Australian floods begin to subside

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33446, 30 January 1974, Page 17

Australian floods begin to subside

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright?

BRISBANE, January 7 29.

Fhe sun returned today to Brisbane, the floodravaged “Sunshine State” capital, and the worst floods of the century began to subside, but with water four feet deep still running through the city’s streets, business was virtually at a standstill.

At least 9000 people are now reported to be homeless, food supplies are running out, and many suburbs are without either water or electricity supplies.

In many parts of the capital, badly-needed food supplies are rotting in refrigerators for which there is no electricity. Because road and rail transport is in chaos, supplies from country centres cannot be brought in, and farmers are pouring away thousands of gallons of milk.

The floods claimed two more victims yesterday, bringing to eight the death toll in the state in six days: two soldiers were killed when their amphibious craft hit submerged power lines during rescue operations. Early this morning, the River Brisbane reached its highest level since 1893, as the peak of the floodwaters from Cyclone Wanda passed into Moreton Bay, but the experts say that the river should be back to normal by Friday. The floodwaters that have covered tens of thousands of square miles of North Queensland in the last three weeks are also slowly receding.

Damage estimate

The State Cabinet met to discuss the crisis this morning, when the Premier (Mr Bielke-Petersen) said that the damage would run into hundreds of millions of dollars.

The worst-hit Brisbane suburbs in the last 24 hours were Jindalee, Sherwood, Indooroopilly, Yeronga, and Milton, but the police say that at least 30 suburbs in the north, south, and west of the city have been affected during the four days of flooding. In Moreton Bay this morning, houses, boats, caravans, and wreckage were floating out to sea or littering the shores.

The Brisbane police are

I issuing on-the-spot fines to , flood-sightseers described by one spokesman as “bloody ghouls.” The State Minister of Police (Mr Max Hodges) has ordered the police to impose fines if sightseers refuse directions to move. There have been some looting incidents in Brisbane and in the tourist resort of Surfers’ Paradise, 70 miles to the south of the state capital, where the floodwaters had subsided this morning, and residents were moving back into the sodden homes they left at the weekend.

At Ipswich, 25 miles west of Brisbane, however, the flooding continues, and the police say that it will be several days before many people can return to their homes.

— Industry hit

Brisbane’s industry and commerce has been hard hit. The city’s industrial area is largely grouped on the lowlying area alongside the river, the area worst affected by flooding. Several chemical factories have reported that their stocks have been damaged by the floodwaters, and one of Queensland’s largest supermarket suppliers has reported flood damage to millions of dollars worth of food and household supplies in a central storage warehouse. There have been no trains in or out of the city since Friday, and all roads are cut today.

At Ipswich, coalmining company spokesmen yester-

day reported explosions caused by floodwaters trapping pockets of gas underground. The mines were unoccupied at the time, but a company official says that it could be months before they are dried out.

The Peko-Wallsend opencast mine at Mount Morgan has suffered its worst flooding, and the company’s chairman, Mrs J. S. Proud, says that production will be substantially less for the next two months.

In Cairns, in North Queensland, the floods in the “Gulf Country” are dropping, but at Normanton, on the Gulf of Carpenteria, where the population of about 500 was airlifted to safety at the week-end, water is still swirling through the town.

Three rivers — the Saxby, Flinders, and Norman — are still forming an inland sea about 100 miles wide. A Queensland railway spokesman said today that the damage on some lines would take at least two weeks to repair.

Victorian contrast

While Victoria’s northern neighbour-States contend with some of the worst flooding for a century, the Southern Australian States is tinder dry after temperatures in recent weeks exceeding 35 Celsius, and has been declared a high fire risk.

A Victorian Forest Commission spokesman said today that three fires had been burning in the west and east of the state since Saturday. The largest, in the Bemm River area, about 250 miles east of Melbourne, has already swept through 1200 acres of bushland.