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Speaker 1: We are going to take a bit of a change

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Speaker 1: of pace obviously, after catching up with the Northern Territory

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Speaker 1: Police and heading back across to speak to another cyclone

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Speaker 1: Tracy survivor, whose sister was celebrating her twenty first birthday

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Speaker 1: on the day the system struck. Now Deb Henry lived

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Speaker 1: in Wogerman at the time and had family visiting from

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Speaker 1: down south, and she joins me on the line, good

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Speaker 1: morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, Deb, Good morning Katie.

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Speaker 1: Dead lovely to have you on the show. Take me

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Speaker 1: back to Christmas Eve. What was happening at your place?

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Speaker 2: Well, we were young. We were looking forward to obviously Christmas,

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Speaker 2: as all kids do. Plus with my sister's twenty first birthday,

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Speaker 2: we had lots of family, so we were just looking

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Speaker 2: forward to a big Christmas family Christmas with lots of presents,

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Speaker 2: celebrating her birthday because it was a huge occasion, and

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Speaker 2: you know, just lots of presents and hopefully, you know,

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Speaker 2: a good day like everyone would be lots of seafood,

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Speaker 2: lots of yeah, good, good food. So how old were

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Speaker 2: you both, Well, my sister was twenty turning twenty one.

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Speaker 2: I was fourteen going fifteen, and my younger sister Janae

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Speaker 2: was twelve.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and so when did you realize that things were

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Speaker 1: starting to take a bit of a turn for the worst.

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Speaker 2: I think the afternoon. Later in the afternoon was the

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Speaker 2: reality sort of it, because you know, the morning it

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Speaker 2: was rain and windy, and yeah, I don't know, it's

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Speaker 2: just your kids, You're not really taking anything or thinking

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Speaker 2: too much about it. Then in the afternoon, the winds

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Speaker 2: picked up, the rains picked up, and the skies were

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Speaker 2: a different color, like they were just different. So it

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Speaker 2: sort of later that day. They obviously kept issuing warnings,

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Speaker 2: and yeah, I think our parents listened to them, but

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Speaker 2: we were busy doing stuff. But then I remember my

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Speaker 2: father at some stage in the afternoon thinking, well, the

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Speaker 2: best thing we can do is go down and start

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Speaker 2: tying down of the stuff that was loose objects, because

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Speaker 2: you know, that's part of what they tell you to do.

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Speaker 2: So we had cars we had to look after, and

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Speaker 2: you know, a horse float that we needed to make

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Speaker 2: sure was tied down to minimize damage to the house.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, it was evident then that the wind kept changing.

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Speaker 2: And I remember when he came up, dad that he

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Speaker 2: had like red eyes and it was like sand blasted

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Speaker 2: just from obviously being downstairs and the wind capacity and

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Speaker 2: what it had in it. So yeah, that's I suppose

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Speaker 2: the first thing we had that was a bit different.

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Speaker 1: And so what sort of happened next? What was you know,

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Speaker 1: what what? You know, how did you how did you

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Speaker 1: feel that night and how did you shelter?

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Speaker 2: Well, there's lots of blanks obviously, you know, you remember

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Speaker 2: going to bed, I remember, and that we all remember

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Speaker 2: waking up and you know, some of us were on

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Speaker 2: the floor, some of us was in bed. Sorry, that's okay,

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Speaker 2: and there was water. There was water on the floors,

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Speaker 2: and we thought, oh, this isn't good, you know, like

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Speaker 2: why is the water coming in? So immediate thought was

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Speaker 2: one of our sisters said, well, you know, we'll go

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Speaker 2: and get the mop But that was a bit silly

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Speaker 2: because we were ankle deep in water and the windows

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Speaker 2: were bowing the louvers they were the metal louvers back then,

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Speaker 2: so you know, obviously we were never going to stop

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Speaker 2: the water. So we decided to take heat and you know,

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Speaker 2: try and shelter in places. But also knowing it's Christmas there,

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Speaker 2: you've moved the Christmas tree in the presence, so that's

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Speaker 2: stay safe, and Michelle had a lot of presents from

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Speaker 2: the party the week before luckily, so you know, we

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Speaker 2: had to try and make sure all of these things

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Speaker 2: were going to be safe. And then as the night progressed, yeah,

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Speaker 2: the winds got worse, and we thought, oh, well, well

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Speaker 2: we will do what they say, you know, find the

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Speaker 2: safest place, which is obviously the shelter, was the bathroom toilet.

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Speaker 2: But then there was the neighbors that came over from

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Speaker 2: next door. Their house had exploded first, so they come

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Speaker 2: up our backstairs and we're trying to get in, so

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Speaker 2: we let them in because we could see that their

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Speaker 2: house had gone. And not long after that, I think

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Speaker 2: the men decided we needed to get down to safety,

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Speaker 2: go downstairs and get in the storeroom. That was sort

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Speaker 2: of mandatory and all upstairs houses at that time, So

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Speaker 2: I remember we all went down sort of one by

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Speaker 2: one on our backsides going down, but as going down,

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Speaker 2: looking up where the ceiling of the house should have been,

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Speaker 2: that had gone, and there was just this spiraling, funny

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Speaker 2: colored sky, you know, just it was just really difficult

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Speaker 2: to describe. So we went downstairs with my grandparents who

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Speaker 2: were staying with us at the time, my grandfather was

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Speaker 2: nearly blind. So there was them, there was the five

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Speaker 2: of us, there was the neighbors and our dogs sitting

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Speaker 2: in this little storeroom that was very well equipped with

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Speaker 2: alcohol from the party and other stuff. But there wasn't

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Speaker 2: a lot else that, you know, that was in that

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Speaker 2: room that we had other than we had somewhere to

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Speaker 2: set which was on all these cartons, and we had

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Speaker 2: saucepans and pots from excess cooking gear sort of used

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Speaker 2: on our head to stop the water wedding us. You know,

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Speaker 2: I checked our heads.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and so deb you were, you were sheltering in there.

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Speaker 1: I mean, when did you kind of realize that, you know,

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Speaker 1: that the cycloneer had ended and and you know it

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Speaker 1: talked me through that element of it.

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Speaker 2: Well, I think it was the sound was relentless or not,

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Speaker 2: like the winds, the screeching, that relentless sound, and there

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Speaker 2: was no break until there was this lull like it

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Speaker 2: just stopped like someone turned the radio off, and I thought,

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Speaker 2: that's it, you know, it's gone, it's finished. So that

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Speaker 2: was the reality, and it was daybreak because we could

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Speaker 2: look out the little shelter has you know, between the

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Speaker 2: top of the bricks and the bean there's you could

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Speaker 2: look out and you could see and I remember someone saying,

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Speaker 2: you know, what can you see? We could see the

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Speaker 2: water tower over at Rapid Creek. Now that's a long

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Speaker 2: way away from where we lived at Mogaman and the

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Speaker 2: seas beyond that, so that's a fair distance to seas.

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Speaker 2: So that meant everything in its path was flattened. So

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Speaker 2: the houses across the road, which were all upstairs houses

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Speaker 2: right the way through, looked like those pickup sticks that

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Speaker 2: you see, you know, when you drop them and they

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Speaker 2: just land on top of each other. That's what it

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Speaker 2: looked like. There was just this these pylons where our

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Speaker 2: houses were with bits of materials, beans and toilets. You

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Speaker 2: could see toilets because obviously they were very well screwed down.

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Speaker 2: They didn't move.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I was actually looking at some photos with

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Speaker 1: frieda broker yesterday who joined me on the show, one

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Speaker 1: of the other Cyclone Tracy survivors, and she was showing

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Speaker 1: me some of her photographs after that interview, and you know,

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Speaker 1: when you look like the powerpoles were just you know,

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Speaker 1: it's unbelievable to look at those photographs, let alone have

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Speaker 1: lived through it.

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Speaker 2: Deep well, you wonder how you did. That's it like,

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Speaker 2: you don't know, you're so lucky that you did for

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Speaker 2: some very unlucky and said those that didn't. But how

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Speaker 2: does it do that to those twisted polls? Like people

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Speaker 2: refer back to the ones that casarin or high school

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Speaker 2: whether it's called these days, like it was Catherine A

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Speaker 2: High in my days and it always will be. But

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Speaker 2: the senior college, Like how do you relate that twisted

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Speaker 2: mess to anything? And wonder how people survived? It's just

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Speaker 2: it's really really hard. It's you know, we were obviously

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Speaker 2: meant to be here to tell the story. I suppose.

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Speaker 1: Well, so when you when you look at what you

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Speaker 1: were confronted with the you know, the following morning, and

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Speaker 1: when you think about the aftermath and and you know

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Speaker 1: what happened next, what was it like in your situation.

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Speaker 2: Well, it was the same as everyone else's. You know,

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Speaker 2: you got up, you faced what had happened to yourself.

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Speaker 2: I remember someone coming past and saying, so the cyclone's

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Speaker 2: coming back, it's turning. You need to get to shelter.

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Speaker 2: So we went to Wogaman School because everyone was going

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Speaker 2: there because it was about the only solid structure still

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Speaker 2: standing that had damage, but we could all go there.

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Speaker 2: You know, it was a place to go. So we

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Speaker 2: got out of our store and we went down there.

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Speaker 2: We had the clothes on our back. We didn't really

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Speaker 2: have any shoes, but my father had a collection of

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Speaker 2: these shoes that he used to wear to work, so

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Speaker 2: we sort of put on these Julius Marlow's shoes and

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Speaker 2: went down to the school, even though we were kids

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Speaker 2: and they were men's shoes, but at least we had

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Speaker 2: something on our feet. So we got down to the

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Speaker 2: school and you know, then you confronted with we were okay,

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Speaker 2: we were uninjured, but there were so many people that

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Speaker 2: came that needed help, medical help, that couldn't get to

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Speaker 2: the hospital, didn't know how to get there. So you know,

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Speaker 2: they were all being attended to, and that's quite confronting

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Speaker 2: for young young people to see, but there was no choice.

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Speaker 2: It's what happened. And it was later that afternoon. My

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Speaker 2: uncle if he lived over at Nightcliffe and he had

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Speaker 2: the rest of our family staying at his house. So

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Speaker 2: somehow they came and found us and they said, look,

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Speaker 2: we're all going down to Nouna Marcus. They had a

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Speaker 2: property there, so come down there and we can all

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Speaker 2: be together. So I remember that somehow we went back.

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Speaker 2: I don't even know how we found the keys to

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Speaker 2: the car, but we ended up driving for my mum

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Speaker 2: drove the car, but we had to walk in front

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Speaker 2: of a car trying to clear paths to get through

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Speaker 2: so we could get to Nunama, which I don't even

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Speaker 2: know how long it took. I just know we got

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Speaker 2: there and then we were lucky enough we had somewhere

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Speaker 2: to go, so we went down that way and we

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Speaker 2: didn't get to stay in the shoulders, we didn't get

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Speaker 2: to stay in the school, so you know, we were

185
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Speaker 2: pretty lucky in that respect. And yeah, we got to

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Speaker 2: be with all of our family members and extended. So

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Speaker 2: at that stage it was like six six or seven

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Speaker 2: families staying down there.

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Speaker 1: And then did you you had to be evacuated at

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Speaker 1: some point.

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Speaker 2: Yes, So we got the word like there was obviously

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Speaker 2: because my uncle was in earth moving and he was

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Speaker 2: coming back in and you know, trying to use machinery

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Speaker 2: to clear paths and do forse things to get get

195
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Speaker 2: people out and the demolition side. So we found out

196
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Speaker 2: about the evacuation somehow. We were only talking about this

197
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Speaker 2: the other day. We don't even know how we found out,

198
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Speaker 2: but my family all got evacuated except for myself and

199
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Speaker 2: one of the uncles because we were living at Munhamah

200
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Speaker 2: and we had our dog with us that we'd had

201
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Speaker 2: for years that we bought to Darwen. They were threatening

202
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Speaker 2: to shoot dogs so for the disease. So I didn't

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Speaker 2: want to leave him, so I drove out with my

204
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Speaker 2: aunt and uncle. In that way we would have a

205
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Speaker 2: car in West Australia. So I drove out and got

206
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Speaker 2: separated from my family for a few weeks and they

207
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Speaker 2: all got evacuated out on the planes to perve.

208
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Speaker 1: And so and then you know what what happened next?

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Speaker 1: How long were you? How long were you away for.

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Speaker 2: Away from Dala?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, when you're like once, you know what?

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Speaker 2: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: What did you? What had you know? What did you

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Speaker 1: have to do? Once you did eventually go?

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Speaker 2: Well, once we got out and I went and stayed

216
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Speaker 2: in Karatha for a couple of weeks, and then once

217
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Speaker 2: they drove me down to Perth so all of our

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Speaker 2: family could be together. So then I was with my

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Speaker 2: mum and my two sisters and the grandparents and the

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Speaker 2: people that had gone through the cyclone with us, but

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Speaker 2: my father was still here in Darwin because he was

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Speaker 2: a male and wanted to rebuild. Wasn't game enough to

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Speaker 2: leave the house because there was looters and all sorts

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Speaker 2: of things. Bussy wanted to make it stable so that

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Speaker 2: we could return as soon as we could. So we

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Speaker 2: stayed down in West Australia and we got a housing

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Speaker 2: trust house. We went to school down there, which was different.

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Speaker 2: You know. We were so used to our easy life

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Speaker 2: in Darwin where you could wear you know, your sands, sabers,

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Speaker 2: sandals every day and you know their uniform code wasn't

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Speaker 2: that tough? And then you go to a school down

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Speaker 2: south where it's all different. You know, You've got your

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Speaker 2: shoes and socks whatever they were, you know, and uniforms

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Speaker 2: and you were like people all knew who you were,

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Speaker 2: but they wanted to know the story. You know, Yeah,

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Speaker 2: I see you are from Darwen. We were different and

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Speaker 2: they weren't our friends, so we didn't get I remember

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Speaker 2: that we didn't even get counseling, you know, back in

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Speaker 2: those days. So we've all had to deal with this

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Speaker 2: in our own way. So I suppose we didn't handle

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Speaker 2: change very well. We were in a different place. The

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Speaker 2: only thing that was common to us was we'd go

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Speaker 2: home to our families at night. My older sister was working,

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Speaker 2: so she was able to come back and be with

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Speaker 2: Dad once he had some sort of accommodation, makeshift accommodation

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Speaker 2: for her to come back to, And we weren't allowed

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Speaker 2: to come back until April later that year. At once

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Speaker 2: they got a permit and could prove that he had

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Speaker 2: somewhere for us to go and could provide you know,

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Speaker 2: roufava our head, and we had some water and we

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Speaker 2: could shower, you know, we had all the things you need.

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Speaker 2: So yes, we didn't get back to it with April May.

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Speaker 1: And so I mean, when you look at what your family,

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Speaker 1: you know, went through, when you look as when you

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Speaker 1: look back at what had happened to Darwin, how are

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Speaker 1: you sort of feeling now did as the fiftieth and

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Speaker 1: first three approaches?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Look, I think grateful that that we're here to

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Speaker 2: again be together and unite. I think this is going

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Speaker 2: to be the biggest get together where people will want

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Speaker 2: to come back and share their stories and just not

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Speaker 2: relive in a bad way, but connect and know that

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Speaker 2: we went through this. Because I've said it before and

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Speaker 2: there's no negativity in all of this. But we might

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Speaker 2: not be I might not be here for the sixties.

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Speaker 2: So this is a huge time of reflection and thinking back,

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Speaker 2: and I suppose to sharing the story with those that

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Speaker 2: want to do that. And it's not just appreciate that

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Speaker 2: we are here now and we can you know, we

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Speaker 2: can talk about it.

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Speaker 1: I agree, and I think it's so very important, you know,

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Speaker 1: for all of our Cyclone Tracy survivors, everybody, you know,

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Speaker 1: everybody obviously feel really differently, I guess as the fiftieth

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Speaker 1: anniversary approaches, but I think you know, it's important that

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Speaker 1: your stories are told, in my opinion, and important that

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Speaker 1: you know that other Territorians hear those stories. I think

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Speaker 1: it is such a huge part of the fabric of Darwin.

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Speaker 2: It is it's the history that is untold. Like we

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Speaker 2: all know about the bombing of Darwin and the other

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Speaker 2: tragedies that happen around Australia. We all know that. But

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Speaker 2: this is about us, and that's this is our time.

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Speaker 2: And some people, you know, obviously there were people that

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Speaker 2: didn't survive, so they didn't get their lives, the health,

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Speaker 2: family lives changed, they didn't get to celebrate Christmas normally again.

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Speaker 2: And I think for any of us as we get older,

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Speaker 2: I know for me especially that as I've got older,

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Speaker 2: when I sit back and think about that, that's I

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Speaker 2: dwell on it more. You know, I think, Gee, you know,

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Speaker 2: when I was so young, I was complacent with thinking

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Speaker 2: it was an adventure and you know, yeah, it was

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Speaker 2: something to be proud of or something that was some

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Speaker 2: feeling that you got that you had been through this

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Speaker 2: experience and you could tell people. But as you get older,

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Speaker 2: the reality is of how dramatic it was and how

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Speaker 2: it affected the rest of our lives, I suppose. So

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Speaker 2: there's a lot to be grateful for and I am

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Speaker 2: grateful for that, and I'm grateful that there's a great

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Speaker 2: bond of people and that Darwin can do this. Yep. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, deb Hendry, it is lovely to speak with you

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Speaker 1: this morning. I really appreciate your time and really appreciate

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Speaker 1: you sharing your story.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Katie and the team have a great Christmas you.

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Speaker 1: Too, you too. We will talk to you again soon.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much, dear.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Katie.

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Speaker 1: Bye now.