Keith Bushnell, the legendary cameraman who captured the devastation Cyclone Tracy wreaked on Darwin in 1974, has died at age 81.
The industry veteran, who is survived by his daughter, Robin, passed away on Friday, August 1, following a long health battle with dementia, reported NT News.
He moved to from England in the late ’50s with his family and began his media career as an office boy at Channel Seven in Adelaide.
The cinematographer was soon teaching himself to shoot and edit film using a second-hand 16mm camera.
Known for his dedication to his craft, he once told friend and longtime colleague Richard Creswick how he volunteered for every assignment.
This spanned from covering wrestling to speedway and trotting races—often shooting, processing and editing footage in the early hours of the morning.
Keith Bushnell, the legendary cameraman who captured the devastation Cyclone Tracy wreaked on Darwin in 1974, has died at age 81
After working with Channel Seven and a brief stint at Channel Nine in Sydney, Bushnell accepted a role filming for ABC Darwin.
In 1974, he moved to the Northern Territory, arriving with a custom-equipped LandCruiser and caravan outfitted for film processing.
When Cyclone Tracy struck on Christmas Eve 1974, Bushnell took shelter with a colleague as the storm tore through the city.
At dawn, accompanied by a neighbour, he drove his damaged LandCruiser out to document the devastation, capturing around ten minutes of colour footage
His film was rushed to Brisbane and broadcast on Boxing Day, becoming the first moving images the nation saw of ‘s largest natural disaster at the time.
Bushnell’s harrowing footage of the aftermath of the cyclone, which caused 66 deaths and hundreds of millions of dollars in property damage, helped the nation understand the full extent of the tragedy.
The footage earned him the inaugural Thorn Award for television news coverage and a $250 prize.
Heartbroken friends and fans took to social media to pay tribute to Bushnell.
Bushnell captured the aftermath of Cyclone Tracy’s devastation on Darwin on Christmas Day, 1974
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‘I remember Keith as a good bloke,’ one person wrote.
Following the cyclone, he worked in Canada before returning to Darwin, where he partnered with Creswick to produce government information films and TV commercials.
In later years, he lived on Kangaroo Island and in Bundanoon, NSW.
After being diagnosed with dementia, he spent his final months in palliative care.
Bushnell’s work remains a vital part of ‘s media history, with his lens capturing a defining moment for the Northern Territory and the nation.