Rock and Tempest
Surviving Cyclone Tracy and its Aftermath
Published on 26. June 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
320 pages
978-0-7336-5023-9 (ISBN)
Description
WINNER OF THE ANZAC MEMORIAL TRUSTEES MILITARY HISTORY PRIZE, 2025 NSW HISTORY AWARDS
When Cyclone Tracy flattened Darwin on Christmas Day 1974, it was the worst natural disaster Australians had ever experienced. Stationed in the city with the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service, Patricia Collins not only lived through Tracy but was part of the massive clean-up effort. This is her extraordinary story.
The experience of living through a terrifying natural disaster is chillingly told by Collins as she recounts her own dark hours that Christmas, along with those of her contemporaries. They sat huddled in doorways and bathtubs as the winds raged, lifting off roofs, picking up cars and sinking ships. Most of the city was destroyed. Seventy-one people died.
The Navy suffered terrible losses. A patrol boat was sunk with the loss of two crewmen and another was driven onto rocks. A sailor lost his wife and two children, and another lost his young son.
In the days after Tracy, the majority of Darwin's population was evacuated interstate as the Navy's Task Force arrived to clean up and rebuild. Collins was there as a survivor of Tracy and now an integral part of the recovery.
Rock and Tempest contains astonishing first-person accounts of terror and uncertainty as well as courage and survival. It is fascinating and moving, and absolutely essential reading.
When Cyclone Tracy flattened Darwin on Christmas Day 1974, it was the worst natural disaster Australians had ever experienced. Stationed in the city with the Women's Royal Australian Naval Service, Patricia Collins not only lived through Tracy but was part of the massive clean-up effort. This is her extraordinary story.
The experience of living through a terrifying natural disaster is chillingly told by Collins as she recounts her own dark hours that Christmas, along with those of her contemporaries. They sat huddled in doorways and bathtubs as the winds raged, lifting off roofs, picking up cars and sinking ships. Most of the city was destroyed. Seventy-one people died.
The Navy suffered terrible losses. A patrol boat was sunk with the loss of two crewmen and another was driven onto rocks. A sailor lost his wife and two children, and another lost his young son.
In the days after Tracy, the majority of Darwin's population was evacuated interstate as the Navy's Task Force arrived to clean up and rebuild. Collins was there as a survivor of Tracy and now an integral part of the recovery.
Rock and Tempest contains astonishing first-person accounts of terror and uncertainty as well as courage and survival. It is fascinating and moving, and absolutely essential reading.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Sydney
Australia
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (UK-trade)
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 153 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
300 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7336-5023-9 (9780733650239)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
06/2024
Hachette Australia
€3.99
Available for download
Person
Patricia Collins was a Wran (the women's branch of the RAN) stationed in Darwin at the time of Cyclone Tracy. She wrote a brief account of her experiences during Tracy and the clean-up for her son when he was a teenager and interested in what had happened. The essay was submitted by a third party to the editor of the magazine Australian Warship and was subsequently published with her permission in Issue 24 in 2005. Patricia then turned it into a book and brought in experiences from many of those she served with during that time. Rock and Tempest is her first book.