In early April this year Darwin was hit by Cyclone Marcus which left a considerable trail of destruction in city, urban and rural areas.
The Darwin Showgrounds received considerable damage and we are currently still cleaning up.
Many of our large shade trees came down a number of which landed on our fences and gates – this demolished almost all our fence line; stables have been squashed, cattle stalls and infrastructure damaged. We had no power in our office for almost a week.
Fortunately the main buildings were spared. A tree did come down on the Foskey Pavilion but hit the flagpoles which took most of the force and did not damage the building.
It was quite a shock coming into the grounds on the day after the cyclone and surveying the huge number of trees which had been felled around the entire grounds – ‘where do you start’ was our initial reaction.
However the show will go on although we will lack some shade and grass which will not regenerate until the next wet season.
Cherry Court
Chief Executive
Darwin Show