Core Staff Officer (Cadets) Grant Keetley who had come on duty as Officer in Charge with his family at midnight led the way. Lined up at the top of the stairs they waited for a lull in the wind. Holding his 10-day old baby in his arms as he stepped out to make his way down the stairs, the radio tower fell, and the cable snapped off.
Photo: Deputy Commissioner Colin Mills pins a Service Medal to Grant Keetley (middle) watched by Charlie Stal

“Unable to properly fix the hole in the wall from where the air conditioner had blown out, water was coming in from everywhere and with the winds increasing we went for it,” Grant recalled. “Things were getting serious, and we needed to get downstairs.”
“My wife Rosemary carried our two-year-old, and I carried our baby,” Grant said. “As we were making our way down the stairs the communications tower came crashing down collapsing onto the corner of the roof and an ambulance, the concrete footing flew into the air narrowly missing us.”
The group managed to get to the crew room, which although flooded with a thick layer of mud was the safest option. Once inside the group closed and boarded up the door with cupboards and a bed to prevent the wind pushing it open.
After several nerve-wracking hours, the noise ceased and there was calm as the eye of the cyclone passed over. The group emerged briefly to view the damage and Rod and Grant took the opportunity to try to attend to the emergency call received earlier.
“We went across the road to try and find the person who had called for help, but no one was there,” Grant said. “The top floor had been blown off, street signs were blown away and the road was littered with tin. As we began making our way back to the station the winds began to pick up and we were being hit by flying debris.”
The winds resumed and the crew banded together bunkering down in the crew room, keeping the children calm by playing peek a boo. When the winds died down about 6am the exhausted crew emerged to survey the damage. Radio communications were out, two ambulances were damaged, the watch room was flooded and the louvre banks on the rear side of upstairs had caved in.
“When we emerged at sunup, there was corrugated iron everywhere, and our first thought was that the whole of Parap had been wiped out, not realising that it was the whole of Darwin,” Grant said.
The crew got to work immediately working to re-establish communications, source volunteer staff and set up a first aid post and base.
“Everyone just got to work to set up the first aid post, and within about half an hour after daybreak the injured started arriving, and everyone just worked together as a team and before long we had many other volunteers join us at the station to help.
“Our families were there with us. The wives and the kids cleared up, helped and cooked meals. It was soup and stew throughout.”
Both Rod, Grant and their families stayed on duty until three days later on December 28th when reinforcements arrived from south.
“The St John volunteers were there, and they answered the call and got in and did their job,” Grant said. “From that day Christmas Eve, 24th December 1974 you could say that was the start of the 24-hour ambulance service run by St John in Darwin.”
Listen to Grant’s recount

Pat King, Radio Operator
In her story Pat describes horrific sounds, constant rain and wind, banding together with the crew on duty and their families and narrowly avoiding an air-conditioned as it blown across the watch room upstairs.

Rod Bramley, Transport Officer
When a call came through from Emergency Services, he knocked off his day job as a mechanic at the Motor Vehicle Registry and headed to the ambulance centre to make preparations.