Brisbane facing disease threat

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33448, 1 February 1974, Page 1

Brisbane facing disease threat

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter—Copyright.)

SYDNEY, January 31.

Brisbane today is a vast stinking heap of slime, mud, and silt, facing an increasing disease hazard. Tons of raw sewage, chemicals, and fuels have been dumped by floods throughoul many suburbs.

Health authorities are issuing strong warnings to all residents about the potential health danger, particularly from gastroenteritis and tetanus.

Untreated sewage was pouring into the Brisbane River from the flood-wrecked sewage treatment plant at Ipswich, 25 miles west of the city, and home septic tanks. As the Brisbane River continued to recede yesterday police discovered the bodies of another three men in South Brisbane and one near the Queensland-New South Wales border. They brought the flood death toll to 13 dead and three missing. Thousands of drowned fowls and horses and cattle in the area were adding to the health hazard in the south-west suburbs. A clean-up employing hundreds of trucks and men from the City Council, state Government and the Army began work at first light. MORE RAIN Heavy rain in Brisbane today drenched flood-soaked possessions. Carpets, furniture and bedding immersed for almost a week were

soaked again and the Weather Bureau said that more showers were on the way.

The chaos continued in shops, where housewives face soaring prices. Meat, vegetables, fruit and most food lines are scarce. Panic buying has emptied shop shelves. Wholesale meat prices have gone up 25 per cent in some grazing areas. Meat industry officials said that major slaughter houses could not get enough stock. Hundreds of prime beef cattle were drowned during floods which began six weeks ago. South of the border in New South Wales floods are still sweeping through most river systems, but gradually moving south. SHEEP DEATHS The tiny north-west towns of Walgett and Brewarrina, isolated for the past week, are slowly growing bigger as the waters recede. Around them, hundreds of miles of fencing have been obliterated and an estimated 300,000 sheep are dead. Waves are still lapping at enormous banks thrown up around Bourke, and the 1400 residents are confident they will survive. The water is as high as experts expect it will go, but another crest is due at the town in about nine days.