Sam's Tattoos: MAJESTIC MILKWOOD TREE

Let me introduce everyone to a very special milkwood tree (Alstonia spp.) whose image was tattooed on my right upper arm on the 5th of January of this year. Her name was/is 'Majestic'.

During Cyclone Tracy of 1974 that raised Darwin on Christmas Day, my Mum, Father and five others huddled together in a caravan under her sprawling canopy. Growing immediately in front of the caravan she acted as a wind break that caught any flying debris from ripping into its front. We were in our neighbour's caravan and the only one secured down by cyclone bolts. Our caravan was later lifted by Tracy and tossed some meters from its site and left as a triangular tube.

Throught the hours of that great wind, Majestic could be seen swaying over the roof's vent that had been opened somewhat by the forceful winds. She lite up with the lightenng flashes that reflected off her delicate rain drenched leaves and rain sparkled like little water falls down the deep cravices of her corked bark. I was positive if she didn't fall and crush us that the winds were surely going to open the roof like a sardine tin and suck us into the darkness of that night.

There was a brief silence as the eye of the cyclone passed over. Then again the milkwood held her ground as the returning wind hit her from the other direction. Her deep root system and rubbery branches withstood the saturation. When Tracy had left, Majestic - along with one other large but slightly smaller milkwood, Magdalene, some distance away in Millner Primary School's oval - was about the only tree left standing in that area. Others were just small saplings of trees of mostly other species stripped of leaves and sporting snapped branches and debris and perhaps a couple of large shattered wattles. But Majestic showed no signs of damage.

We were sent to Adelaide as refugees and on returning with a new caravan we took posession of the site where we had spent that terrifying night under the mighty milkwood tree now confident that she would help protect us again if visited by another Tracy. We wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Though I was only five at the time I understood what role she'd played in us all living. I approached her with my Mum and gave Majestic a hug while whispering many thanks. To this day memories are vivid of that night, our return and the fresh smell and feel of Majestic as though it were only yesterday.

In 1981 Mum - now single - my baby sister and I moved into a house sadly. She came home one day with the news that Majestic who would have been well over one hundred years old had been cut down. We were devestated. Cut down to make room for units that were never built where she once stood. Such a waste. I cried with rage and swore that one day her story would be told which I have done in a book yet to be published.

Fortunately, I've two old photographs of Majestic that Mum captured during 1975. So it's from these images the tattoo's taken. And as for Magdalene - who now has a girth of 3.26 meters in circumference - she still stands safe in the grounds of Millner Primary School. Just meters away from a fence line that saved her from a similar death to Magestic's due to suburban encroachment that replaced bushland burying precious life under the cold concrete of houses and driveways.