I was an ATCO in the Brisbane Centre when the evacuation of Darwin commenced and apart from the communication difficulties with Mount Isa, there were several notable occurances. First was the Qantas B747 that came on frequency and had two requests. The first was for a cleaning party to meet the aircraft on arrival as they had a large number of new born babies on board but no nappies! The second request was for a representative from the Guinness Book of Records because they thought that they had just broken the record for the greatest number of passengers ever recorded on a B747. This was confirmed, but I forget the actual number.
The second occurance was the F27, can't remember if it was Ansett or TAA that was flying in with a plane load of pregnant ladies. The number of "souls on board" had to be increased at least three times during the flight as more arrivals arrived en-route.
At one point I remember 49 aircraft inbound to Brisbane when there was a request for a departure from Brisbane to Darwin with urgent medical supplies. The only available level was FL430. Luckily the aircraft was a Gulfstream and was able to accept and make the level.