Cyclone Tracy
January 1, 2005 — 11.00am Cyclone Tracy hit Darwin, killing 66 people, a few months after the Australian Government established the National Disasters Organisation under Major-General Alan Stretton.
The prime minister, Gough Whitlam, was in Europe and the task of heading the rescue operation fell to his deputy, Jim Cairns, who arrived in Darwin on Boxing Day.
He took a submission to the cabinet on December 28, acknowledging that the disaster was unprecedented in Australia, endorsing the evacuation of much of the population and providing for the immediate payment of special benefits.
Cairns and fellow ministers Tom Uren and Rex Patterson urged rebuilding a new cyclone-proof Darwin rather than reconstructing the old.
The historian Ian Hancock said the days after the cyclone marked the high point of Cairns's political career. Whitlam returned to Australia on December 28, but resumed his overseas tour three days later.
John Menadue, the head of the Prime Minister's Department, said he had tried to persuade Whitlam to stay in Australia.
"He looked me in the eye and said: 'Comrade, if I'm going to put up with the f---wits in the Labor Party, I've got to have my trips."