Australia Weather News

While Darwin experienced the outer edge of Severe Tropical Cyclone Fina at the weekend, the eye of the storm came much closer to the Tiwi Islands.

On Monday, Wurrumiyanga residents described the intensity of the category three system.

"It was like a wooing sound and a whistle," Tiwi Islands deputy mayor Mary Dunn said.

"It was pretty terrifying for some people."

John Pilakui, a Wurrumiyanga local, said he had been "really scared".

"The elderly people, kids as well — horrible," he said.

As Cyclone Fina tracked south-west, it brushed the southern tip of Melville Island.

Wurrumiyanga, on Bathurst Island, was the closest town to the eye of the cyclone.

Benita Ullungura, another Wurrumiyanga resident, said it was the worst storm she had experienced.

"It was really windy and strong — the whole town was shaking," she said.

Several properties were damaged as a result, with trees falling on roofs and fences.

Member for Lingiari Marion Scrymgour returned home on Monday to find her old house had been badly damaged.

"Planting this tree, I didn't realise many years later what damage would happen," she said.

NT Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro also visited Wurrumiyanga and spoke to locals on Monday.

With no purpose-built cyclone shelter on the Tiwi Islands, most of the town sheltered inside a school hall during the storm.

"Luckily, the principal of the school told everyone to move to the school, because from category two it turned to category three and we knew it was a dangerous cyclone," local John Wilson said.

On Monday, crews were working to remove trees and restore electricity to the town.

Tai Routledge said "probably about 30, maybe 40" trees had fallen over power lines.

"The cyclone's come through and absolutely blitzed all the trees," he said.

"It pushed [trees] onto the power lines, pushed it across our power station."

He said the entire recovery would take up to two weeks.

Tiwi Regional Council Deputy Chief Executive Heidi Dorn said that by Monday afternoon, power had been restored to most homes in Wurrumiyanga.

"There is one small area of the community that isn't back on because we do have a major tree down [on a power line], but the majority have it, which is very fortunate," she said.

"The other major communities [on the Tiwi Islands] have still got power — they got theirs up pretty quickly.

"We do have people out on homelands in outstations at the moment that don't have power."

At a town barbecue on Monday, Ms Scrymgour said the local community had done a good job ensuring everyone was safe.

"We see the usual damage, trees down and the power lines," she said.

"But the message that we take away from this is that nobody got hurt.

"Everyone worked together to make sure that everyone had a safe shelter and people were fed."