[1] Residents of Darwin were celebrating Christmas, and they did not immediately acknowledge the emergency, partly because they had been alerted to an earlier cyclone (Selma) which passed west of the city, not affecting it in any way.

[5] On 20 December 1974, the United States' ESSA-8 environmental satellite recorded a large cloud mass centred over the Arafura Sea about 370 km (230 mi) northeast of Darwin.

This disturbance was tracked by the Darwin Weather Bureau's regional director Ray Wilkie, and by senior meteorologist Geoff Crane.

However, early in the morning of 24 December, Tracy rounded Cape Fourcroy on the western tip of Bathurst Island, and moved in a southeasterly direction, straight towards Darwin.

[10] By late afternoon on 24 December, the sky over the city was heavily overcast, with low clouds, and was experiencing strong rain.

[11] Wind gusts increased in strength; between 10 p.m. (local time) and midnight, the damage became serious, and residents began to realise that the cyclone would not pass by the city, but over it.

[8] From around 6:30 a.m., the winds began to ease, with the rainfall ceasing at around 8:30 a.m.[8] After making landfall, Tracy rapidly weakened, dissipating on 26 December.

[20] In March 2005, the Northern Territory Coroner held an inquest into the people suspected to have died on board, declaring them deaths at sea.

However recent research by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory has determined that this figure includes five deaths that were double counted, reducing the overall total to 66.

[22] The first communication link reestablished in the aftermath was via HF Radio sourced from a Connellan Airways de Havilland Heron that had been hastily stored in an empty hangar at Darwin Airport the night before, being anchored to towing equipment and weighed down with 350 kg (770 lb) of beer cartons.

[23][24] From this aircraft, pilot David Fredrickson contacted the Katherine Flight Service Center by mid-morning to convey news of the disaster.

[24] The destruction of transportation infrastructure and the distance between Darwin and the rest of the Australian population played a role in the delayed information dissemination, as did the fact the storm made landfall on Christmas Day and most media outlets only had a skeleton crew rostered on at best.

The committee, composed of several high-level public servants and police, stated that, "Darwin had, for the time being, ceased to exist as a city".

Gough Whitlam, the Australian Prime Minister, was touring Syracuse, Sicily, at the time and flew to Darwin upon hearing of the disaster.

[citation needed] Additionally, the Australian government began a mass evacuation by road and air; all of the Defence Force personnel throughout Australia, along with the entire Royal Australian Air Force's fleet of transport planes, were recalled from holiday leave and deployed to evacuate civilians from Darwin as well as to bring essential relief supplies to the area.

Approximately 30,000 people were homeless and were forced to seek shelter in several makeshift housing and emergency centres that lacked proper hygienic conditions.

The army was given the task of searching houses for bodies of people and animals, as well as locating other health risks; for example, cleaning out rotting contents from fridges and freezers across the city.

[citation needed] Major-General Alan Stretton, Director-General of the Natural Disasters Organization,[9] and the commonwealth minister for the Northern Territory, Rex Patterson, arrived at Darwin Airport late on Christmas Day and took charge of the relief efforts.

After an assessment of the situation and meetings with the Department of the Northern Territory and the relevant minister, it was concluded that Darwin's population needed to be reduced to a "safe level" of 10,500 people.

[citation needed] The population was evacuated by air and ground; because of communications difficulties with Darwin airport, landing was limited to one plane every ninety minutes.

[citation needed] Upon receiving news of the damage, several community groups across Australia began fundraising and relief efforts to assist the survivors.

Several of the small towns along the Stuart Highway made efforts to assist people who were fleeing by road, supplying them with food, fuel, rest, and mechanical aid.

Approximately 24 hours after the storm hit Darwin, the population of Alice Springs had raised over $105,000 (~A$665,000 in 2022 terms[29]) to assist the victims of Tracy.

[30] In Melbourne at the Boxing Day Test cricket match between Australia and England, members of both teams moved around the boundaries carrying buckets which the crowd threw cash into for the relief funds.

[citation needed] In February 1975, Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam announced the creation of the Darwin Reconstruction Commission, which was given the task of rebuilding the city "within five years", focusing primarily on building houses.

However, by the following April, and after receiving criticism for the slow speed of reconstruction, the commission had built 3,000 new homes in the nearly destroyed northern suburbs, and completed repairs to those that had survived the storm.

Several new building codes were drawn up, trying to achieve the competing goals of the speedy recovery of the area and ensuring that there would be no repeat of the damage that Darwin took in 1974.

Michael Fisher, Ted Roberts and Leon Saunders wrote the series, and it also starred Chris Haywood and Tracy Mann, who played the lead characters of Steve and Connie.

The DVD is compatible with all region codes and includes special features such as newsreel footage of the devastation and a documentary titled On A Wind and a Prayer.

[38] Tracy is the most compact cyclone or equivalent-strength hurricane on record in the Australian basin and Southern Hemisphere, with gale-force winds extending only 48 kilometres (30 mi) from the centre, and was also the smallest tropical cyclone worldwide until 2008, when Tropical Storm Marco of the 2008 Atlantic hurricane season broke the record, with gale-force winds extending only 18.5 kilometres (11.5 mi) from the centre.