Stranded For Three Days On Train

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30957, 13 January 1966, Page 12

Stranded For Three Days On Train

■IN.Z. Press Association —Copyright) ALICE SPRINGS, January 12. Central Australia’s passenger train, the Ghan, on which more than 100 people have been living under camp conditions for the last three days, was like a deserted ship today.

Only a handful of the original 110 passengers remain on board, The rest have continued to Adelaide by air.

Most then will have to head north again to Port August, 200 miles away to pick up cars which were railed ahead of them last Saturday.

About 10 of the stranded passengers were able to get on yesterday’s scheduled airline flight and nearly all the remainder were leaving today. When Trans-Australia Airlines announced it would run a special flight to Adelaide this morning, there was such a scramble for seats that a second flight had to be ordered. A complement of 52 passengers left on the first flight and the second was two-thirds full within an hour of the airways’ office opening. Goods Trains Derailed The 110 passengers were stranded in Alice Springs when Sunday’s Ghan to Adelaide was turned back near the Northern Territory .South Australia border by a goods train derailment The position was further complicated when torrential rain in the far north of South Australia washed out nearly 80 miles of the unballasted railway track. It is still not known when the line will be open again. The Ghan returned to Alice Springs late on Sunday night and passengers were told they could live on the train. After breakfast the next day they were told no more meals would be served and the kitchen and dining room crew were stood down from duty. The special T.A.A. flight

which left this morning brought 10,0001 b of cargo to Alice Springs last night. Much of this was perishable food, fruit and vegetable, fresh milk and beer.

Alice Springs, in common with Darwin, and other Northern Territory centres, is dependent on the line for perishables and other food. Flown Food

With the railway unserviceable and the road to Adelaide impassible because of washouts and flood water, Alice Springs must depend on food flown from the south.

Mr Rob Warmsley, of Sydney, one of the stranded passengers, said, “it’s been a long wait. I can’t wait to get on board the plane. “Things have been pretty tough for the last four days. The only clothes I have are those I am wearing and facili-

ties for washing are pretty limited.” A French seismic survey crew of 29 men is marooned by floodwaters and mud in sparsely populated country north of Oodnadatta. The men were on their way to Pedirka railway siding, 75 miles north of Oodnadatta to conduct seismic surveys for French Petroleum Company (Australia), Proprietary, Ltd.

Hundreds of other persons and small towns remain isolated by floodwaters which have cut roads. Flooded rivers show no signs of receding quickly. The Bureau of Meteorology says there should be areas of rain and isolated thunderstorms again today. Hundreds of square miles between Alice Springs and Oodnadatta are still covered by a large sheet of swiftlymoving water.