It's been five decades since the year "Santa never made it into Darwin", when Cyclone Tracy devastated the Northern Territory capital in the wee hours of Christmas morning 1974.

In the wake of the disaster, the city – and all of Australia – pulled together to make sure its 40,000 people could safely rebuild.

This included the nation's aviation industry, with Darwin Airport becoming a vital lifeline as airlines and the RAAF brought much-needed people and supplies to and from the Top End in one of the biggest airlifts in Australian history.

In this special episode of the Australian Aviation Podcast, Jake Nelson talks to Paul Boyce, who was TAA's Darwin manager when the cyclone hit in 1974, for his firsthand account of the disaster – and what came next.