Pledge by McMahon to cyclone victims

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32800, 28 December 1971, Page 11

Pledge by McMahon to cyclone victims

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright) BRISBANE, December 27. , The Australian Prime Minister (Mr McMahon) today pledged unlimited Commonwealth aid for the victims in Townsville after his tour of the city, which was devastated by Cyclone Althea on Friday, and of nearby Magnetic Island.

At a press conference, Mr McMahon said that he felt completely miserable after viewing the destruction, but that he was amazed by the feeling of optimism among the victims about their prospects of recovery.

Mrs McMahon accompanied her husband to Townsville, where she spoke to people repairing their bat-

tered homes and later visited an old people’s home which had been damaged. The Prime Minister was taken by helicopter from Townsville to Magnetic Island, where he . met the Minister of the Army (Mr Andrew Peacock) and the Minister of National Development (Mr Reginald Swartz). After returning to confer with Civil Defence and police officials in Townsville, Mr McMahon left for a holiday

on the Gold Coast, south of Brisbane.

Heavy rain in the wake of Cyclone Althea has caused severe flooding in southern and western Queensland, where road, rail and some air traffic was brought to a halt.

Most highways in the western part of Queensland are cut, as is the main railway west from Brisbane.

The towns of Charleville, Longreach, Winton, Hughendon and Adavala in the west are cut by flooded creeks and impassable roads. Late today more than 300 people were taken to safety from Charleville, 480 miles west of Brisbane, as six feet of water swirled along the streets of the town. In Brisbane, weather forecasters said the rainstorm that was Cyclone Althea was moving steadily towards the city, and that there was a chance it might gather force in the moisture-laden coastal air, and bring the cyclone back to life.