JUNE - NATURAL DISASTERS

ANNE: "AUSTRALIAN DISASTERS THAT CHANGED HISTORY"

*I apologize to Anne if this is not the correct title and if necessary, will update it at the next book club meeting*
                             
There were many stories and Anne chose Cyclone Tracy.  She said most people in Darwin were there for strategic reasons.  There were two classes, one paid to stay and the other too poor to leave. There were other tropical cyclones before Tracy and the town had been rebuilt.  The houses were jerry built.  They were poorly built fibro houses, raised off the ground with glass louvres as windows.  They were unsuitable for a town hit by a tropical cyclone.  When Tracy hit on Christmas Eve 1974,  most people were out celebrating and not taking the warnings seriously.  Anne found it interesting and said it should not have happened.  How it changed history was the change to the building code after Cyclone Tracy.

JOAN: "TRACY" BY GARY MCKAY

Joan was in Darwin in 1972, two years earlier than Cyclone Tracy. Gary McKay, the author, was involved in the clean up after Cyclone Tracy.  The book is personal accounts by various people in the buildup to Cyclone Tracy and during the cyclone.  The first cyclone "Selma" went away from Darwin and most people thought Tracy would do the same. One story was of a young man, working out at sea on his boat, who wanted to get back to his very pregnant wife.  There were many stories of people taking risks. It would have been much worse if it had been daytime rather than night.  People didn't move around so much in the dark.  Joan thought it was very sad and she hadn't thought about the human accounts.  Many marriages broke up in the aftermath. The bill estimate for the damage was 3.2billion dollars in 2001 dollars.

KRIS: "TRACY" BY GARY MCKAY

Kris read the same book as Joan.  Kris also enjoyed it as she had a personal involvement.  Her two sisters-in-law were there at the time. They survived by hiding in the bathroom.  Many people had already left Darwin to spend Christmas with their families in other states.  The noise level was horrendous. Many people were unprepared as it was Christmas and everyone was in a celebratory/holiday mode.  The houses weren't built to withstand tropical cyclones. Although most of Darwin was destroyed, the death count wasn't as high as expected but there were a lot of terrible injuries from flying debris and broken glass.  Children developed pneumonia afterwards due to exposure to the cold wind and rain. It's amazing to hear the stories of survival and this book is well worth a read.

TAM:  "CYCLONE TRACY" BY BILL BUNBURY

This book was written in 1994, twenty years after Cyclone Tracy.  Bill Bunbury was a reporter at the time and he interviewed people who were in Darwin at the time of  Cyclone Tracy.  He became emotionally involved and cried with the people.  This book is about what happens to these people afterwards.  A lot of people never came back.  This book is about a community.  Tam said we are more than just buildings and houses.  There are dogs, cats and other pets as well as organizations like scouts and sporting clubs etc.


LAURA:  "DISASTER DELUGE" BY SYDNEY FOWLER WRIGHT

This is a fictional book.  It was written in 1927.    It was just after World War 1 and there were a lot of disillusioned people. The disaster begins with a big storm.  The wind gets stronger and England starts to tip.  Flood waters come up and England is broken apart.  People are alone.  There are no mobile phones.  A community is formed but some of the people are unsavoury characters. People wonder who they can trust.  It doesn't paint a pretty picture and leaves you wondering.  Laura did enjoy the book.  It builds slowly and is well paced.


ROSEMARIE OTTO: "MR DARCY BROKE MY HEART" BY BETH PATTILLO

Rosemarie didn't read a disaster book. She read a Jane Austen turnaround type of book.  It is the story of a girl who goes to see an old lady who is supposed to have a lost manuscript.  This manuscript is meant to be  an early version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.  It's all fictitious. A publisher who wants the manuscript pretends to be falling in love with her.  She thinks she has found her Mr Darcy but should she go back to her boyfriend.  Rosemarie really enjoyed the book.

ROSEMARIE:  "SURVIVAL - INSPIRATIONAL STORY OF THREDBO DISASTER'S SOLE SURVIVOR BY STUART DIVER" WITH SIMON BOUDA

At 11.35pm.on 30/7/1977 eighteen lives were lost in the avalanche at Thredbo. One life was saved and this was Stuart Diver.   The coroner put the disaster down to excessive rain as well as a water pipe breakage.  3,500 tonnes of rubble came down on two chalets.  Stuart Diver's wife died within a couple of minutes.  Stuart was trapped for 65 hours.  It was interesting to read about the fluctuation between dying and trying to survive. He got frostbite.  It is the story of how he coped post Thredbo.  He still lives there .Rosemarie enjoyed the book.  She found it very interesting and she liked that he thanked everybody who helped in the rescue.  There are about twenty pages in the back of the book called the Roll of Honour.

JULIA: "SURVIVAL -INSPIRATIONAL STORY OF THREDBO DISASTER'S SOLE SURVIVOR" BY STUART DIVER WITH SIMON BOUDA

Julia read the same book as Rosemarie.  She said Stuart was 27 at the time.  He thought he would be out within the hour when they discovered him but it was 65 hours later.  Julia said it was a wonderful book and she cried when she read it.  She thinks he is a wonderful man.  He was only married two years and afterwards he wrote a poem to his dead wife. Julia was also very impressed by the Roll of Honour in the back of the book.

JUDY: "HANDS ACROSS THE WATER" BY PETER BAINES

Judy said it was a story of an ordinary guy who ends up doing incredible things.  He began as a policeman in Cabramatta.  After time he got a transfer to the Forensic Crime Scene Investigation team.  He was promoted and transferred to Sydney to manage these teams.  He was married with three children. In 2002 the Bali bombing occurred and 202 people died. The Indonesian police were overwhelmed and victim identification was too difficult. With the skills he had gained from the Forensic Crime Scene Investigation Peter would oversee this work. After Bali he came back to Sydney, but in 2004 he was part of a team sent to
Thailand after the Boxing Day Tsunami in the Indian Ocean.  He got so involved he felt he had to do something and made three trips back to Thailand. This eventually caused the breakdown of his marriage.  Judy cried copious tears and said it was a very good book.

MARIE:  "POMPEII  DESTRUCTION 79AD - POMPEII THE LIVING CITY"

Marie felt this was a wonderful book, full of so many facts and history but written in a story style as well. Marie had been there in 2009 so it brought back memories for her.  Pompeii, before the eruption of Mt Vesuvius, was a place rich in wine, sex, over the top parties and political upheaval. During excavations when they uncovered the bodies, the people had not been burnt but died from asphyxiation. In the digs, plaster of paris was put over them to make a mould of them. This showed what they were doing at the time they died.   It was bombed in 1943 during the war.  A lot of pilfering of treasures took place. Marie said it was the best book.

DIANNE: "FIRE MOUNTAIN, HOW ONE MAN SURVIVED THE WORLD'S WORST VOLCANIC DISASTER" BY PETER MORGAN

This is the story of the volcano in Mont Pelee, Saint-Pierre on Martinique, an Island in the Caribbean.  It was a French colony, the Paris of the islands.  The people never believed something bad would happen.  There was rumbling in 1796 and again in 1851.  The big one was in 1902 when 30,000 to 35,000 people died in seconds.  Only one man survived.  He had been drunk and disorderly and was locked up in a cell.  This had been protected from the volcano because of the way it was facing. People from the other side of the island found him. It's not like a story but more like reporting. Peter Morgan, the author was a reporter. Dianne said it was well worth a read.

JAYNE: "KRAKATOA, THE DAY THE WORLD EXPLODED AUGUST 27, 1883" BY SIMON WINCHESTER

This is the story of the catastrophic eruption of the most dangerous volcano in 1883 on an island off the coast of Java, between Sumatra and Java. .  There was a lot of shipping going through. People ignored the first signs.  There was rumbling, plumes of smoke, pumice falling on everybody but people still ignored it.  There was a tsunami coming.  A couple, with their children, left through the rice paddies to get to higher ground and survived.  Thousands of people disappeared.  There was a plume of smoke 24 miles up into the atmosphere.  It was the loudest noise ever heard on the planet.  Jayne was amazed that everyone ignored it.  She said it was fascinating.  Simon is a very good writer but the book was a hard read because of the amount of detail.

ED:  "100 DISASTERS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD" BY NIGEL CAWTHORNE

There were many stories but Ed chose the story "Sinking of the Sultana".  It was the worst maritime disaster in the USA and yet it was not well covered by reporters at the time due to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. It was the story of a riverboat going up the Mississippi River in 1865. It was the Union's strategy to carry troops by riverboat and then bring back prisoners of war - walking skeletons. It carried over 2000 people, 60 horses and mules. The boat was in a decrepit condition  but it was decided to leave the overhaul  until after the passage of the prisoners of war. There was a huge explosion, then two more explosions.  The boilers blew up and the boat was nearly cut in half. 1547 people died.  It is not a well known story.  It was not well covered by reporters at the time as President Lincoln had been assassinated.  Ed found it very interesting.

CONNIE: "WHEN THE FERRIES GOT AWAY" BY BILL BOTTOMLEY

On 19th March, 1978 it started to rain and the Hawkesbury river rose to the second highest level ever.  It was 14.32m.  It was rising quickly with the Colo and Macdonald rivers coming into the Hawkesbury.  They had to take the ferries off the cables and tie them to the bank with ropes but one escaped very quickly bumping into the others.  The three men on the ferries, all ferryman, were heroes Connie said.  They bravely rode the ferries down the river.  If they didn't they would bump into Peat's bridge (car bridge) and kill people.  They got to Berowra Waters and within 50 feet  of the bridge. The bridge had to be closed. With 200 tonnes of debris and 400 tonnes of ferry the bridge would have been destroyed. They eventually got the ferries tied to a tree. Connie found it very interesting and thought the book was well written, even though he is an amateur.  She also enjoyed the book as nobody died in the story.

CLAURENE: "WORST OF DAYS, INSIDE THE BLACK SATURDAY FIRE-STATION" BY KAREN KISSANE

Karen Kissane is a journalist so this book is written as a journalist would write.  It is about Black Saturday on 7/2/2009 in Victoria. It concentrates on the Kinglake Fire Station.  They had no computer so the firemen went home to get a laptop.  There were a lot of acronymns and no glossary so Claurene did not know what the initials meant. They didn't mention "catastrophic" as they didn't want people to know. Communication was a problem that day. It was very difficult to read and dreadful knowing what's going to happen. "You wonder how people could be such idiots" Claurene said.  She was horrified by it.  She wanted to stop reading and started skipping bits.


JUDY G: "BURN, BUSHFIRE STORIES IN AUSTRALIA INCLUDING THE CANBERRA INFERNO OF 2003" BY PAUL COLLINS

Paul Collins, the author, was a priest who lost his home outside Canberra during the bushfire. Judy talked about the Canberra bushfire as she had a personal involvement. Judy lived there at the time but was in Melbourne watching the tennis during the bushfire.  Her twenty six year old son was in the house with his grandmother at the time.  She was in her eighties and suffering dementia. She was amazed and proud how well her son handled everything.  They had been in drought and had horrendous water restrictions.  There were burnt cars and burnt houses everywhere. The wind changed direction and saved their house. Judy said it was well written.