"FOOD BOMBER" FERRY TO FLOOD-BOUND SETTLERS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22891, 10 March 1949, Page 5

"FOOD BOMBER" FERRY TO FLOOD-BOUND SETTLERS

(11 a.m.) SYDNEY, Mar. 10. Low-flying planes today commenced dropping food parcels weighing 121 b. to flood-bound homesteads in northwest New South Wales. They are operating from Tibooburra as part of a hastily organised airlift to aid isolated graziers and their families. The distribution is being carried out by De I-lavilland Dragons of the '‘flying doctor” service. Planes of Silver City Airways and New South Wales police are shuttling food and any other necessary supplies from Broken Hill to Tibooburra for distribution. Police planes are also searching for a station manager, his wife, a station hand and two boundary riders who have been missing since Friday.

The airlift covers CO stations completely surrounded by huge lakes four to six feet deep. One family is camped out on an unprotected sandhill, but is able to keep in touch with Broken Hill by pedal wireless. In some parts the flooding has passed its peak but lias left a sea of mud which will be impassable for weeks. The worst flood area is a stretch 50 miles wide between Broken Hill and ; Milparinka, where usually dry lakes have linked into an inland sea. Tibooburra is isolated by road after * receiving in five days its normal amount of rain for two years, but the airstrip is fortunately in good condition.