Tropical Cyclone (TC) Tracy impacted Darwin early on Christmas Day, 1974. The magnitude of damage was such that Tracy remains deeply ingrained in the Australian psyche. Several factors contributed to the widespread damage, including the intensity of the cyclone and construction materials employed in Darwin at the time. Since 1974, the population of Darwin has grown rapidly, from 46,000 in 1974 to nearly 115,000 in 2006. If TC Tracy were to strike Darwin in 2008, the impacts could be catastrophic. We perform a validation of Geoscience Australia's Tropical Cyclone Risk Model (TCRM) to assess the impacts TC Tracy would have on the 1974 landscape of Darwin, and compare the impacts to those determined from a post-impact survey. We then apply TCRM to the present-day landscape of Darwin to determine the damage incurred if a cyclone identical to TC Tracy impacted the city in 2008. In validating TCRM against the 1974 impact, we find an underestimate of the damage at 36% of replacement cost (RC), compared the survey estimate of 50-60% RC. Some of this deficit can be accounted for through the effects of large debris. Qualitatively, TCRM can spatially replicate the damage inflicted on Darwin by the small cyclone. The northern suburbs suffer the greatest damage, in line with the historical observations. For the 2008 scenario, TCRM indicates a nearly 90% reduction in the overall loss (% RC) over the Darwin region. Once again, the spatial nature of the damage is captured well, with the greatest damage incurred close to the eye of the cyclone. Areas that have been developed since 1974 such as Palmerston suffer very little damage due to the small extent of the severe winds. The northern suburbs, rebuilt in the years following TC Tracy, are much more resilient, largely due to the influence of very high building standards put in place between 1975 and 1980.

This map is part of a series which comprises 50 maps which covers the whole of Australia at a scale of 1:1 000 000 (1cm on a map represents 10km on the ground). Each standard map covers an area of 6 degrees longitude by 4 degrees latitude or about 590 kilometres east to west and about 440 kilometres from north to south. These maps depict natural and constructed features including transport infrastructure (roads, railway airports), hydrography, contours, hypsometric and bathymetric layers, localities and some administrative boundaries, making this a useful general reference map.

No abstract available

This map shows the boundary of the security regulated port for the purpose of the Maritime Transport & Office Security Act 2003. 1 sheet (Colour) May 2010 Not for sale or public distribution Contract Manager LOSAMBA project, PMD

22-2/D51-16/4-6 Vertical scale: 300

55% coverage to sth east 22-1/E51-2/9 Vertical scale: 100

50% coverage south & east 22-2/K55-3/9-2 Vertical scale: 50

includes part of Shepparton to the west 145 deg 22' 30" 22-2/J55-02/18-1 Contour interval: 2

The world's first continental-scale Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emissions and Reflectance Radiometer (ASTER) mosaic, and related mineral group maps for Australia, are being released at the 34th International Geological Congress. These products have 30 m pixel resolution across the continent and can be used to identify, map and characterise near-surface materials that are spatially and chemically associated with various types of ore deposits. For example, the ASTER maps show that the 200 km length of colluvial fans shedding eastward from the Northern Flinders Ranges comprise different mineralogical characteristics, presumably reflecting their provenance. Furthermore, the most eastward margins of these fans show patterns interpreted as being related to differences in the chemistry of the groundwaters migrating into the Lake Frome drainage system. Key ASTER products include the Opaque Index map which highlights reduced environments and, consequently, redox relationships; and the AlOH Group Composition map which indicates areas that are dominated by neutral-alkaline illitic/ smectitic soils in contrast to those comprising kaolinitic soils which form in more neutral-acid conditions. These mineral maps thus have the potential to assist exploration for uranium (mapping oxidised groundwater) and geothermal energy (tracing viable U-bearing source rocks/fluids and the associated active plumbing network).

No abstract available