Cyclone Marcus (2018)

Recovery works updates

The installation and maintenance of shade sails have been completed at Lake Alexander (East Point Reserve), Byrne Park, Ken Waters Park and Malak Greenbelt. Further works are due to be complete in October at Jingili Water Gardens, Arafura Park, Groote Park, Mullen Park and Savanah Park.

Other small playground repairs have taken place at Anula Park and the Flying Fox will be reinstalled soon. During October, new swings will be installed in Osterman Park and Craig Park, and new Monkey bars in Thornton Crescent.

More playground equipment is being delivered and is due to be installed by mid-November at Hinkler Park, Savannah Park, Mullen Park, Malak Park, Wolfram Court Park and Peace Park. Preparation works including kerb and footings have already been completed ready for installation.

Infrastructure works at the 51 Darwin parks affected by Cyclone Marcus are also now complete. These include pathway repairs, repairs to chairs and water fountains, park lighting and replacement of damaged poles that support the shade structures.

Community Consultation

The consultation by the Tree re-establishment Advisory Committee about tree species for replanting in Darwin has closed.

The report has been presented to Council and is on our website.

Tree Reestablishment Advisory Committee

Help needed!

The job is not over and there are still cyclone related issues in the community that have not been logged or reported. If you do see anything that you believe is hazardous such as a tree ‘hanger’ (a loose limb ready to fall) or a badly damaged footpath or kerb, please report this to Council.

If possible report via our website

https://www.darwin.nt.gov.au/live/property-rates/report-an-issue/report-an-issue-forms

When will the Recovery works be finished?

The majority of the works are expected to be finished in 3-4 months. Playground equipment repairs and irrigation works will take longer. Tree replanting will be ongoing.

Cyclone Marcus recovery update fact sheet

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Frequently asked questions

Overview

Tropical Cyclone Marcus passed over Darwin on Saturday the 17th of March 2018. The category 2 cyclone brought with it strong wind gusts of 130km per hour and brought significant widespread damage to Darwin, Palmerston and the surrounding rural area. It caused major damage to thousands of trees which in turn caused infrastructure damage to houses, vehicles, fences, carports, sheds, footpaths etc. Around 430 power lines were downed leaving some 26500 customers without power immediately after the cyclone. Fortunately there were no severe injuries.

The community, our Defence Forces, Council and other government agencies did an incredible job responding to the disaster and getting the city up and running again.

Four months later while most people in the community moved on, at City of Darwin our teams are still working incredibly hard to restore our city to how it was pre-cyclone.

Parks, Reserves and Community Infrastructure

Council is continuing Cyclone Recovery works in our parks and green spaces. These works include arboreal work, irrigation repairs, stump removals, infrastructure repairs.

If you are planning to hold an event in a park it’s a great idea to get a permit from council (free of charge) so we can let you know if any works are ongoing in the area.

City of Darwin is continuing to make assessments of Cyclone Marcus damaged areas and infrastructure, and is working closely with TIO and the Northern Territory Government to recover costs.

Irrigation and dust

As the dry season continues another impact of the cyclone can be seen. Areas that are usually green, even at this time of year, are dry and dusty. There are several reasons for this.

Uprooted trees cause turf to be destroyed and dirt is exposed. Machinery needed for cyclone related clean-up works may also have damaged the surface.

The irrigation system across our parks and open spaces which keeps Darwin looking green right through the dry season has also been damaged.

This all means that there are more dry and dusty parks and ovals than usual. Some parks will have less mowing than usual to help keep dust down.

Irrigation repairs, focusing on high priority areas initially have begun, and will be ongoing.

A number of options were considered by the Council and decided to give staff members the go ahead to use a range of spraygrass options dependent upon the conditions of the area to be treated.

Stump removal

Thousands of trees were severely damaged or uprooted (heaved) during the cyclone.

While removal of the damaged and hazardous sections of the trees was a high priority, the job of removing the stumps is a massive one.

Stumps will be removed progressively as the contractor works through the long list in the most efficient way possible prioritising stumps that have created hazards (large holes, damage to footpaths and kerbs etc)

Trees replanting

The Committee is made up of experts from local industry and community. It has now assessed the cyclone resilience of the 200-plus tree species on Council land and the ‘Draft List of Trees’ is released for community consultation. The Committee would like to get feedback from the community before they finalise their report to Council.

Replanting will not be a quick fix and is expected to take several planting (wet) seasons to complete.

We ask that the community does NOT plant trees in our parks and verges at this time until the advice from the Committee is received. We are looking forward to working with the community to plant trees in the future.

The committee want to hear from any interested or expert members of the community. Areas for comment include:

Tree species that may be missing from the list
Categorisation of the cyclone resilience as either high, medium or low
Information on tree species in the ‘Inconclusive’ category.

For more information on the Tree Replanting consultation or to have your say visit Council’s Engage Darwin website at engage.darwin.nt.gov.au/trc. The consultation closes on Sunday 14 October.