On the night before Christmas in 1974, Darwin was almost gone. Cyclone Tracy was small, but it was very mean. The wind was more than 217 km/h. By the morning of December 25, the city was in bits. People had to do one of the biggest clean-up and building jobs in Australia's past.
The storm was Category 4 when it hit land. The air pressure (how much push the air has) dropped to 950 hectopascals.
Operation Navy Help
Help came first from the sea. Just hours after the storm, the Navy ships came to help. The job was called 'Operation Navy Help'. A big ship named HMS Melbourne came. Other ships came too. They brought food, water, tools, and things to help sick people. The sailors worked hard with the people of Darwin. They pulled broken stuff off the roads so cars could drive.
The Great Airlift
"The airport was a scene of controlled chaos. People were waiting in the heat, holding what little they had left in plastic bags. We flew them out by the thousands, every plane that could fly was in the air."
— Captain Robert Miller, RAAF (Ret.)
In easy words: The airport was very busy. People were hot and tired. They only had a few things left, in plastic bags. Thousands of people flew out. Every plane we had was used.
The Darwin Reconstruction Commission
In early 1975, the leaders of Australia made a new team. The team was called the Darwin Reconstruction Commission (DRC). Their job was simple but very big. They had to build a new city that would not break if a storm like Tracy came back. A man called Sir John Knight was the boss. He made new rules for how to build homes.
Strong Homes: New Building Rules
The biggest thing Tracy changed was the way we build homes. People looked at the broken homes. They saw that most of them broke where the roof joined the walls. So new rules were made. These rules are called the Australian Wind Code. They might be the strongest rules in the world. Today, every home in the north of Australia is built to be very strong. They are strong enough to stand up to a storm like Tracy.