Neville Pantazis was 15 when Cyclone Tracy came to town.

The family was living on Ross Smith Avenue – Paul (Napoleon in Cypriot) and mum Irene, nee Kanaris, sister Paula, with cousin Angelo Angeli, a relative from Cyprus, and his pregnant wife Hariklia.

During the “eye” of the cyclone, Paul, who is now 93, and Angelo went to his nearby shop, Parap Fruit and Veg, to check everything was all right, to batten down the hatches.

“The first wind started, leading through to the eye of the storm,” says Neville. “A time when everything went calm, which gave us a false sense of security. We weren’t scared.

“Then things started to happen as we came out of the ‘eye’ and the wind built up once again.

“We had all gathered into my parents’ bedroom, which had large sliding glass doors. I noticed the glass panels begin to ‘vein’ and getting ready to explode. Just before exploding, we all ran out, just in time, to find safety and shelter in the main bathroom, as we had been instructed to do.

“As we went into the bathroom a big lump of wood came through the house from outside and whacked me in the back. I wasn’t badly injured; I didn’t feel much pain.

“The wood was slowed down by hitting corrugated iron first, otherwise I don’t know what would have happened to me. It punched a hole in the bathroom wall.”

Six of the family cowered in the bathroom: Mum, Hariklia, Neville, Paula and cousins Libby and Leah Nicolakis. The cousins’ parents, Con and Mena, were out enjoying festive drinks.

“The wind was relentless. It just did not stop. The noise was incredible. It was a scream.

“The roof was torn off and when we looked up all we could see was blackness. It was intensely dark. But we weren’t being soaked because the rain wasn’t coming straight down – it was being pushed sideways by the wind.”

Paula, who was only eight when Tracy struck, remembers the sheer terror of that night.

“Hariklia cried and prayed constantly – she prayed to every god, every Greek saint, as we kids huddled in the bathtub. And then all of us children feel asleep, exhausted.

“When we woke up it was over. It had all been weird and frightening and horrible.”

The family’s elevated house had been torn apart – only the bathroom and Neville’s bedroom had remained relatively intact.

They did not come out of the bathroom until Paul and Angelo returned safely from the shop at daylight on Christmas morning.

“He didn’t know how we were, whether we had survived,” says Neville.

“We all walked outside to a scene of utter devastation. All the houses had been demolished. All that remained were the house concrete pillar supports.”

Neville was able to see his close friend Nick Mitaros’ house in the distance because of the devastation.

“I was overwhelmed by how people came together to support each other.”

The Pantazis family took in two other families and gave away groceries from their store.

Men stayed behind but the women and children were quickly ushered interstate.

Neville, his Mum and sister were evacuated out of Darwin on a Hercules aircraft and flown to Perth, where they were put up next to the Applecross Yacht Club.

“It was quite an adventure. The YMCA laid on lots of activities for us children, such as a trip to Rottnest Island and tickets to live concert performances, such as Tina Turner, The Hollies and the Band Yes.

“When we got back to Darwin three months later, the reconstruction was well underway.”

His parents leased out the shop and the family went on a year-long tour of Cyprus and Greece.

“We didn’t go to school for a whole year. Our education was travel, which mum always said was the best form of education anyway.

“We were taken to the ancient sites of Acropolis, Knossos Palace, Minoan ruins in Crete, the Baths of Aphrodite in Paphos, Cyprus, galleries and museums. Athens is one of my favourite cities in the world.”

On returning home, Neville went into year 11, the year he had missed, at Darwin High School and then repeated year 12 to get better grades, which allowed him to gain “multiple levels” of friends.

After leaving school, he went to Hobart to sit for a degree in fine arts, majoring in painting. He then lectured in what was to evolve into Charles Darwin University for four years, although he helped out at the family grocery store after work every day.

Neville gave up lecturing and partnered Dallas Gold and Peter Adsett in opening an Indigenous art gallery called Raft ArtSpace, in Tipperary Waters, which sourced much work from Timber Creek.

He then co-founded Gallery PhilipNeville with Philip Grice in Harriet Place, which operated successfully for five years; it’s today known as Paul Johnstone Gallery.

A trip to view the Sydney Biennale arts show was to change Neville’s life.

He went into the David Jones Foodstore and was astonished at how elegantly and beautifully food could be presented – the olive oils, the Country Kitchen lines, the vast range of the highest quality goods.

“It was an Aladdin’s Cave. I thought, ‘As a family, we could do that in Darwin.’”

Parap Fruit and Veg became Parap Fine Foods – and rapidly became known as Darwin’s answer to Fortnum and Mason or a mini- Harrods, the place to go for the essential ingredients for most recipes, at a time when the Gourmet Traveler magazine was Neville’s “food bible”.

Parap Fine Foods has staged many food experiences from around the world, including Macau, Bangkok and New York.

“Yes, people know that they pay more with us but they also know that they are getting quality produce.”

The shop’s frontage was designed by another close friend, Darwin architect Hully Liveris, along the lines of Prague food store facades.

It was all to do with the “art of selling from your front windows”.

Today Parap Fine Foods has been slightly remodelled and is more characterful than ever – it was a smash hit as part of this year’s Darwin Festival gourmet tours and going there is considered an experience as much as a simple shopping trip.

Neville has three daughters: Amalia (Emma), Cristina and Philippa. Paula has two daughters Larena and Antonia. Larena is now a third generation member at Parap Fine Foods. All girls still contribute ideas for the future of the store.

One of Neville’s greatest wishes is for them never to have to endure what the Pantazis family endured over Christmas 1974 – when Tracy turned Darwin into a war zone.

The story of Parap Fine Foods is told in Forty Fine Years by Peter and Sheila Forrest, produced by Campaign Edge Sprout