Dan Kerr's phone rings. On the line is Marie from the office in Brisbane. "G'day Dan. I just heard from the team in Tully. They've got no power so it's hot in there, but we've set up a Child Friendly Space in the Cyclone Recovery Centre near the show grounds."

"Good onya that's excellent," says Dan, Save the Children's Cyclone Yasi team leader driving south from Cairns to Tully, the small community in far-north Queensland that bore the brunt of the tropical storm as it roared across the Australian coast. "I'll be at the Recovery Centre in half an hour."

Cyclone Yasi is the most powerful storm - a category five - to hit Australia since 1918. In its wake the cyclone left a trail of destruction that could run to half a billion dollars, according to the Australian Government.

There were no fatalities or serious injuries in Tully, but damage to property was severe. Up to ninety per cent of the town's buildings have been damaged, a third of them severely.

What's less apparent is the affect that Cyclone Yasi had on children. That's why Dan and his team of eleven qualified childcare workers have established a network of child friendly spaces in the main centres of population affected by Cyclone Yasi.

"You want a name badge sweetie?," Romy Miller a childcare worker with Save the Children asks Oliver, 4, from Mission Beach. His frazzled parents Samantha and Kieran have come to the centre to register for cyclone relief from the Queensland Government. They did not expect to leave their children at a Child Friendly Space. "We had no idea you offered this service," says Samantha. "It's a big load off our minds that we don't have to worry about the kids today."

Born in the UK, Samantha and Keiran traded life in Kent for paradise in far-north Queensland during the nineties. That is until Cyclone Yasi shattered their small beach-side community, ripping up trees, houses and power lines on a night Samantha will never forget.

"I was very scared when the cyclone came through. I looked at my three children and wondered whether we were all going to die. I held them tight that night."

Samantha's home survived the storm, but is without power and could be for six weeks. To register for emergency financial assistance, Samantha and Keiran travelled the short distance from their home on the coast to Tully's Cyclone Recovery Centre. It's here Save the Children set up a Child Friendly Space.

Open all week from early in the morning until late in the afternoon, up to 60 young children and their families attend the drop-in play centre each day. Hardly surprising since it's full of things that attract children like skipping ropes, crayons, colouring books, glitter and glue. There's even a play-doh table. As you'd expect, there's a good deal of noise, laughter and, yes, chaos at the child friendly space.

Over at a play table, Michelle Sorohan a childcare worker from Brisbane opens a colouring book so that a group of boys and girls seated on little chairs, crayons in hand, can draw and scribble on large coloured pages.

Meanwhile, Samantha's daughter Jessica is making play-doh flapjacks. On the wall there are dozens of children's paintings. A sort of Tate Modern for the very young, there are abstract and impressionist paintings as well as painted butterflies, kangaroos and giraffes. But among them all one stands out. It's a picture painted by eight-year-old Gerard of a chainsaw felling a tree, and a fire burning.

"I was very shocked when I saw the painting," said Gerard's mother Monaliza from Granadilla. "I thought it was a bad thing and that Gerard must be very upset because of the cyclone." Gerard see things differently. "I loved helping my dad pick up the grass and cut down the trees after the storm. It was fun, and this is my painting!" Monaliza now says she's proud her son drew the picture. "He was very helpful after the storm. I know why he drew the painting. I'm not shocked anymore."

According to Save the Children Australia's Child Protection Specialist Karen Flanagan, drawing and self-expression are encouraged in child friendly spaces to weed out the tell-tale signs that a child might be experiencing psychological trauma following a life-threatening crisis like a cyclone.

"Child Friendly Spaces are all about fun, but they also serve another purpose and that's to return a child to normality and play as quickly as possible. Following a disaster, a child that is returned to play with children of a similar age will nearly always ward off psychological problems."

Late in the afternoon, Samantha and Keiran return to collect their children. It's been a long wait, but like so many here at Tully, they have received the first of their emergency cash payments from the Queensland Government.

"You've been a massive help," says Samantha strapping Elliott into his stroller. "My three kids can be a handful, but being able to leave them here all day has made such a difference. We had all this paperwork to fill out for the emergency assistance. We were a bit worried about it. It's really wonderful that you could take the kids while we registered for help."