagine to do.

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Speaker 2: Yes, he was under a lot of stress. So yeah,

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Speaker 2: so when we left on the plane, we actually didn't

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Speaker 2: seem Dad until three four months later.

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Speaker 1: That is incredible, you know, even hearing that yesterday when

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Speaker 1: we spoke to frieda broker, one of the other cyclone

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Speaker 1: Tracy survivors that we've spoken to, and and you know

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Speaker 1: she was separated from her daughter Brenda, and hearing the

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Speaker 1: incredible lengths of time that the kids like yourself spent

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Speaker 1: away from their parents, what said light for you.

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Speaker 2: Very upsetting now leaving your father behind. But we had

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Speaker 2: family down in Sydney who were detective, so we went

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Speaker 2: across the bridge and they flashed their badge and so

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Speaker 2: we got across for free. But then we went to

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Speaker 2: Canberra so for a couple of years and then come

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Speaker 2: back up here. But it was very scary. It was

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Speaker 2: very terrifying. Everybody found out where we're from and what

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Speaker 2: we went through, and they were all very sorry for

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Speaker 2: us and wanted to help us out and can we

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Speaker 2: get you anything or so.

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

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Speaker 1: back to Darwin?

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Speaker 2: It was a lot better. It was probably seventy five.

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Speaker 2: We come back here and it was a lot cleaner,

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Speaker 2: and the houses have been sort of or rebuilt, scept

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Speaker 2: a few. But yeah, it was just it was amazing, actually.

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Speaker 1: I mean it must have been like it must have

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Speaker 1: been a very strange kind of feeling as well after

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Speaker 1: you know, when you'd left or when you've been evacuated

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Speaker 1: in the town, you know, being decimated, and then I

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Speaker 1: suppose to see it when you got back after it,

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Speaker 1: you know, some of it, I guess, being well, I

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Speaker 1: don't know was it really like how like, what what

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Speaker 1: did it look like? Was some of it rebuilt or

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Speaker 1: what kind of state was the place in?

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Speaker 2: Well, it's sort of rebuilt. All the houses were fairly

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Speaker 2: quickly building houses and so people can get their accommodation

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Speaker 2: back when we were down south. Actually they were showing

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Speaker 2: the film on cycland tracing, but they wouldn't let us

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Speaker 2: see it. So when I got back to Darwin, I

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Speaker 2: wanted to see the film so I can get a

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Speaker 2: bit of closure. Yeah, even now talking about it, I

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Speaker 2: get emotional.

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Speaker 1: So oh mate, And you know, I like I every

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Speaker 1: time I speak to a cyclone tracy survivor, I just think,

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Speaker 1: I can't even begin to imagine what it was like now.

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Speaker 1: And you can't even you know, even you saying that

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Speaker 1: you had friends over on Christmas Eve. You know I

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Speaker 1: do that every Christmas Eve and I think to myself,

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Speaker 1: imagine then all being bunkered down in the house. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: not knowing well, not knowing what your face is going

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Speaker 1: to be on that night. It must have just been

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Speaker 1: an incredibly frightening thing to live through.

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Speaker 2: I was, it was, you know, when the I came over.

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Speaker 2: But we always thought we all thought, oh, it's finished,

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Speaker 2: and then Dad said, no, it's not finished. It's the eye.

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Speaker 2: So don't move, stay sitting or stay laying down or

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Speaker 2: whether you're where wherever you are. When our friends were

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Speaker 2: sitting down into the hallway where the two in bedrooms exploded,

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Speaker 2: my father about five minutes beforehand, said you'd better move

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Speaker 2: away from that wall. As soon as the friends moved

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Speaker 2: away from that, a little bit of wall big four

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Speaker 2: before piece would come down where they was sitting. So

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Speaker 2: I think that Dad had a bit of I don't

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Speaker 2: know since third sense sort of thing, but he's always

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Speaker 2: had it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I knew that there was I knew it was

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Speaker 1: danger danger. Ye may tell me how are you feeling

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Speaker 1: as the fiftieth anniversary approaches?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, bit emotional still, but I don't know. I'll

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Speaker 2: be working so I can't go to it. But yeah,

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Speaker 2: I reckon I to be a lot of stories told

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Speaker 2: a lot of people getting back together again that haven't

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Speaker 2: seen each other for years. Are we going to be great?

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Speaker 2: But you know, I reckon they should move that big

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Speaker 2: metal twisted medal from Casu in a high school into town.

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Speaker 2: That's part of Cyclone Tracy. That's what they're making now

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Speaker 2: is not part of Cyclone Tracy.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, people still are very passionate about about the

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Speaker 1: the artwork or whatever you want to call it there

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Speaker 1: at Bundilla, And yeah, I don't know, I don't know

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Speaker 1: whether they felt like whether people have felt any differently,

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Speaker 1: particularly survivors since it's been sort of put up or unveiled.

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Speaker 2: Yep, I don't know. I don't know. It's got me.

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Speaker 2: I haven't really had a proper look at it, but

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Speaker 2: I've seen it on photos on Facebook and all that,

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Speaker 2: but and a few other places. But yeah, I go

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Speaker 2: to Cajuria in high school and see that twisted metal

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Speaker 2: and then I got that cyclone. Yeah, yep, I've been

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Speaker 2: through eight through eight cyclones now and on here, so

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Speaker 2: you don't have another one?

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Speaker 1: Yeah? Do you still when when you know that a

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Speaker 1: cyclone is you know, is coming, do you like does

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Speaker 1: it take you back to Tracy? And do you feel

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Speaker 1: like a level of anxiety that you know that that

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Speaker 1: those of us that haven't lived through cyclone Tracy probably

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Speaker 1: can't even imagine.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it does bring in a bit of anxiety. I

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Speaker 2: love one of the one of them. I think I

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Speaker 2: went to one of the government buildings in town to

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Speaker 2: be safe there and then cut the rest of the others

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Speaker 2: stayed home. But it's just you think, is the house

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Speaker 2: going to go or not? Is this going to be

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Speaker 2: strong enough to lift the house.

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Speaker 1: Or yea, yeah it is a it's yeah, it's it's

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Speaker 1: one of those things too that it makes me sort

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Speaker 1: of think after speaking to yourself, speaking to Cyclone Tracy survivors,

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Speaker 1: you go, we always talk about being prepared, and you

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Speaker 1: talk about that level of preparation, but it makes you

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Speaker 1: realize just sort of how important it is and how

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Speaker 1: utterly frightening it will be if something like that hits again.

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Speaker 2: No, it would be very frightening. But I think a

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Speaker 2: lot of people now will have a lot of sense

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Speaker 2: to move to the government buildings where they're stronger, or

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Speaker 2: go somewhere where it is stronger. Yeah, so they're sitting

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Speaker 2: in their houses all the time.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I reckon. You're right well, Philip, I really appreciate

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Speaker 1: you having a chat to me this morning. I know

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Speaker 1: it's not an easy thing for our Cyclone Tracy survivors

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Speaker 1: to do, but I just think it's really important for everybody,

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Speaker 1: not only around the Northern Territory but for all of

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Speaker 1: Australia to really sit and reflect on this fiftieth anniversary.

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Speaker 1: So mate, thank you so much for your time today.

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Speaker 2: My pleasure ring uncles stand milche.

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Speaker 1: How Betty will I Betty will Oh, Philip, thank you

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Speaker 1: so much, mate, I really appreciate it.

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Speaker 2: My pleasure, Beattie. I hope you have a good Christmas

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Speaker 2: and law your listeners.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you too, have a lovely Christmas and we'll talk

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Speaker 1: to you again soon.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Katie babe, good on you, see you, Philip,