Women who stayed work in rubble of Darwin

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33739, 11 January 1975, Page 6

Women who stayed work in rubble of Darwin

{New Zealand Press Association—Copyright) DARWIN, January 10. The women who remained in Darwin after Cyclone Tracy shattered the city are a race apart, writes Stewart Richmond. They have battled on through the debris, and have worked beside their husbands in the clean-up.

When asked why they 'stayed in the city when they could have been taken out, most of them say indignantly: “This is our home; we would never leave.” Of Darwin’s population of

47,000 before the cyclone there are only about 11,000 left. About 23 per cent of these are women aged more than 17.

Nearly all are engaged in the relief work as cooks, nurses, or office staff for men controlling the emergency services. Many of those who remained have had their families flown out, and live with their husbands in the debris of their former homes.

There are very few complaints as the work goes on. Mns Beth Quinn, of the suburb of Nightcliffe, which took one of the worst beat-

ings, has been in Darwin for about 20 years, and her flat was badly damaged. She is sending her six-year-old daughter, Roslyn, to Melbourne to stay with friends until the end of the school holidays. Mrs Quinn, a dressmaker, will take a job as a cook at a works depot where her husband, John, is working. An insurance salesman, he is now helping in the big clean-up. “I’m coping very well at the moment. We have just got to do a bit more work now, and we get a bit dirtier,” she said. “This is the greatest place in the world.”

Like most of the other women with homes and families in the city, she has no

intention of leaving. One woman with two small children said: “If we

left we would have no place to go to. This is our home, and. we want to help with the cleaning up. Her children, like the almost 600 who remain in the city, are treating the emergency like an adventure.

TOO BUSY TO LEAVE The matron of Darwin Hospital (Miss Llorabel Reynolds) did not even consider leaving the city after the cyclone. “I was too busy to think of leaving,” she said. Miss Reynolds has been in Darwin for 12 years. Before that she was in Alice Springs. The hospital was in business straight after the cyclone. “Watching all the people coming through the door was the most heartbreaking thing,” she said. No member of the hospital’s staff was injured during

Cyclone Tracy, and the hospital was not badly damaged. About 100 nurses have now left to go to southern cities. Others including Miss Reynolds, will go out for rest and recreation leave during the next six to eight weeks.

“I think Darwin is going to be a model city very shortly,” she said. “I have every confidence in it.” FREE CONCERTS

Most of the remaining nurses are still engaged in cleaning up, but most found time to attend concerts by Johnny O’Keefe and Rolf Harris.

The free concerts have virtually been the only organised entertainment in Darwin since Christmas Day,. But the local cinema will reopen this evening, and organised sport will resume this week-end.

The problem giving most concern to Judith Melocca is that of the Caledonian Pipe Band, for which she used to play. She was alone at the time of the cyclone and found it a “most terrifying experience.”

She is back at her job with the Department of Labour and Immigration now, and is also helping in the clean-up. Miss Melocca served in the Royal Australian Navy, and was discharged in Darwin about four years ago. Her relaxation was playing with the 21-member Caledonian Pipe Band. Now there are only seven members left. “A friend has two socks left of her equipment,” she said. “I have one sock and a dress shirt, and I think the drum-major has only his mace and feather bonnet.”