Unseen footage of Cyclone Tracy

Never-before-seen footage of Cyclone Tracy will feature in a new documentary to mark the 50th anniversary of one of Australia’s worst natural disasters.

Sixty-six people were killed and hundreds more were seriously injured when Tracy landed a direct hit on Darwin on Christmas Day in 1974.

Ian McLeod, an amateur cinematographer from Adelaide, was in Darwin for Christmas with his wife, visiting his daughter Aileen Scott, her husband Alan and their three young children, Cameron, Megan and Kendall.

He would be on hand to capture the devastation left behind when Tracy flattened the city, then home to about 47,000 people.

“Dad never travelled anywhere without his movie camera, so little did he know that he was going to get such an extraordinary film on that occasion,” Aileen told Sky News from her home at Victor Harbor in South Australia.

“Dad couldn’t probably resist the opportunity to capture what was happening. They only had themselves to look after as best they could, so Alan drove and Dad filmed and they’ve really captured a remarkable story.”

The footage has been obtained exclusively by Sky News for the documentary Cyclone Tracy: 50 Years On, which will screen at 8pm AEDT on November 27.

It shows the incredible destruction caused by the cyclone, which recorded wind gusts of 217km/h before the measuring equipment failed.

As Alan and Ian travelled out to Darwin’s northern suburbs, they recorded the scene as entire rows of houses were blown away.

Caravans and cars can be seen flipped upside down and steel poles bent at right angles.

Footage from the airport shows planes that had been tied down before the cyclone arrived, snapped in half.

Aileen also told Sky News about her family’s tale of survival.

“It should have been a joyous day and it just makes you realise that your life can run in front of your face and change in a heartbeat,” Aileen said.

Like many Darwin residents, they were not particularly concerned about Tracy’s impending arrival. Cyclone Selma had passed by the city about three weeks earlier with little fuss.

Aileen, who was nursing a baby and looking after two other children aged and under four, had gone to bed early on Christmas Eve.

But as the clock ticked past 10pm, she woke up to find her bed moving across the bedroom floor.

She moved into the new family room that had just been completed with her parents and the rest of her family.

“The wind just started to blow harder and harder,” she said.

The eye of the cyclone passed about midnight, but the worst was yet to come.

As Tracy roared back, scaffolding crashed through the room where they were seeking shelter and an air-conditioner was blown out of the wall, hitting Ian in the back.

The family was forced to take shelter in the bathroom. That’s where they would spend the next six hours; four adults, three children and two dogs crammed into one tiny room as Tracy unleashed her fury outside.

Kendall’s bassinet was placed on bathroom scales to protect it from water flowing in from underneath the bathroom door.

“Mum and myself and Cameron and Megan were in the bath with one labrador dog, and dad and Alan stood with their back to the door with the other labrador dog to keep the wind out and we hunkered down there until it slowed down and stopped,” she said.

She said the sound of the cyclone is something that will live with her forever.

“The noise of the wind was horrendous,” she said. “I’ll never forget it.”

Ian’s footage has captured not just the aftermath of Tracy, but also the remarkable recovery and evacuation that took place in the week after the cyclone.

It shows the scenes as homeless families gather at the Ludmilla Primary School. More than 35,000 people would leave Darwin by air and road in what would become Australia’s largest ever peacetime evacuation.

Like many Cyclone Tracy survivors, Aileen, Alan and their children didn’t return to live in Darwin.

But they will never forget their Christmas in 1974.

“In some funny ways it’s a special memory, as traumatic as it was at the time, it’s a very big part of our life,” Aileen said.

Cyclone Tracy: 50 Years On premieres on Sky News on Wednesday 27 November at 8pm AEDT. Stream at SkyNews.com.au or download the Sky News Australia app.

Originally published as Unseen footage of Cyclone Tracy revealed in new Sky News documentary