GRANTS

City of Darwin launched a Cyclone Tracy Commemoration Grant Program in early 2024. A second round will be announced soon.

Through this grant program City of Darwin aims to support the Darwin community to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Cyclone Tracy and to acknowledge this significant event in Darwin’s history and the profound impact it had on the Darwin community.

Objectives

  • To assist the Darwin community to carry out projects, activities or events to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Cyclone Tracy.
  • To enable input at the local community level into the commemoration of the Cyclone Tracy 50th Anniversary.
  • To recognise the significant impact of Cyclone Tracy on the Darwin community.
  • To assist with the ongoing healing process for community members from the effects of Cyclone Tracy.

Grant Program Themes
Grant applications should fall within one or more themes:

  • Commemoration
  • Education
  • Recognition

Funding pool

The Grant Program aims to provide funding to support the not-for-profit events, activities, or programs to achieve the Program objectives.

Successful round one applicants

$5,000 to develop a TRACY feature film to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of Cyclone Tracy. It is a grass-roots independent production by Darwin locals, primarily for Darwin locals. Production is set to commence early May and conclude mid-June of 2024, with post-production to be completed by December of this year. The film is inspired by true stories and has already had years of development – primarily research and writing from lead writer Kostadinos Hatzivalsamis, based on his own family’s experience of Tracy. It is not funded by any screen agencies. It’s a story deeply rooted in Darwin and its inhabitants. The vision for this project is to provide an understanding for those that did not experience the events, whilst also honouring those that have.

$4,500 to construct and present an exhibit commemorating the impact of Cyclone Tracy on the Darwin Chinese community generally and the destruction of the Hall of the Ranking Sages Temple in particular. The exhibit will depict the resilience of the community and its contribution to the reconstruction of the City.The exhibit will incorporate photographs, audio extracts from Oral History recordings, written accounts, and memorabilia.

$2,500 for a theatrical performance in the Brown’s Mart Theatre on Tuesday July 16 combining the music, vision, audio and activities of pre-cyclone Darwin with personal accounts of that fateful night and the effects it has had on their livesAlthough currently in the planning stage, the event will have two sets: 1: Christmas Eve 1974, with a group of young actors/musicians representing the story tellers in set 22: Christmas Eve 2024, with a group of cyclone survivors telling their stories of that fateful night and its affect on their lives.

$5,000 for a new work by Larrakia Senior Elder Dr Aunty Bilawara Lee (Aunty B) and NT Composer Netanela Mizrahi, to be premiered in Darwin Festival 2024.Through Aunty B’s lived experience of Cyclone Tracy and wisdom as a Larrakia Elder, this timely new work crafted with Netanela Mizrahi brings a new perspective on our culture and history, in a uniquely moving performance for full symphony orchestra. This work will be premiered as the feature of ‘Vital Forces’ on Saturday 17 August at Darwin Entertainment Centre.

$5,000 for interpretive signage including photos and stories of the first responders involved in this moment of the Northern Territory’s history and also mark the significance of this time in history for the Ambulance Service in the Northern Territory. The permanent interpretative fixture will also provide access to a purpose-built website where audio and visuals of these significant events in history will be stored in more detail, which can be accessed via QR codes on the interpretive signage.

$4,050 for an event will be a musical dialogue of the music of the time of Cyclone Tracy, and how community music has grown since that time to what is today a lively and vibrant scene. The MC for the show and some of our musicians were in Darwin during Cyclone Tracy and will add a few personal accounts of that evening, as well as recount his contributions to establishing and growing two significant musical ensembles in Darwin, all accompanied by the 35 -40 piece Arafura Wind Ensemble.

Destruction of buildings in Darwin after Cyclone Tracy, featuring severe structural damage and a red car undamaged amidst the debris.

Library & Archives NT. (1974). The Stark residence. Ira and Faith Renton Collection

–