TRAPPED BY SNOW

Taranaki Daily News, 6 September 1935, Page 14

TRAPPED BY SNOW

ORDEALS IN AUSTRALIA TOURISTS AT MT. KOSCIUSKO. Tourists among the 103 who were snow-bound in the hotel at Mount Kosciusko, New South Wales, on the occasion of the recent snowstorms, and who reached Sydney on August 6, gave vivid descriptions of the blizzard which raged there. Dark figures, bent to the storin, struggling across a white waste, gangs of men working like bullocks, hauling the snow ploughs; beds in ballrooms and bathrooms; and the restriction of toast to one piece for each guest at each meal —these were some of the incidents related.

Mr. T. Harigan, of the Public Service Ski Club, gave an amusing account, of efforts to keep the snow plough working. The plough is driven by a lorry engine, and when in order tears a wide furrow along which cars and other vehicles may travel.

“That plough will haunt the dreams of a good many of us for weeks,” said Mr. Harigan. “It is as temperamental as a prima donna, as hard to handle as a mule, and as easy to move as a tank. But it met its match in a genius we had there. The distributor of the plough was frozen solid, and it looked as if the plough would stay there until the summer.

“Our genius took out the distributor, put it on a shovel, and held it over a fire in the snow, made from an old bag soaked in petrol. There was a little difficulty at first, but in the end it worked like a charm. Tire plough started. Unfortunately, it kept stopping. The batteries were soon flat. One of our favourite amusements was to put all the men we could find to hauling the plough about in the hope that it would start. I must have spent about six hours on it myself. “Eventually we obtained batteries from other cars, and started it that way. When we were leaving, one of the cylinders of the plough stopped working. It was cracked. The difficulty was overcome by cutting out that cylinder and working on the others.” Mr. J. Armstrong, a member of the Sydney City Council, described the rescue of the party which was stranded in the blizzard when the service cars broke down on August 3. “They looked a pitiful procession, as they passed the gap and straggled down the hill toward the hotel,” he said. “Some of the women, finding that they sank almost to their knees in the snowdrifts, bound sacking, rag, or any other material they could find, round their feet. ‘ Some people who had no adequate protection for hands or feet were frost-bitten. At this time the snow was falling so thickly that it was almost impossible to see more than a few hundred yards ahead. “The guests from the hotel were all wearing ski-ing costume, and consequently found the going much easier. They helped the newcomers as they stumbled through the drifts, and served as guides. A horse-drawn sleigh was used to carry four women who did not think they could make the trip on their feet, but some of the others, and men, too, were pretty far gone when they reached the hotel. We thawed them out with coffee.”

Mr. G. H. Raynor, who was in charge of the production of the film “The Burgomeister” at Kosciusko, said that the work of filming was finished several hours before the storm began. Afterward the camerman found pictures they had not expected. People entering the hotel had an extraordinary appearance.