Bag a Barra — 21 November 2025

It's time now to head to the Top End and Baga Barra, with Glenn Watty Watt, thanks to Barefoot Fishing Safaris and UniDen. For the best in UHF communications, explore the extract series at Uniden.com.au. Well, as you know, here on the show, we talk to Watty every week in the Top End, and always talk fishing and life in the northern territory, in particular Darwin and around there. And we often touch on the weather. Well, this time, it'll be more about the weather, to be honest, because there is a cyclone happening in Darwin, and it's heading straight for our man, Watty, who's probably just done the run on every bottle 0 in the northern territory to make sure he's stocked up, and that's our joke, Willie, although it may not be a joke.

But he said to Zucky out the Dundee Beach, to get his caravan. He's on his way back, so it doesn't get blown away. Whydy, how are you, mate? Yeah, I'm good, mate.

I actually pulled up on the side of the road. Yeah, I went and grabbed the van. It was actually not bad timing for me because I was sort of planning on heading down the next couple of days anyway. But, yeah, once we go onto cyclone warning, all the caravan parks will get evacuated, and most of those crew, if they haven't got anywhere to go, local will have to shoot through down to Catherine or something like that to, um, to get out of the way, the big blow that looks like it's coming in the next day or two.

Unbelievable. And I mean, I guess people think Darwin, Cyclone, they think Cyclone Tracy, which was a long time ago now back in 1974. And obviously back then, buildings weren't as structural as they are now, like structurally sound as they are now, and we all know what happened, the category 4 cyclone that wiped out the entire Top End, really. But is there still a bit of a panic or people just, what's happening?

People just sort of getting ready, embracing themselves for at this stage, they don't know how big it will be when it hits there. What's the what's the fool around town? Yeah, that's right. I wouldn't say there's a panic.

People are pretty good at being half prepared anyway, but there's certainly, once it becomes, certainly once we go into cyclone war, watch, which is when, you know, it's formed and heading for Darwin in the next few days, that's when everyone will run out and top up all of their sort of non-perishable food to get you through a few days, if you run out of power or whatever, and fuel up the car and grab a couple of boxes of beer and that sort of stuff, and I'll just listen to the radio and they were saying that, um, you know, places like J Carr, and that sort of thing that sell battery powered radios. They're all sold out. So, yeah, people are pretty good at, um, you know, being prepared at least, even if they do live till the last minute, a bit, I suppose.

But, you know, we also, we already live a pretty outdoor lifestyle here with a lot of camping and stuff anyway. So a lot of people are barely well set up for a bit of self-sustainability if they need to. But yeah, we'd be, we'd be keen for all the rain, mate, but not necessarily the wind, because the, the, the wind's the drama, of course, and, you know, uh, like stuff just gets blown around in town and um, causes trouble. So, and yeah, once the power's out, that's dramas for everyone, isn't it?

Oh, look, absolutely. And I guess that's where a lot of people have generators these days and if you haven't, get a Mickey blue one, that's what we say. But at the end of the day, I mean, you can still do things, I know, with us, if we, I mean, we go off grid with the van and car and stuff, and obviously a lot of places we go, there's no power, but we've got great power setups in the car, and I mean, if you've got a generator or you have, you know, an inverter in your vehicle or even a caravan, you can plug in a star, you can keep connected with the world if it does get that bad. How are they preparing out at Dundee, mate?

Are they getting getting ready? They've probably got the full brunt of it there. Yeah, well, that's right. They probably will get pretty blowy there and we're, you know, already got marine wind warnings and stuff.

So I was lucky enough to finish our my last trip for the season yesterday. So that works out well. But yeah, there was still a couple of boats out fishing today, which isn't sort of out of the ordinary, perhaps, although it can be pretty hard fishing before a cyclone because the barometric pressure drops and the fish go a bit inactive, mate. So I'm actually really looking forward to next week when the cyclone's gone and that pressure jumps up again quickly because I'm going fishing for a week myself.

So it might actually be really good timing for me. Yeah, absolutely mate. Now, I remember a few years ago, when there was a cyclone hitting North Queensland had some mates up there and I rang them up and they were having, they were having a cyclone party. They certainly, the cyclone party didn't last too long once the cyclone hit there, I can assure you, when things started getting blown away and it got pretty wild.

But, I mean, the Northern territory is known, and the people up there, not so much the territory, but the people, in particular up at the Top End, they're pretty casual, and we always have that joke about territory time, which I believe is a real thing, but they are pretty casual. Is there any cyclone parties or people just gearing up for? I mean, I mean, I know it can be dangerous and we don't want any loss of life or anything like that or anyone injured. But everyone's, you know, these days, you know, they're up there, the buildings are being, you know, built for cyclones after the, you know, the place was wiped out, you know, back in 74.

But are there cyclone parties? Is the attitude? Well, it's going to come and we'll just wait for it to get here and have a look at that and then get on with it. Well, it's pressed, I don't know what those fellas are doing in Queensland.

They might have been jumping the gun a bit there, mate, but we tend to have our cyclone parties off for the cyclones, actually gone. Yep. Because, uh, you know, like, uh, you got, you still got to be on your toes a bit, if it goes down when the cyclone's on you, and especially, you know, it'll get real rough and windy leading up to it when you get the direct hitter course, and, and what people can perhaps forget or get a bit relaxed about is that when the eye of the cyclone Xavier, it's as still as still, and um, you can um, perhaps start your cyclone party a bit early. But, no, I mean, it's a, it's not a bad point though, because once the power goes out, say, in a lot of the northern suburbs, old stuff of Darwin and out rural where I am, there's not a hell of a lot you can do apart from chuckle your food in the freezer and make sure you keep it closed, so it hopefully does, stays cool for a couple of days or get a gentle going or whatever, and then you, you know, who does have constant power, and good food and cold beer all the time, and that is the pub. So it's actually not a bad place to go for, for an afternoon or a couple of days after the cyclone, because there's nothing you can do anyway, right?

So, um yeah, but perhaps leave it till after the blow's finished, I reckon. Yeah, absolutely, mate. Well, hopefully it won't be as bad as, um, people may think it's going to be at this stage talking to you at this point of time. It's what is it, a category 2?

Could we get to a three? When do we really start to worry when it gets to a 3 and a four, I guess. Well, yeah, I mean, even a category one can blow stuff around and it's not so much the strength of the wind. I mean, you can stand up in the wind that's blowing 100 K's an hour, but if it blows a bit of corrugated iron at you or a camping chair or something, that's when there's dramas, right?

So hopefully everyone's done their bit of a cleanup before cyclone, which is, you know, something that happens every year around Darwin. You know, September, October. The council goes around with big trucks and you can just chuckle all your stuff out on the side of the road that you, you know, need to clean up, but can't get rid of yourself. And um, and that works pretty good. But yeah, I've got to go home now and tie down a bit of stuff at home, of course, like the trampoline and and we do have a few bits of tin and stuff there, so make sure that's all tied down, nice and tight, and um, and yeah, just try to get everything ready, take all the shade sails down and take, put the, a lot of people, one of the recommendations, which seems a bit weird, but does work really well, is to put your sort of outdoor full furniture in the pool.

So, your glass top table or whatever, if you lower it down in the pool, it can't get damaged and it's there, but it could get damaged if it was out sitting where it normally is get blown away. I've actually heard that before. A little job to do like that, mate. Yeah, I've actually heard that one before.

Put your pool furniture and outdoor furniture in the swimming pool in case of, you know, a cyclone or a big storm. I can tell you, just looking at it now, doing some research here on the run, Roddy. The wind speed in 74 reached 217 kilometres an hour until the wind machine was destroyed, but they estimate that the later wins, the gusts are up to 280 Ks. You don't want that.

No, you don't want to be out in that and you don't want to be out in that when there's stuff blowing around. That's the big drama. So, yeah, you stay inside. And of course, these days there's lots of safe places you can go if you're, if you're not sort of sure if your house is safe or if you are in a carban or whatever, you know, you can go to the underground car park at Bunnings or, or in a lot of the supermarket car parks are all designated cyclone shelters.

So that makes a lot easier for everyone as well. Yeah, absolutely. Just imagine the bees drunk at the Bunnings car park. while it's blowing upstairs.

down there, mate. Oh, yeah. I reckon so. All right, mate. Well, it sounds like it's heading your way, and I know you're pretty, have you ever been through a cyclone before?

Yeah, I've done I've done two So we had Cyclone Carlos in about 2012 and that was a one, but it was a direct hit. So we got a lot of rain here, that we had 470 mils of rain overnight and so and that night.

Yeah. And I mean, that wasn't too bad because it wasn't real windy, you know, and we, but we got the rain and it was actually a record wet season and the fishing after it was amazing. So, you know, there's pros and cons, and then we had Cyclone Marcus, was that 17 or 18, something like that in April? And it was a 2, I think, and yeah, it did a fair bit more damage. We had no power at our joint for a week, but we've got a gen set and stuff, so we were sort of sweet, but yeah, you don't get a hell of a lot done, and certainly if you're trying to run a business or a particular tourism business, she's all over, so yeah, make sure you've got plenty of beers and plenty of tucker and just have a bit of a break.

There's always something to clean up and a lot of people, of course, if, if you, you know, if you don't have anything to do in your place is OK. You grab a chainsaw and go and help someone who does need a hand, you know, so that happens a lot up here, of course, too. So, yeah. Yeah, exactly right.

As I said, the people up there, they're pretty strong and resilient and they've got that can-do attitude, although it's pretty laid back at times, but as when things got to be done, they just get done. Jesus, it's a great place. I love it up there. All right, mate.

Well, you take it easy and we'll be thinking of you and keep in touch, mate, and hopefully you won't get blown away and you'll be able to talk to us next week. I hope so, mate. Yeah, that'll be good. I give you the buddy.

I'll give you the match report. See what happens. Yeah, you'll be right, mate. Say, stay safe, get, go get that van home and tie your boat down, throw all your stuff in the pool and just, uh, just loop, loop some beer in the bottle out for somebody else, will you?

Head Bunnings and start cooking snags. That'll be the go, wouldn't it? Yeah, might do that. I just thought to see you on that trampoline, to be honest.

I mean, is that yours or? You get blown away like Dorothy if I tried to... Dorothy, you idiot. Oh, Fairding.

All right, mate. I'm serious. Leave some beers in some of them bottle shops to somebody else too, will you? I'm going to go through the Berry Springs bottle shop right now.

actually. I think I'll get the Caribbean through there. Yeah, you'd be right. Okay, mate.

Stay safe. We keep in touch. Righto mate. Good on you.

There he is. That's our man, Watty, with a with a cyclone report this week. Not so much a fishing report.