I do believe it was back on air within days relaying ABQ2 Brisbane, which it did for nearly a decade after.
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i’ve actually just been doing some reading about that, from the book They Gave Us A Television Station To Play With: When ABC TV Came To Darwin, written by an ABC journalist who was based in Darwin in the 1970s, and gives an eyewitness account of events. This revises or corrects some other accounts that I have read historically (The book was published in 2021 but I only recently became aware of it)
The author recalls that ABC radio (8DR) was back on the air by about midday on Boxing Day, it took a few more weeks for ABC television to be restored, with some service on the air by February 1975, though this was still black-and-white.
Apparently the delay for TV was due to lack of power and a second generator was eventually sourced to allow both radio and television to send signals to the transmitters. The decision was also made to convert ABD6 to being a regional service via the restored microwave link from Queensland.
This created a benefit for viewers who now had a full ABC TV schedule rather than the limited service that ABD6 had even before Tracy, but for the local news team which had lost precious film processing equipment in Tracy, it meant that any news film shot in Darwin had to be sent down south for processing before it could be returned to Darwin for local insertion in the 5-minute slot leading in to the “national” news from Brisbane. This meant that news film shot in Darwin could be days old before it could go to air in Darwin. This situation, much resented by staff, was not remedied until 1980.
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Some Xmas Eve TV recordings from around Australia during 1990s and 2000s:
1995 - 10 (Queensland, station unknown)
https://youtu.be/EWzVSW3TJMM?si=8pyF02CzjDCyzsq8
1997 - Seven (Queensland, Brisbane station)
https://youtu.be/ulAO_BDJi6w?si=ubVHJ6A7AKoMM7qb
1999 - Seven (Victoria)
https://youtu.be/jPDZBiKIbN4?si=BbrSPMoeLafjL-gX
2000 - Seven (Western Australia)
https://youtu.be/WdwKMu9O8hY?si=zXL9HvvAjrZ-olVW
2001 - Nine (South Australia)
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Has Mal Walden been interviewed on any of the Cyclone Tracy documentaries that have aired so far? Considering he was the 1st on the ground, it would be a waste if 7 or 10 didn’t at least speak to him for a report tomorrow night.
Anyway, here’s an interview from the NFSA where he recounts his experience of being sent up to Darwin as a cadet reporter. His memoir, The Newsman, also is worth a read, where he goes into great detail about the experience.
Mal Walden on Cyclone Tracy, interviewed By John Fife (2010) | National Film and Sound Archive of Australia
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25 December 1968: Among the usual Christmas fare are direct telecasts from the Apollo 8 space mission, and Christmas greetings from Australian troops in Vietnam.
25 December 1980: Channel 0/28’s first Christmas features the special A Whole World Of Christmas. Hosted by Don Dunstan, the program includes family reunions between Sydney and overseas, via satellite links. Also featured are various multicultural performances, and a nativity play presented by Chinese children.
25 December 1981: Channel 0/28 presents a second A Whole World Of Christmas, hosted by actor John Bluthal.
25 December 1986: The SBS special A Song For Peace reunites 60 families in war torn Lebanon via satellite with relatives waiting in a studio in Sydney.
25 December 2003: Network Ten‘s The Panel presents its first Christmas special, The Panel Christmas Wrap, including musical performances, special guests and a Christmas pantomime.
25 December 2004: The Nine Network presents the special On A Wind And A Prayer: Cyclone Tracy 30 Years On.
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26 December 1986: The Victorian Football League breaks its 30-year association with the Seven Network and awards the next round of television rights to production company Broadcom in a six-year deal worth at least $24.55 million.
26 December 1987: The final day for Adelaide TV stations ADS7 and SAS10, which swap frequencies and network affiliation overnight to become ADS10 and SAS7.
26 December 2003: Network Ten presents the global special World Idol, featuring Idol winners from 10 countries competing in London for the title of World Idol. Representing Australia is 2003 Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian.
26 December 2005: Media tycoon Kerry Packer, best known as the owner of the Nine Network, dies in Sydney, age 68.
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Besrs posting
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I remember this concept, shame it didn’t last more than one season. An interesting rule was that viewers couldn’t vote for their own Idol (eg we couldn’t vote for Guy, Americans couldn’t vote for Kelly Clarkson and so on).
Kurt Nielsen from Norway (?) won this competition.
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Similar to the Eurovision Song Contest, you can’t vote for your own country.
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29 December 1957: The Queen’s Christmas Message is produced for television for the first time, with film of the speech flown to Australia for delayed broadcast on ABV2 and GTV9 in Melbourne, and ABN2 and TCN9 in Sydney.
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The message would be aired on Christmas Day in Australia for the first time 1959, though it was only on radio as Her Majesty was heavily pregnant with Prince Andrew. The speech was pre-recorded a week in advance. The TV recordings resumed the following year, and has occurred every year since except for 1963 (Radio broadcast due to being pregnant with Prince Edward), and 1969 (Only a written message was issued, as the Queen felt that between the investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales, and the documentary Royal Family, that she had enough coverage on TV)
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31 December 1959: All three Melbourne channels present variety shows for New Year’s Eve, including GTV9 running an extended edition of In Melbourne Tonight.
31 December 1974: The Nine Network and News Limited launch a 28-hour telethon to raise funds for the victims of Cyclone Tracy that had destroyed the city of Darwin just days earlier on Christmas Eve/Day. A total of $3,089,873 had been raised — exceeding Nine’s expected target by $1.5 million.
31 December 1979: Includes the Festival Of Sydney New Year’s Eve Concert from the Sydney Opera House, hosted by Grahame Bond and including performances by Rolf Harris, Marcia Hines, Jon English, John St Peeters and The Angels.
31 December 1989: SBS begins its now-traditional New Year’s Eve presentation of the German comedy sketch Dinner For One.
31 December 1990: Aggregation arrives in regional Queensland with local commercial networks Sunshine, WIN and QTV
31 December 1991: Aggregation arrives in Northern NSW and the Gold Coast with local commercial networks Prime, NBN and NRTV
31 December 1999: ABC is one of the worldwide consortium of 60 broadcasters to partake in 2000 Today, a 28-hour television event covering New Year’s midnight celebrations from around the world and capturing the first dawn breaking for the year 2000. The Nine Network presents Millennium Live, a similar program covering New Year’s celebrations from Australia and overseas.
31 December 2000: Digital television commences at midnight, but with few digital receivers in the market it was introduced with barely a mention.
31 December 2003: New TV Station — Southern Cross Ten, Spencer Gulf North, South Australia and Broken Hill, New South Wales.
31 December 2013: Pay-TV channels TV1 and SF sign-off
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Victoria (Metropolitan Regions) News presenters, 1999:
ABC News: ???
Seven Nightly News: Peter Mitchell
National Nine News: Jo Hall?
10 News at Five: Darren Lunny and Mary Gearin (The latter now at ABC).
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Weren’t Mal Walden and Jennifer Hansen the presenters of 10 News during the late 90s/early 2000s?
Also Mary left the ABC a while ago now.
Ian Henderson
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I think the OP was intending to be referring specifically to 31/12/1999. Darren Lunny and Mary Gearin read the news that night:
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And, the following day (January 1 of 2000) in some markets around Australia:
ABC News: Ian Henderson (National Bulletin or For Victoria only?)
Seven Nightly News: Chris Bath (New South Wales), Jennifer Adams (Victoria, featuring the now-previous emblem), Tracy Challenor (Queensland)
National Nine News (One hour Edition): Peter Overton (New South Wales), Peter Hitchener and Jo Hall (Victoria)
10 National Weekend News at Five: Deborah Knight
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What About Nine News Queensland That Night?
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On this day in 2000, the best kept secret unveiled. A totally new logo for the Seven Network. Other than the network running Christmas IDs right up to New Years Eve, there was not one hint of there being a change. I recall the old aus.tv Usenet group was busy that day, lol. The first ID I saw under the new branding https://youtu.be/Bju-6dRtlVI?si=0HjlvwPX5XUxmbgp
Source: BraydsTwo (YouTube)
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Maybe no bulletin, they might have been drunk on XXXX and Bundy, licking cane toads and punching on. 
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1 January 1972: The third episode of Nine’s experimental pop music series Fly, Wrinklys, Fly which ended up being its last.
1 January 1980: Brisbane’s QTQ9 commences 24/7 transmission.
1 January 1988: Australia Live, a combined effort between ABC, SBS, Nine and regional stations, goes to air simultaneously. A four-hour look at Australia and its people, broadcast live in prime time.
1 January 1992: Aggregation arrives in regional Victoria with local commercial networks Prime, VICTV and Southern Cross Network.
1 January 1995: Pay TV commences in Australia with Galaxy launching its first channel, Premier Sports Network, in Sydney and Melbourne.
1 January 1999: Foxtel and Austar launch Australia’s first 24-hour weather channel, Weather 21 (channel 21). It was later re-branded The Weather Channel and then Sky News Weather.
1 January 2000: Seven unveils its new “ribbon” style logo.
1 January 2001: Metropolitan TV stations commence full-scale digital transmission and simulcast with existing analogue transmissions.
1 January 2004: Tasmania’s third commercial station Tasmanian Digital Television (TDT) begins transmission in Hobart as Australia’s first digital-only commercial TV station — and WIN Ten begins transmission in the Riverland and Mt Gambier regions as a secondary licence to existing broadcaster WIN (RTS5A/SES8).
1 January 2006: Mildura Digital Television, a joint venture between local broadcasters Prime and WIN, commences transmission as Ten Mildura — providing the region with a dedicated Network Ten signal for the first time, broadcasting in digital.
1 January 2007: Grundy Television and Crackerjack Productions are merged into their parent company Fremantle Media.
1 January 2014: Foxtel replaces ‘greatest hits’ channel TV1 with TVH!TS and sci-fi channel SF with SyFy.
1 January 2021: ABC Comedy re-brands as ABC TV Plus.
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