"Darwin Is Gone"

The great English naturalist Charles Darwin made "survival of the fittest" part of the language. He also gave his name to the remote capital of Australia's tropical Northern Territory, and all too often the city of Darwin has been subjected to the harsh and literal testing of that phrase. In 1897, a cyclone leveled the cliff-perched port town, killing 28 of its residents. In 1937, it was flattened by another tropical storm. Five years later, Japanese Commander Mitsuo Fuchida, who led the attack on Pearl Harbor, blasted the city with 188 bombers, killing 243 people and wounding 300. Last week on Christmas Day came the latest --and worst--destroyer in Darwin's 105-year existence. Cyclone Tracy smashed and battered Darwin for five hours with banshee winds that reached 150 m.p.h. Scores of the city's 48,000 inhabitants were killed or injured, and 90% of its buildings were ruined.

Flying Iron. By week's end, the death toll had reached 48 and was expected to rise; at least 900 were injured and 100 missing. Nearly half the population were without even the shell of a home for shelter; the city had no potable water, power or a working sewage system. Relief officials feared outbreaks of cholera and tetanus induced by contaminated water supplies and inadequate medical treatment.

Air Force Squadron Leader Dr. Phillip Brownlie, one of the first physicians on the scene, said the victims had "abdominal injuries, head injuries, ruptured spleens, broken femurs and lacerated chests. Most of the injuries were caused by flying roofs, iron and timber. Darwin is gone. There's nothing left but rubble." Among the survivors were Steve Albanis, his wife Carol and their son, Damien, 2 1/2, who outlasted the storm by huddling inside a deep freezer with 18-in. walls. Geoff James and his wife Barbara clung to their front fence for four hours; when the wind changed, they climbed over and clung to the other side. Mrs. Maureen Hutchinson, 27, recalled how her family "ran from room to room as the house folded up around us."

Prime Minister Gough Whitlam flew home from London, cutting short a European tour, to oversee the most massive rescue operation in Australia's history. Darwin is the continent's most isolated city: almost 2,000 miles from the nearest metropolis, with no rail link to the rest of Australia and only one paved road through the outback. Navy units were immediately dispatched from Sydney with emergency supplies, but it will take them a week to complete the 2,500-mile voyage. Meanwhile, air force planes, commercial airlines and private jets donated by several Australian companies were airlifting 3,000 people a day out of the stricken city.

The cost of reconstruction has been estimated as high as $780 million. Most of the city may have to be bulldozed over and completely rebuilt. Prime Minister Whitlam has pledged to do whatever is necessary to resurrect Darwin, and proud Australians seemed to agree that the cost would be worth it. In an editorial the Melbourne Age wrote that it is already anticipating the "time when the city named after the great student of nature's primeval forces [will] rise up again and contend with the wind."

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