Cyclone Tracy: Red Cross photos bring back memories
Gwenyth Thompson was just six years old when a Red Cross photographer snapped a picture of her aboard a Hercules jet after Christmas in 1974 when Cyclone Tracy had devastated Darwin.
The photo is one of many rekindling the memories of victims after being released in a Red Cross exhibition commemorating the 40th anniversary of the destructive cyclone.
Ms Thompson was bound for Sydney from Darwin, one of the thousands of women and children evacuated from the badly damaged city.
She does not remember the photo being taken, but she has a powerful memory of the trip and being helped by the Red Cross volunteers.
"I do remember being in the Hercules and looking out of the window," Ms Thompson said.
"They [the Red Cross] gave us some chewing gum to help with our ears and that was very exciting for me at the time."
Her home was completely destroyed and she left Darwin with nothing but the clothes on her back.
"We were met by the Red Cross in Sydney. They gave us clothing and toiletries and I remember getting a special doll," Ms Thompson said.
"It helped us to realise there were other people out there who cared how we were and our situation."
Thousands of Red Cross volunteers helped fill in the cracks of a slow-moving and under-resourced rescue effort ... instrumental in reuniting loved ones, locating the missing, set up mobile shelters and blood transfusion services and 24-hour fund raising hotlines.
First time 'white Australians' showed her love
For Dr Aleeta Fejo-Elliott, who was 12 when Cyclone Tracy hit, the Red Cross was a saviour.
She and her older sister were evacuated to Adelaide and separated from the rest of their family.
Dr Fejo-Elliott said they arrived cold and scared.
"There were these great big white women coming, running at us," Dr Fejo-Elliott said.
''And they just came and wrapped us up and met us with blankets and hugs."
But above all, Dr Fejo-Elliott said the Red Cross represented a significant change in her thinking.
"That was the first time White Australians made an impact and showed me and my family love. That was a really big thing, before that, before Cyclone Tracy, we had always been told stay away from white people, because you'll find yourself in trouble," she said.
Still getting nasty feeling on back of neck
Paul Mitchell, who currently works as the head of the Red Cross NT's Emergency Services, was also a child when Cyclone Tracy devastated his home town.
"My memory is it robbed me of a couple of senses. One was my sight and my hearing. It was so loud and so dark, it was like a banshee. And I think it still, when the wind blows up now I still get a nasty feeling in the back of my neck," Mr Mitchell said.
Mr Mitchell said it was this experience and the help of the Red Cross in tracking down his family members after being evacuated to Katherine, that inspired him to work with the organisation decades later.
''The system worked and my parents found where I was put and was able to meet me at the airport in Adelaide," Mr Mitchell said.
Cyclone Tracy was the first big crisis that the Red Cross responded to on home turf, and it instigated a significant shift in its emergency services tactics.
"The national registration enquiry system was borne out of Cyclone Tracy, which is now Register Find Reunite and that was probably one of the lessons learned out of that," Mr Mitchell said.
The tracing system has since been used in disasters like Typhoon Haiyan and the Boxing Day Tsunami.
Derrick Scanlan was a volunteer with the Red Cross at the time of Tracy and helped get the rudimentary system underway.
"A lot of people fled from Darwin in cars on Christmas Day and Boxing Day," Mr Scanlan said.
"I helped get the names of people that had gone by car before, that's when the enquiries came in from family members, employees, employers. That's when I was asked to follow up."
Mr Scanlan spent days driving around the broken city and checking out homes and then trying to make contact with residents' friends and families down south.
"As far as trying to bring families together again, it was an enormous help," he said.
"I helped out at the airport and registering people who got on the planes."
Cyclone a turning point for the Red Cross
Records of this work has been stored in Red Cross archives for the past 40 years.
The photographs were released in an exhibition in early December, coinciding with the Red Cross's 100th anniversary.
They were predominantly taken by a Ramon Williams, who travelled from New South Wales to Darwin after Cyclone Tracy to help with the recovery and help his relatives, including Gwenyth Thompson.
"I was just looking at Facebook and it popped up and I was like 'that was me'," Ms Thompson said of the Hercules jet photo.
"It's important to remember where we've come from and a lot of people who are still living here have been through. And what we are today, and I think we've come a long way."
Mr Mitchell also said Tracy signified a turning point for the Red Cross.
"I think what we look at now is preparedness and recovery," he said.
"Those two areas weren't quite brought to the fore as it is now."
Mr Mitchell said people need to follow the Red Cross's four step plan.
"Be informed, make a plan, get an emergency kit and know your neighbours."
