Colour transparency taken by Ramon Williams in the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy

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Type: Photographic slides
Date: 1974
Place: Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
Materials: Ink, Photographic emulsion, Plastic
Collection: Ramon Williams collection
Accession number: 2019.0010.0219.006

Description

Colour transparency labelled with black text 'C.T. 5-6 / UNITED CHURCH / NIGHTCLIFF / 102'.

Photograph is one of a series taken by Ramon Williams in the wake of Cyclone Tracy, in Darwin, from December 28-31 1974

About the collection

This collection consists of a Widelux F6B camera, a set of colour transparencies, and a set of black and white negatives as well as the envelopes in which they are housed. Each of the envelopes has a photographic print adhered to the front. The camera was taken to Darwin by Religious Press photographer Ramon Williams two days after Cyclone Tracy had devastated the city. The transparencies and black and white negatives document the general damage inflicted on the city as well damage sustained by churches and the work carried out by the Salvation Army and Red Cross. Cyclone Tracy was one of Australia’s worst natural disasters. A relatively compact and slow moving storm that formed days earlier in the Arafura Sea, Cyclone Tracy made a dramatic 90 degree turn on the morning of Christmas Eve, 1974, setting a course directly for Darwin. When it struck in the early hours of Christmas morning, it did so with a ferocity beyond most people’s imagination. 60 people lost their lives, hundreds were injured and tens of thousands left homeless. More than three quarters of the city's occupants were evacuated to towns and cities all over Australia within a week of the disaster. The memory of Cyclone Tracy remains vivid in the minds of those who experienced it, and it remains a potent reminder of the power and energy that reside within the Earth’s natural systems. Donated by Ramon Williams

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 5:10:12 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-11-24. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.