TEST OF BLACKOUT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 24009, 5 July 1941, Page 8

TEST OF BLACKOUT

SYDNEY EXPERIMENT

SWITCHING OFF LIGHTS ROADS CLOSED TO TRAFFIC SYDNEY, July 2 One hundred and sixty-three square miles of Sydney will be blacked out between 9.30 and p.m. on Sunday, in the biggest air-raid precautions test the city has yet had.

The area affected includes the municipalities of North Sydney, Lane Cove, Mosman, Willoiighbv, and Manly, and the shires of Warringah and Kuringgai. During the half-hour all public iights must be switched off; all exterior lighting, including advertising signs, must be extinguished; and all interior lighting must oe extinguished or effectively screened. All roads entering the area will be closed to traffic.

The Minister for National Emergency Services, Mr. Heffron, said he hoped the public would co-operate by not entering the areas in motor-cars. Immediately the sirens sounded, drivers of vehicles within the area of the blackout must draw to the left-hand side of the road, remain stationary throughout the blackout, and extinguish all lights except the red portion of the tail-light. Onfy official cars, fire brigade vehicles, ambulances, and doctors' cars would be permitted to travel. Mr. Heffron added that the Harbour Bridge would he closed on the Sydney side and no traffic, except trains, would be allowed on it after 9.25 p.m. until the blackout ended.