NEW IDEA STORY - By Julie Hayne

While Australia collectively held it's breath and prayed as severe category 5 Cyclone Larry bore down and unleashed it's fury on the terrified residents of the far North Queensland town of Innisfail and it's surrounding areas on the morning of March 20 th , 40 year old Julie Jones tried to concentrate on her 6 year old daughter Dakota's comforting words.

“It's alright Mummy, everybody loves us and the whole of Australia is thinking of us.” 

Huddled inside the family linen closet with her daughter for almost five hours, Julie's only contact with the outside world as the winds outside her tiny refuge randomly ripped apart everything in it's trail was via her mobile phone.

“I had my sister Dani on the phone from Perth and she was giving me information coming in on her internet, so I pretty much knew exactly when it would hit us,” says the mum of one.

“I didn't know what to expect or what was going on outside the closet. When it did hit there was just this complete rumble, like an aeroplane taking off down the tarmac. We were crying because it was so terrifying and as a mum you want to protect your children. But you know you can't because you have no control over what's happening to you.

As the devastating winds ripped apart homes, flattened banana plantations and felled trees and power lines in its path, Julie had an even bigger worry as she bunkered down in her refuge.

“Dakota is a severe asthmatic and I was worried sick about her having an attack in the middle of the cyclone because we would have been trapped.

“We have a cat, Emily, who was clawing at the closet doors trying to get in but I couldn't let her in because that would have definitely triggered an attack. That was hard for Dakota but she knew it was either her life or the kitten,” she says sadly.

As Julie, whose husband Colin was away working in Perth at the time, sat huddled in her fortress, crying and praying she and her daughter's lives would be spared, Gold Coast based Ben Tullipan, who lost both legs in the 2002 Bali terrorist attack, was already swinging into action.

“I was watching it unfold on the TV and thinking about those poor people and wondering what I could do to help. Some of them lost everything,” says Ben shaking his head.

“I know what it's like to think you have your life pretty much mapped out, then all of a sudden you feel like you are at the end of the world because everything is turned upside down in just a few nano seconds.

“People rallied to help me when Bali happened and that was such a tremendous help in me being where I am today.

“I guess it's like a ‘pay it forward' thing because I knew I had to do something more than just talk about it so Kerrie-Anne (Ben's partner and carer) and I decided to put our heads together to help out in whatever way we could.

“There were a lot of generous people donating blankets, furniture and other household items from around Australia as well as money for the adults which was great, so we decided we wanted to do something specifically for the kids so they wouldn't feel forgotten,” explains Ben.

After weeks of phone calls to major Australian companies, as well as much financial and moral support from the Zero to One Foundation –Zero to One was set up by Gold Coast based dad Geoff Thwaites who lost his precious son Robert in the horrific 2002 Bali bombings, to aid the victims of terrorist attacks and natural disasters – Ben and Kerrie-Anne's desire to put a smile back on the children's faces

‘even if for just an hour,' paid off on the 13 th of April.

Inside the local Innisfail PCYC hall it was stifling hot and while there were only a few lights running from the power of the makeshift generator, it was a moment for over three hundred or so primary school children to forget their ordeal as a bemused Ben was unwittingly transformed into the Pied Piper of Innisfail, handing out thousands of donated chocolates, toys, children's books and kids magazines to the excited group.

“It was just so good to see the children smiling again so that definitely makes it all worth it because if you've got happy kids, you've got hope,” says Ben who along with Kerrie-Anne spent the rest of the day playing Easter bunny with surprise visits to surrounding day care centres with more donated goodies.

For Julie Jones - whose family home luckily came out relatively unscathed - and Dakota who now insists on sleeping in ‘mummy's bed,' it was a few rare moments to forget the horror that bore down on them on that fateful day. But she says it will take time to truly get over what they have been through.

“I'm thinking of relocating because I don't know that I want to live here anymore. But maybe it's too soon to make such a big decision because at the moment I'm still walking around in a daze. You know, there might even come a day where I can find something to laugh about in this. But that day is still a long way off,” she says breaking into tears.

Ask Ben, after his own horrific experience, if he has any words of wisdom he would give to the worst hit victims of Cyclone Larry and he's quick to answer:

“Life is about getting knocked down seven times, and making sure you get back up eight. No matter what happens to you, you've always got to get back up.

THANK YOU BOX: (All these companies/people donated on the proviso they be thanked in New Idea, PLEASE INCLUDE)

Darrell Lea

Haigh's Adelaide

Belgian Delights

Chocolate Fair

Contour Furniture (cash donation)

Warwick Fabrics (cash donation)

Maria and Shane from Clifton Beach Newsagency