Thousands homeless, five dead in Aust, floods

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33444, 28 January 1974, Page 1

Thousands homeless, five dead in Aust, floods

(SpectM Correspondent N.Z.P.A.)

BRISBANE, January 27.

Thousands of people have been left honteless. five persons dead, and millions of dollars worth of damage has been caused in the worst floods in decades along the east coast of Australia.

A flood belt extends from the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north to the north-eastern coastal towns of New South Wales. Populations are being moved, and destruction is widespread.

The Queensland Commissioner of Police, Mr Raymont Whitrod, made the gloomy forecast tonight: “It will get worse before it gets better.”

A fortnight ago the flood stories were coming in to Brisbane from Queensland’s central coast and southwestern regions, but now the State’s capital is itself inundated by walls of floodwater.

In more than 20 Brisbane suburbs electricity supplies have been cut. and there seems no chance of an early resumption of power to these areas as workmen are unable to get to affected switchboards and sub-stations. The Tennyson power station has been knocked out and will remain inoperative for some weeks. Rail links to Brisbane have also been cut and two trains

that tried to make it there today from Casino on the New South Wales north coast had to turn back when the lines became impassable. ’

All roads have been cut into Brisbane, making the airways the only link with the outside world. The Brisbane River, which winds itself around Brisbane, has now reached a height of about 20ft and is still rising.

Civil defence authorities expect the river to rise to about 22ft by tomorrow. Although this is still about 6ft below the highest recorded level of the Brisbane River, the damage that it has

caused and is likely to cause is-almost immeasurable. The Australian Associated Press reported that Ipswich, 30 miles west of Brisbane, was another victim of the* southern Queensland floods. Two-storey buildings in the town have been reported as covered with floodwaters as the nearby Bremer River rose to a record 64ft. The Brisbane weather bureau says that the river is going to rise even further.

Still rising Explosions have been reported in coalmines west of Ipswich, and nearby homes have been evacuated as mine authorities give warnings that water is causing gas pockets to accumulate underground. Army and Air Force helicopters are taking residents from the town, and Amberley Air Force Base has been' turned into a giant flood refu-i gee centre. Many hundreds have already been lifted to safety since the airlift started this morning. I A 62,000-ton tanker, the i Robert Miller, snapped its I moorings and drifted out of (control down the Brisbane ißiver today. A “great rumbling noise”! was heard as the ropes broke. It missed a riverside block of home units by 10 yards as it swung Ground in the river.

Appeal to leave Port authorities quickly! appealed to all riverside residents to leave their homes as the tanker swept' downstream before finally becoming stuck in mud. Another vessel, the 2500ton dredge Neptune, also' broke its moorings and was loose in the river. The Robert Miller was; undergoing completion off Kangaroo Point, near Brisbane’s Story bridge, and is the biggest tanker built in Brisbane. ,