Cyclone Tracy 50 years on: a ‘town in terror’ and the unsung heroes of Darwin’s Christmas disaster

Bob Leicester, pictured, was instrumental in the re-building of Darwin after Cyclone Tracy. It’s 50 years since Cyclone Tracy and he is being remembered as one of the heroes of the aftermath. Photograph: Penny Stephens/The Guardian

In 1974, months before Cyclone Tracy flattened Darwin, Bob Leicester was working with Greg Reardon as part of a CSIRO team called Keep Your Roof On.

“We were going around capital cities and big towns to give seminars on how we should change building practices,” Leicester says.