TELEGRAPH January 30, 1986 Thursday WINNIE WREAKS HAVOC SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: REYNOLDS P LENGTH: 318 words Wini wreaks havoc Four men scrambled to safety after their stricken trawler was driven aground by Cyclone Winifred on South Brook Island near Cardwell early today. The 10m trawler Darkie was battered by 30 to 40 knot winds and heavy seas whipped up by the cyclone. Cyclone Winifred, with wind gusts up to 90 kmh at its centre, developed overnight and was situated 260km east-north-east of Cooktown at 4am. The trawler, which operates from Innisfail, drifted helplessly in 4m to 6m swells after losing its steering rudder and all its anchors in the howling wind and driving rain. The trawler ran aground about 3am and the Ingham Coast Guard was unable to launch a rescue operation because rough conditions had reduced visibility to zero. The four men were stranded on South Brook Island and were reported to be safe and well. Meanwhile, heavy rainfalls were reported on the north tropical coast and adjacent ranges between Cairns and Townsville, with some flooding occurring. Sixty-eight passengers from the Cairns-bound Sunlander train had to be taken there by bus after water flooded tracks between Babinda and the Mulgrave River, Gordonvale. The Sunlander was forced to return south because of the flood and squally conditions. In the Johnstone River, Innisfail, which had been saturated by more than 200mm of rain overnight, a trawler broke its moorings and ran aground on Banana Island. No one was aboard the vessel. At 8am, Cyclone Winifred was 270km east of Cape Flattery, and 310km north-east of Cairns, moving south-south-east at 25kmh. Winifred has a central pressure of 995 millibars and maximum wind gusts reach 90kmh at its centre. The cyclone warning extends from Cooktown to Townsville and covers a gale warning between Cooktown and Cardwell. A strong wind warning extends south to Gladstone. Weather Bureau photograph showing the position of Cyclone Winifred at 4am today ================================================================ TELEGRAPH January 31, 1986 Friday WILD WINNIE GROWS STRONGER SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: DOORLEY N LENGTH: 265 words Wild Winnie grows stronger Cyclone Winifred was intensifying this afternoon, with 170kmh winds at its centre. Winifred, was moving south-south-east parallel to the coast at 10kmh, was causing wind gusts of 130kmh in exposed waters between Port Douglas and Cardwell. Early today the cyclone was 240km east of Cooktown and 240km north-east of Cairns. A Weather Bureau spokesman said Winifred had intensified and could move back towards the coast. A cyclone warning is current from Cape Tribulation to St Lawrence and a cyclone watch extends south from Gladstone. The spokesman said Winifred was causing gales between Cape Tribulation and Bowen, and a strong wind warning was issued for areas north of Cape Melville and south of Gladstone. A 15m yacht with a crew of four, including a Brisbane man, centre of a sea rescue last week, again is overdue off the Queensland coast. Relatives fear the yacht, James Cook, could have been caught in heavy seas whipped up by Cyclone Winifred. Skipper, Mr Brendan Godwin, 37, of Melbourne, his brother, Martin, 31, of Brisbane, and Edward Lebbink, 35, and Jan Henricks, 33, also of Melbourne, were rescued by helicopter from mountainous swells caused by Cyclone Vernon off Mackay last Friday. The crew reboarded the yacht, and set sail for Great Keppel Island on Sunday, police said. Police believe the sailors may have sought shelter in the lee of an uninhabited island. Relatives contacted police after the yacht failed to arrive at Great Keppel Island, east of Yeppoon, on Wednesday. Today's satellite picture of Cyclone Winifred ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL January 31, 1986 Friday CYCLONE BATTERS FAR NORTH COASTLINE SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MAHER N LENGTH: 234 words Cyclone batters far north coastline CYCLONE Winifred was growing in strength late last night as it moved slowly down the far north Queensland coastline. Coastal areas between Mossman and Innisfail have been battered by torrential rain and winds of more than 130 km/h. The Tully River is expected to burst its banks early today and cut the Bruce Highway. A Weather Bureau spokesman said: ""At 8 p.m. the cyclone was almost stationary 200 km east of Cooktown and moving fractionally closer to the coastline." The spokesman said the cyclone had not affected Brisbane's weather yet. A strong wind warning had been issued for small craft north to Cape Melville and south to Double Island Point. Relatives of the crew of the 11 m yacht James Cook, which got into trouble in cyclonic conditions in north Queensland last week, have contacted police because they are concerned that the boat has been caught again in bad weather. The four-man crew reboarded the boat in waters off Mackay on Sunday after abandoning it in rough seas last Friday. The James Cook was expected to have reached Great Keppel Island, off Rockhampton, on Wednesday but had not arrived there yesterday. Police believe the yacht may have sought shelter on an uninhabited island and there are no plans for a search. On the Sunshine Coast, three men were rescued from a 5 m runabout which capsized on the Caloundra bar about 5 p.m. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 1, 1986 Saturday WINIFRED IS MOVING SOUTH SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: PIE T LENGTH: 115 words Winifred is moving south CYCLONE Winifred intensified last night after it lashed the far north Queensland coast with heavy rain and high winds yesterday. A Brisbane Weather Bureau spokesman said Winifred was moving slowly down the coast with 170 km/h winds near its centre. The spokesman said Winifred was centred 260 km east of Port Douglas at 11 p.m., moving south-south-east at 15 km/h. A cyclone warning for districts between Cairns and St Lawrence was issued at 5 p.m. yesterday. ""It's not causing any real trouble but it may if it decides to turn towards the coast," the spokesman said. He said a strong wind warning was issued for the coast between Cooktown and Gladstone. ================================================================ SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) February 2, 1986 Sunday WINDS GUST TO 200 KM/H SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: SCOTT S LENGTH: 96 words Winds gust to 200 km/h Cyclone Winifred last night crossed the north Queensland coast near Silkwood, 30 km north-east of Tully, about 7 p.m. With a central pressure of 960 millibars, it was moving west-south-west at 15 km/h and bringing destructive wind gusts of up to 200 km/h between Babinda and Lucinda. A Weather Bureau spokesman said the cyclone appeared to be more severe than Cyclone Althea which hit Townsville on Christmas Day, 1971, killing three people and causing $10 million damage. Forecasters say Brisbane is expected to have a few showers tomorrow. ================================================================ SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) February 2, 1986 Sunday CYCLONE HAMMERS NORTHERN COASTLINE SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: ALCORN G LENGTH: 466 words North Queensland was under siege last night from tropical cyclone Winifred. Destructive winds up to 220 km/h were lashing the coast and damaging homes. Power lines were torn down, trees were uprooted and floodwaters began to rise. A Weather Bureau spokesman said the cyclone appeared to be more severe than Cyclone Althea which hit Townsville on Christmas Day, 1971, killing three people and causing $10 million damage. Innisfail, 86 km south of Cairns, was worst affected yesterday. More than 30 houses were unroofed and power lines were brought down.Windows broken A number of windows in Innisfail Hospital were broken by the fierce winds and all patients were evacuated to the ground floor. Dr Stephen Priestley said the hospital had lost power and was on emergency supplies. Ambulance staff were on full alert. The Cairns Base Hospital also had the roof blown from one building. The hospital last night was using emergency power. Emergency teams last night were evacuating several north Queensland resorts. Innisfail Coast Guard reported all boats in Mourilyan Harbor had broken their moorings and were crashing into each other, causing major damage. Waves of up to two metres made salvage attempts impossible, a Coast Guard member, Mr Tom Blow, said. ""It's just one big mess, you can't see a thing," he said. Mr Blow said he nearly drowned after he was swept off his boat trying to moor another boat which had broken loose. The SES regional operations head, Mr Graham Jonsen, said power was cut from Innisfail to Cairns. He said heavy rain was causing widespread destruction. The Cairns Harbor Master, Captain Paul Matthews, ordered all boats in the harbor to shelter in the nearby creeks of Trinity Inlet.Roof off Police at Cardwell, 52 km north of Ingham, said winds in the area had uprooted trees, brought down power lines and unroofed several houses. A motel owner said the wind and rain was the strongest she had seen. Police at Babinda, 33 km north of Innisfail, reported several buildings unroofed. The police station's door had blown in and the Uniting Church's roof was blown away. Dunk Island caravan park owner Mrs Chris Armstrong said a tree had fallen over the park's shop, cracking the roof. Semi-permanent residents were sheltering in the amenities block. Club Tam O' Shanter at Mission Beach reported fallen trees, but little damage. ""We're still standing, but it's windy," the manager, Mrs Wanda Schellhorn, said. Police at Gordonvale, 22 km south of Cairns, reported little damage but strong winds had broken windows and brought down branches. A Weather Bureau spokesman last night said the cyclone had approached the coast in a zig-zag path. Last night, Winifred was 95 km north-east of Cardwell and moving south-west towards the coast. ================================================================ The Toronto Star February 2, 1986, Sunday, SUN Wall of snow engulfs Austrian resort hotel BYLINE: (REUTER) SECTION: NEWS; Pg. B2 LENGTH: 419 words DATELINE: INNSBRUCK, Austria INNSBRUCK (Reuter) - An avalanche engulfed the outskirts of the Austrian winter resort of Obergurgl yesterday, killing one person and smashing into a luxury hotel. Police said about a dozen people were dug out near the four-star hotel Hochfirst after a wall of snow, about 150 metres (500 feet) wide and three metres (10 feet) high, rumbled down after hours of heavy snowfall. Officials of the Austrian Automobile Association, whose helicopters helped ferry injured to Innsbruck, about 70 kilometres (45 miles) away, said the dead man was Dutch. Initial reports said about 30 people were injured. Israel, Iran built joint nuclear missile: Report LONDON (AFP) - Israel and Iran co-operated during the reign of Shah Reza Pahlevi in developing a missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead, Britain's Observer weekly newspaper said today. The paper said the missile, an improved version of a weapon built by the French Dassault firm, is now deployed by Israel in the Negev desert and the Golan Heights. S. Yemen leader cool to friendship with U.S. ADEN (Reuter) - Haider Abubaker al-Attas, South Yemen's new leader, says his country welcomes ties with the West but has some reservations about relations with the United States. Attas, named interim head of state by the ruling Socialist party last week, claimed America did not respect South Yemen's sovereignty. Reagan orders 1st cuts for balanced budget WASHINGTON (Reuter) - U.S. President Ronald Reagan yesterday ordered the first spending cuts mandated by the Gramm-Rudman Act budget deficit reduction law and vowed again to oppose any tax increase. In his weekly radio address, Reagan said he had ordered federal cuts to reduce this year's estimated $220.5 billion deficit by $11.7 billion. The law calls for a balanced budget by 1991. Cyclone hits Australia with 200 km/h winds SYDNEY (Reuter) - Cyclone Winifred, whipping up winds of more than 200 km/h (125 m.p.h.), hit north Queensland yesterday causing extensive damage. The cyclone, which weakened as it moved inland, destroyed scores of buildings, caused widespread power blackouts and some flooding in coastal areas north of Brisbane. At least one person was reported killed. Honduras army chief resigns after dispute TEGUCIGALPA (Reuter) - The Honduras Armed Forces Superior Council yesterday accepted the resignation of the armed forces commander, Gen. Walter Lopez Reyes, even though he said he had changed his mind and wanted to stay on. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 3, 1986 Monday PREMIER, KERIN FLY NORTH TODAY SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: LIVINGSTONE T LENGTH: 315 words Premier, Kerin fly north today THE Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, will fly to north Queensland today to inspect the damage caused by cyclone Winifred. He will travel with the State Emergency Service director, Mr Kevin Whiting, and the Acting Co-ordinator General, Mr John Mulheron. Sir Joh will visit the worst affected areas of Innisfail, Babinda, Tully and Ingham. ""I want a first-hand look at the situation to provide a full report when State Cabinet meets on Tuesday," Sir Joh said yesterday. ""Naturally the State Government stands ready to assist through its disaster relief arrangements which can provide finance and emergency supplies." Sir Joh said the Government's two helicopters had been swung into action and would be available in the north until further notice for damage assessments, food drops and evacuations. The Federal Government has promised assistance to banana and sugar-cane growers whose crops have been damaged. The Primary Industry Minister, Mr Kerin, will fly to Cairns today. He will be accompanied by a senior officer of the National Disaster Organisation, a senior Primary Industry Department official, Mr Lindsay (ALP, Herbert) and a representative of Mr Gayler (ALP, Leichhardt), who is overseas. Mr Kerin said there apparently had been extensive damage to the Tully banana crop and that sugar cane had been severely damaged in some areas. ""It is reported that Innisfail is without water and there is much damage," he said. The Commonwealth was ready to assist in terms of the agreed natural disaster relief arrangement. ""It has been the practice for many years for State Governments to initiate relief arrangements, once an accurate picture of the damage is known and fund them to a certain agreed level," he said. ""The Commonwealth then picks up additional expenditure in light of the most appropriate relief measures." Leahy's view, Page 4 ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 3, 1986 Monday NORTH LICKS ITS WOUNDS SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: WESTON P LENGTH: 492 words North licks its wounds From PAUL WESTON in Cairns NORTH Queensland awoke yesterday to be confronted by the tragedies left by cyclone Winifred. Winds of up to 220 km/h forced police and emergency workers indoors late on Saturday night. State Emergency Service and army helicopters hovered over flooded Innisfail early yesterday inspecting the worst of the damage. The town was like a wrecker's yard with tin roofing twisted around leaning telegraph poles from which overhead wires bounced on to the street. Innisfail residents who lost their homes said cyclone Winifred was the worst since 30 people died during a typhoon in 1918. An endless stream of cars with trailers shifted rubbish and supplies yesterday. A mother standing ankle-deep in mud pointed to a crumbled caravan at the riverside caravan park in Innisfail. ""This was the first tragedy," she said. About 30 caravanners were evacuated when the nearby Johnstone River began to flood early on Saturday afternoon as the cyclone suddenly turned towards Innisfail. The woman's neighbor, Melbourne-bred Pat Walden, was inside his caravan when a tree on the bank of the river was uprooted and toppled on to his van. ""I had just packed the stuff in the van and was ready to pull out. The tree started to creak and I just dived for cover. As I hit the floor it hit the roof," Mr Walden said. His brother, returning from the park's lavatory block, started to run towards the van when he saw the tree fall. But Pat was already outside. ""He came leaping out and looked as white as a lily," a neighbor said. Another neighbor, Mrs Marion Thomson, was checking her food supplies scattered in boxes on an annexe concrete block yesterday morning as her caravan was being towed from the park for repairs. She said she and her two sons had nowhere to go. ""My mother's got trees everywhere in her yard, my friend's place was flooded, so we can't do much," she said. Engineers and architects were flown to the coastal resort of Dunk Island early yesterday. Structural damage to resort buildings was minimal but the large trees and beautiful gardens which surround the resort were devastated. The resort manager, Mr Barney Steven, said: ""We used to be a tropical paradise. It's a bit like scorched earth now." All 150 guests and staff were moved to the resort's dining room, their cyclone shelter, before the eye of the storm crossed about 7 p.m. on Saturday. No one panicked and the staff performed vaudeville to break the tension of cyclone radio updates. The cyclone made a huge noise when it hit the building. ""You heard a huge thunderclap," Mr Steven said. Small tin sheds where five staff members were sleeping were flipped over. A tree crashed on three cows and a calf at the island's farm. They had to be destroyed yesterday. The island's $25,000 glass-bottom boat, Ulysses, broke its mooring and has not been seen. It is thought to have sunk somewhere between the island and the coast. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 3, 1986 Monday BATTERED BABINDA'S DAY OF DESPERATION - THREAT OF MORE RA SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: DOORLEY N LENGTH: 363 words Threat of more rain in flood areas A new low pressure system off north Queensland today threatened more misery for victims of Cyclone Winifred. The low, about 800km north-east of Cairns, was expected to bring more rain to areas still recovering from the deluge caused by by Winifred on the weekend. As more rain closed in, North Queenslanders today continued the heartbreaking task of cleaning up debris and repairing damaged houses. The State Emergency Service in Brisbane today sent more tarpaulins to provide protection for houses which had been unroofed. ""We have sent about 300 tarpaulins already, and another 400 will be sent today," a SES spokesman said. Many relief workers had their first sleep in 48 hours last night. The spokesman said a huge number of volunteers _ some who had lost everything themselves _ were helping victims.Stationary The Gray and Newman families, of Silkwood, south of Innisfail, lost close to all their possessions in Winifred's fury, and at first light yesterday, they were busy helping each other in the clean up. A Brisbane Weather Bureau spokesman said the low was stationary in the Coral Sea and was not deepening. ""However, it could turn nasty and form into a cyclone," he said. ""You cannot be sure with these systems." The spokesman said Cyclone Winifred had weakened into a rain depression, and was affecting weather patterns as far west as Richmond, 500km west of Townsville. ""It is bringing showers and thunderstorms to these areas, and I'm sure this is being appreciated," he said. ""It has been very dry there." The spokesman said flood warnings were current for the Tully and Herbert Rivers.Rivers peak He said both rivers peaked yesterday, and levels were starting to drop. The Herbert River reached 12.2m at 3pm, and the Tully River 9.09m. ""While more run-off can be expected, the worst flooding is over," the spokesman said. Brisbane will be cloudy with a little rain increasing overnight, according to the Weather Bureau. A spokesman forecast Brisbane would reach a maximum of 29deg., with a gusty change this afternoon. Similar conditions should be experienced on the Gold and Sunshine coasts. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 3, 1986 Monday MISERY OF IT ALL! SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: WEIGHTMAN J LENGTH: 118 words With one dead, scores injured and millions of dollars of damage in the wake of cyclone Winifred, helicopters today rushed tarpaulins and technicians to shattered north Queensland amid fears of more storms hitting the rain-sodden area. Babinda today emerged as the worst-hit town with 500 homes badly damaged and two churches flattened. It could take days to restore power to the 1400 residents. Forecasters said that although more rain could fall within 24 hours, they believed flooding had peaked. Reports, more pictures: P2,3 RIGHT: A schoolboy swings open his front gate, but Dad's not going anywhere in the family car as the Johnstone River flows through Coronation Drive in Innisfail today. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 3, 1986 Monday BATTERED BABINDA'S DAY OF DESPERATION - TOWN LACKS FOOD, SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: HAIRSINE M / MCCARTHY B LENGTH: 503 words The shattered North Queensland township of Babinda today faced desperation in the wake of Cyclone Winifred. It was hot and humid, there was no power, no drinking water, and there were worries over food supplies. Some areas could be without power for days, and without refrigeration, food, especially meat, is being dumped. The town was virtually flattened by Winifred on Saturday night, with about 90 percent or 500 homes being severely damaged. Two churches were levelled. State Emergency Service helicopters were airlifting in tarpaulins to provide temporary cover for houses which had had roofs torn away in winds up to 220kmh. The town's 1400 residents today began the depressing clean-up of their streets and homes, with food and health worries of major concern. ""There is no power _ that is our main worry," Sgt. John Howell, of Babinda police, said. ""Whole rows of power poles were blown down, some of them containing transformers. ""We've been told that some areas could be without power for five days." Far North Queensland Electricity board employees had restored power to about two-thirds of the 55,000 buildings in the area by midday. Essential services had been reconnected, authorities said. Babinda received the brunt of Winifred's fury, with the surrounding townships of Innisfail, Tully, Malanda, Silkwood, and Millaa Millaa also being extensively damaged. George Allan Dunn, 43, of Malanda, was killed when he was blown from a shed roof during the height of the cyclone. A 13-year-old Innisfail girl is still in a serious condition in Cairns Base Hospital after flying roofing iron struck her in the stomach. While the mopping up continued, residents were breathing easier as swollen rivers receded overnight. There were fears that the area would receive its worst floods in history with the cyclone dumping 400mm of water in some areas. Early today the Herbert River was running at 12.15m _ 8m above normal levels _ but was posing no threat to Ingham. Ingham was totally isolated with some businesses suffering minor flooding. There were also growing health problems with no fresh water. In the Cairns district, there was no major damage although power only had been restored to 25 percent of homes early today. In Innisfail, water supply had been returned and power restored to essential services and businesses. In Cardwell, Tully, El Arish, Silkwood and South Johnstone power was being restored progressively. Bread and other essential food supplies being dropped by helicopter. In Ingham, a caravan park threatened by flood waters was evacuated, and two people with medical conditions were airlifted from the Herbert River valley to Ingham Hospital. Most schools in affected areas were closed today. Telephone services were severely restricted as damaged lines and a flood of calls caused major congestion at exchanges. Helicopters were dropping Telecom and North Queensland Electricity Board technicians into trouble spots to restore power and communications. ================================================================ The Advertiser February 3, 1986 Monday Death and damage in the wake of Winifred SOURCE: aap LENGTH: 383 words BRISBANE - A man was killed, dozens of people were injured, hundreds of homes were destroyed and crops were flattened when Cyclone Winifred savaged north Queensland on Saturday night. Winifred, with winds up to 220 km/h, crossed the coast at Silkwood, south of Cairns, leaving a path of destruction more than 100 kilometres wide before it lost intensity and became a rain-bearing depression. A 43-year-old man was killed at Malanda, on the Atherton Tableland, when he was blown from a shed roof, and an Innisfail girl, 14, is in a serious condition in hospital after being badly gashed in the stomach by flying roofing iron. The Queensland Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, promised immediate aid from the State's disaster relief program and the Federal Government was expected to help through its National Disaster Fund. Most damage centered on the sugar towns of Ingham, Innisfail and Babinda, but stretched north to Cairns and inland to Millaa Millaa. The full extent of the damage is not expected to be known for several days because some small communities were cut off by flooding. 'Devastated' The State Emergency Service northern regional director, Mr Graham Jonsen, said damage had been very severe at Innisfail, Kurramine Beach and Silkwood. Senator Reynolds, of Townsville, who inspected the area yesterday, said; "Babinda is simply devastated. Houses are blown apart, buildings unroofed and sugar cane and banana crops flattened." Cairns residents were warned to boil drinking water after the city's water-treatment plant failed because of power cuts. At Ingham, 150 kilometres south, rising floodwaters yesterday forced families to evacuate their homes. Police said the main business area also was flooded. Almost 400 millimetres of rain had fallen at Cardstone during the cyclone. Most of the area from Cairns to Ingham and west to Georgetown had been blacked out and it was not expected that power would be restored until late last night. Sir Joh, the SES director, Mr Kevin Whiting, and the Federal Minister for Primary Industry, Mr Kerin, will fly to the area today. In CANBERRA yesterday, Mr Kerin said the Federal Government had promised cyclone-crop-damage help to banana and sugar-cane growers whose crops had been damaged by the cyclone. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 3, 1986 Monday WALLY'S PLANE DIVERTED SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: DOORLEY N LENGTH: 95 words Wally's plane diverted Australian Test rugby league captain Wally Lewis narrowly escaped Cyclone Winifred's fury on the weekend. Lewis's plane was diverted away from Cairns on Saturday night as 240kmh winds swirled through the area. Lewis's wife Jackie said today: ""Wally was flying to Cairns from Mareeba when the cyclone crossed the coast. ""He was going there for a kicking competition. The plane was turned back from Cairns Airport and thankfully, there's not much more to tell." Mrs Lewis said her husband was expected to arrive back in Brisbane today. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 3, 1986 Monday FEARS END FOR YACHT CREW SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: DOORLEY N LENGTH: 103 words Fears end for yacht crew The four crew, including a Brisbane man, of a 15m yacht believed missing in cyclone-buffeted waters off north Queensland are safe at Yeppoon. Police said the yacht sailed into Rosslyn Bay on Friday after initial fears it had been hit by Cyclone Winifred. Relatives contacted police after the yacht, James Cook, failed to arrive at Great Keppel Island, off Rockhampton, on Wednesday. Skipper Brendan Godwin, 37, of Melbourne, his brother Martin, 31, of Brisbane, Edward Lebbink, 35 and Jan Henricks, 33, also of Melbourne, were rescued by helicopter from mountainous swell off Mackay. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 3, 1986 Monday WATCH ON ANOTHER SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: PIE T LENGTH: 104 words Watch on another THE Brisbane Weather Bureau last night was watching another tropical low over the Coral Sea. A bureau spokesman said the low was very thin and showed no signs of deepening for the next few days. The rain depression caused when cyclone Winifred crossed the coast would disappear in the next few days. The depression was affecting weather patterns as far west as Richmond, 500 km west of Townsville, causing showers and isolated thunderstorms. ""It is likely to bring further showers and thunderstorms to the north west and is also affecting Brisbane's weather to a small extent," the spokesman said. ================================================================ The Xinhua General Overseas News Service FEBRUARY 3, 1986, MONDAY australia's queensland hit by tropical cyclone LENGTH: 253 words DATELINE: canberra, february 3; ITEM NO: 020351 costal areas along australia's eastern state of queensland were badly hit in the past two days by a tropical cyclone believed to be the severest in the past 15 years. the cyclone winifred, raging up to 220 km/h, roared in from the pacific, savaged north queensland along the 200-kilometer coastal areas last saturday night and early yesterday. meanwhile, during the 18 hours, a 450-millimeter rainfall was recorded in those areas. hundreds of houses were flattened and millions of dollars worth of sugar and banana crops ruined. yachts and trawlers at the harbor sank during the cyclone. a tourist submarine on the great barrier reef was also reported missing. although floods are gradually receding today, tens of thousands of houses are still without power. hundreds of evacuated people are stil unable to return to their homes. today, state emergency service crews, police and their helpers were working through on the damaged areas as isolated showers continued to fall. federal minister for primary industry john kerin today flew to the cyclone devastated places for an on-the-spot inspection. he said, destruction to houses was severe and damage to sugar cane crops "very extensive." social security minister brian howe also declared today that his ministry would act to help all those in need of immediate financial assistance as a result of the cyclone. it is said that previous cyclones in the northern queensland like althea in 1971 and ada in 1970 were but small intense depressions. ================================================================ The Toronto Star February 3, 1986, Monday, FINAL EDITION Tropical cyclone kills 2 in Australia BYLINE: REUTER SECTION: NEWS; Pg. A3 LENGTH: 69 words DATELINE: SYDNEY SYDNEY (Reuter) - A tropical cyclone killed at least two people, injured dozens, destroyed hundreds of homes and flattened crops when it hit Queensland in northeastern Australia yesterday, an Australian weather bureau spokesman said. Cyclone Winifred, with winds of over 200 km/h (125 m.p.h.), carved a path of destruction more than 100 kilometres (60 miles) wide before weakening as it moved inland. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 3, 1986 Monday NORTH BRACES FOR FLOOD SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: PIE T / WRIGHT J LENGTH: 1351 words Report: TIM PIE and JOHN WRIGHT Picture: RUSSELL FRANCIS NORTH Queensland last night prepared for severe floods after the fiercest cyclone for 15 years cut a 200 km path of destruction. State Emergency Service crews and other volunteers worked around the clock yesterday to evacuate people from low-lying areas around Ingham, 107 km north of Townsville, and in the Tully and Burdekin Rivers catchment areas. The Herbert River at Abergowrie Bridge, upstream from Ingham (pop. 5600), yesterday reached 15.8m, more than 3m higher than its level in floods which hit Ingham in 1967 and 1977. But last night, the waters there began to drop. Cyclone Winifred, with winds up to 220 km/h, roared in from the Pacific and crossed the coast at Silkwood, 100 km south of Cairns, at 7 p.m. on Saturday. In five hours, the cyclone killed at least one person, injured dozens, destroyed hundreds of homes and flattened farm crops worth millions of dollars. Most damage centred on the coastal towns of Ingham, Innisfail and Babinda but stretched north to Cairns and inland to Millaa Millaa. Police and State Emergency Service officers said the full extent of the damage would not be known for several days because some small communities were cut off by flooding and telephones were not working. Wind blows man to his death from shed roof Police said George Allan Dunn, 43, a pensioner, of Malanda on the Atherton Tableland, was killed when he was blown from a shed roof. They said he had been nailing roofing iron on to the shed, and might have been blown off the roof by a wind gust. A 13-year-old Innisfail girl was in a serious condition in Cairns Base Hospital after having been badly gashed in the stomach by flying roofing iron. Her name had not been released last night. Ingham police said the main business area was flooded yesterday and water had been 10m over the Herbert River weir. Almost 400mm (16 inches) of rain fell in 18 hours to 3 a.m. yesterday at Cardstone on the Tully River. After the cyclone crossed the coast 30 km north-east of Tully, it devastated a 200 km stretch of coastline from Cairns to Ingham, flattened buildings, tore down power lines and uprooted trees. At Babinda, about 500 homes suffered major damage; at Innisfail, 200 homes were badly damaged. Several houses were demolished at Mission Beach, the Badama Island resort was in ruins and scores of houses were unroofed at Tully, Silkwood, Kurramine Beach, Cardwell, El Arish, South Johnstone and Mourilyan. At Babinda, a shop with five people trapped inside was demolished late on Saturday night. All were rescued by State Emergency Service volunteers. Earlier, a family was rescued from a collapsed house in Innisfail, and more than 100 residents of caravan parks were evacuated to the Johnstone Shire Council chambers in the town. At Mourilyan, 12 boats were sunk in the harbor, at least one house was demolished and 20 unroofed. Every building in the town was reported to be damaged in some way. By 3 a.m., Winifred had weakened into a rain depression about 120 km west of Cardwell. After the destruction, came the risk of flooding. Dozens of people in the Tully and Herbert River areas were evacuated yesterday. A Weather Bureau spokesman said there was little rain associated with the rain depression caused when the cyclone crossed the coast. ""There are local thunderstorms and showers but there is little rain, mostly drizzle, associated with the rain depression," the spokesman said. He said the Tully and Herbert Rivers broke their banks yesterday morning as they filled with rain from their catchment areas. The top end of the Burdekin River rose and flooded low-lying areas, and people on the Glen Ruth station near the Burdekin were evacuated. State Emergency Service director, Mr Kevin Whiting, said late yesterday about 500 personnel had been mobilised to cope with the huge task of restoring power and services to areas stricken by the cyclone, and to rescue people stranded in isolated communities. Most of Cairns was blacked out in the cyclone, except for the inner-city area, and most coastal towns south of the city lost power at some time yesterday. Power was slowly being restored to the more accessible areas. King tides swept beaches and forced shipping to take shelter in protected harbors. Mr Whiting estimated conservatively that 1000 homes had received major damage and hundreds more had suffered other damage along a 200 km coastal strip. ""The damage hasn't been estimated, but it looks very costly," he said. ""Government workers are trying to assess the damage but there are reports that it will run into the millions of dollars." Mr Whiting said several smaller coastal communities were still isolated late yesterday with power lines down and roads cut by extensive flooding. Helicopters had been used to evacuate people from the worst-affected areas in Ingham and Babinda and to try to assess the situation in more isolated centres. SES workers yesterday gave priority to restoring power and communications and delivering hundreds of tarpaulins flown into the area for families who had lost the roofs of their houses. Power was restored to most of Ingham late last night. People in other affected areas were expected to have power restored sometime today. Ingham's main street was under water yesterday morning and roads north and south of the town were cut. The Insurance Council of Australia expects hundreds of claims for damaged houses and cars. A council spokesman said yesterday there was no estimate of damage yet but it was likely to run to tens of millions of dollars. The Royal Automobile Club of Queensland yesterday warned people not to travel on north Queensland highways. A spokesman said the Bruce Highway between Cairns and Innisfail was blocked by floodwater. The Gillies and Palmerston Highways also were cut. He said debris and unpredicatable flood waters had made road conditions in most of north Queensland extremely dangerous. A police spokesman said rescue and relief efforts in the Innisfail and Ingham areas were being hampered by jamming of the telephone systems. ""With power out in most areas the only effective forms of communications at the moment are telephone and radio," the spokesman said. ""Heavy loading is being caused to the telephone system in the area by people trying to check on relatives and friends. ""Telecom has disconnected all calls between Townsville and Ingham to try and avoid a complete collapse of the system." Residents were warned to boil water before drinking. Chlorination plants had been blacked out and were inoperable, so drinking water had to be sterilised. The State Government sent two helicopters to the area to help with food drops and report on damage. Senator Margaret Reynolds, of Townsville, inspected the cyclone area yesterday. ""Babinda is simply devasted," she said. ""Houses are blown apart, buildings unroofed and sugar cane and banana crops flattened." The Cairns Mayor, Alderman Ron Davis, broadcast urgent radio warnings for residents to boil drinking water after the city's water treatment plant failed because of power cuts. The Far North Queensland Electricty Board general manager, Mr Don Lister, said crews were working at top pace to repair damage. ""The main damage to power lines was from fallen trees," he said. ""The lessons of cyclones Althea and Tracy seem to have made their mark on the building code. That's why I think we should have power back to the great majority of people by tomorrow night." A Queensland Electricity Commission spokesman, Mr David Price, said a helicopter found a major power line tower down at Babinda. He said flooding and rugged terrain would hamper repairs. ""Power generation has been cut to 10 percent at the Kareeya hydro-electric station at Tully because of the debris caught in the screens over the inlets," he said. The Australian Sugar Producers Association secretary, Mr Ron Belcher, said the main threat to cane crops would come if severe flooding followed the cyclone. ""The real problem for farmers is erosion by wind and water later," he said. Continued, Page 2 ================================================================ The Advertiser February 4, 1986 Tuesday Cyclone-hit Qld might get double disaster aid SOURCE: aap LENGTH: 460 words BRISBANE - The parts of far north Queensland worst hit by cyclone Winifred have been declared a disaster area by the State Government. Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen made the declaration during a tour of the area devastated by 220 km/h winds and torrential rain at the weekend. It means farmers, business owners and families suffering financial hardship because of the storm will be able to get assistance from the Government. Federal Minister for Primary Industry Mr Kerin, who also inspected affected areas, indicated that farmers hit by cyclone Winifred could receive help under the natural disasters relief arrangement. Sir Joh said the State Government would provide the first $10m in aid and further State aid would be matched dollar for dollar by the Federal Government. Local magistrates and welfare workers had been authorised to process claims immediately. Sir Joh told a news conference he was particularly sympathetic to cane farmers who had suffered crop losses. "It's a cruel blow," he said. "Some people who had turned to alternative crops because of the depressed sugar industry have been wiped out." Queensland's Minister of Northern Development, Mr Katter, said damage to the cane crop and associated businesses could be between $60m and $70m. It would be some days before the full damage to crops could be assessed. "The Queensland Government can get hardship money straight away," he said. "To date, 40 p.c. of the Innisfail cane crop has been flooded but worse is to come as the overflow runs down off the tablelands." The State Emergency Service, local councils and community groups were yesterday continuing the massive clean-up between Cairns and Ingham. SES volunteers, personnel from north Queensland defence force bases and local volunteers were working to clear debris and make emergency repairs to the hundreds of homes and buildings damaged during the cyclone. SES and RAAF helicopters were also being used to assess damage, while a Navy patrol boat had been sent to assess damage to offshore islands. Despite continuing rain yesterday, floodwaters in the Herbert and Tully Rivers were beginning to recede slowly. Salvation Army Captain Ian Hutchinson said from Brisbane that teams of Salvation Army workers were ready to move into the cyclone-affected areas as soon as the roads opened. "What's mainly needed are food parcels and personal necessities, especially for young mothers and their babies," he said. A Queensland Electricity Commission officer said power had been restored to two-thirds of the cyclone-hit area. The Minister for Social Security, Mr Howe, said from Canberra the aim was to collect and process claims for financial help as quickly as possible. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 4, 1986 Tuesday RELIEF TEAMS MOVE OUT INTO NORTH'S BATTERED DISTRICTS SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: HUME C LENGTH: 226 words Relief teams move out into north's battered districts SOCIAL Security Department emergency teams are travelling to cyclone ravaged north Queensland to help victims. The Federal Social Security Minister, Mr Howe, said yesterday staff from Cairns and Townsville were identifying where teams were required and what services were needed. Mr Howe said the teams would collect and process claims for financial assistance as quickly as possible. Many people would be eligible for unemployment benefits because of damage to farms, sugar mills and factories. Brisbane Weather Bureau reported yesterday its staff had no trouble keeping track of cyclone Winifred, despite some shortages of personnel in its observer network. The assistant director, Mr Geoff Crane, said extra staff were called in and special observations asked for in emergencies. In Winifred's case, many reports came from automatic weather stations and satellite photographs outside the normal observer network A bureau spokesman said a low pressure system about 800 km north-east of Cairns was showing no signs of causing further trouble to the coastal areas affected by cyclone Winifred. ""It is a very shallow system and is showing no sign of deepening or becoming a cyclone," the spokesman said. ""It is too far off the coast to be affecting the weather there to any great degree." ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 4, 1986 Tuesday BANANA PRICES TIPPED TO RISE SOURCE: QNP LENGTH: 246 words Banana prices tipped to rise BANANA prices are expected to increase because of Cyclone Winifred, which flattened scores of north Queensland plantations. The Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, (pictured) inspected some of the plantations yesterday. Papaws might also be in short demand, pushing prices up. The Committee of Direction of Fruit Marketing (COD) general manager, Mr Neville Smith, yesterday said banana farmers could need financial assistance to restart the industry. ""I can foresee some shortage in the supply of bananas with some effect on price. We are assuming that the papaw farmers have also been flattened." Mr Smith said it was too soon to assess the impact of the cyclone on fruit and vegetable prices. He said the only immediate result could be an increase in the price of bananas. But other reports indicated widespread damage extending also to avocado crops in the upper tableland near Atherton and pineapples in the Rollingstone and Mutarnee areas to the south-east of Ingham. The Cane Growers' Council yesterday estimated that Cyclone Winifred caused about $35 million damage to sugar crops in the Innisfail area. The council said about 60-70 percent of the 270,000 tonne $60 million crop was damaged. In the Tully area, about 30 percent of the crop had been lost, costing an estimated $10 million. A council spokesman said farmers in Silkwood, about 30 km south of Innisfail, appeared to have been particularly badly affected. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 4, 1986 Tuesday HELP FOR THE NORTH SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: HOLLIDAY M LENGTH: 298 words HELP FOR THE NORTH HELP, immediate and unstinting, is needed in north Queensland as the people try to recover from Cyclone Winifred. The wet season came late this year, allowing people the hope that the annual cyclone menace would not eventuate. It was a vain hope, shattered at the weekend by smashing winds and driving rain. Hope was far from the only casualty. The cyclone brought death and injury and incredible destruction to a predominantly rural community already reeling from problems facing primary producers. Winifred was a savage blow to the banana and papaw growers, and it is hard to imagine how sugar growers, suffering from a succession of blows, can recover. This country is no stranger to natural disaster; floods, cyclones and bushfires have all seen immense government-led efforts to ease suffering. A similar effort now is required for the communities on the Queensland coast between Cairns and Townsville. The Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, the Opposition Leader, Mr Warburton and the Federal Primary Industry Minister, Mr Kerin, have inspected the damage and Sir Joh already has declared as a disaster area the worst-affected districts. It is a swift and welcome move, allowing the people in areas like Babinda, where an estimated 90 percent of houses were severely damaged, to obtain emergency relief and low- interest loans. The Federal Government should quickly follow suit and lead the people of Australia in a rescue bid. Cyclone Winifred was both ferocious and malicious. It selected as its target an already depressed area, and the damage could well prove to be the breaking point for large numbers of its victims. We cannot allow that to happen. National pride should ensure that stricken Australians are helped in every way possible. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 4, 1986 Tuesday DAMAGE WORST FOR DECADES: PREMIER SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: ROUS S LENGTH: 722 words CYCLONE Winifred had caused the worst destruction in the State for decades, the Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke- Petersen, said last night. After inspecting the north Queensland coastal areas struck on Saturday night, he declared the district from Ingham north to Cairns a disaster area. ""This cyclone stabbed at the heart of the north Queensland economy, destroying millions of dollars of crops and putting thousands of Queenslanders out of work," Sir Joh said. He said that under the natural disaster relief arrangements with the Federal Government, the State Government would provide the first $10 million in relief assistance. Beyond that, the assistance was divided between the governments. ""After seeing what I've seen today, there is no way that I can accept that the normal assistance program is going to be enough," Sir Joh said. ""This thing is too big to fit within the normal guidelines and I'm calling on the Federal Government to give this area special attention." Under the program, families whose homes were damaged could receive up to $5725 for home repairs, food and clothing. Loans up to $60,000 at an initial interest rate of 4 percent per year were available to primary producers and loans up to $50,000 at 4 percent were available to small businesses. Churches and sporting organisations could obtain loans up to $30,000 at 4 percent. Sir Joh said the $50 million banana crop and $3 million papaw crop in the district had been wiped out. The sugar cane crop suffered an estimated $60-$70 million damage. ""It's a cruel blow particularly to canegrowers who had diversified into the other crops in order to survive the depression in the sugar industry," Sir Joh said. A banana plantation owner from Innisfail, Mr Norm Kippin, told the Premier that up to 1000 people in the district had been employed in the banana industry. ""The dole queues around here are going to get a lot longer, there's no question about that," Mr Kippin said. ""Those of us who refuse to give up are going to need carry-on finance as soon as possible." Innisfail papaw grower Mrs Judy O'Farrell said: ""Most of the people don't know what to do or where to turn. It's heartbreaking." Some north Queensland communities were still without power and water last night as the clean-up continued. The Northern Development Minister, Mr Katter, said yesterday that damage to cane crops could be between $60 million and $70 million. (Report, Page 10). The Insurance Council of Australia regional manager, Mr John Hall, said it was too early to speculate on a property damage in the area. People were already queuing yesterday outside north Queensland insurance offices to make claims. Because of severe crop losses, north Queenslanders expect the damages to reach $100 million, if not more. The State Emergency Service has flown in an extra 1500 tarpaulins to provide makeshift shelter for many families. Up to five tarpaulins are needed to keep the rain out of many homes. Late yesterday, power was not expected to restored to some areas for another two days. Because of this lack of electricity, phone lines are also under great stress and Telecom has urged people to make only essential calls. Babinda, Innisfail, Tully, Silkwood, South Johnstone, Gordonvale, Ingham, Ravenshoe, and Millaa Millaa were still waiting last night to have full power restored. Several towns also continued to be isolated by floodwaters and these areas were dropped fresh bread from the SES helicopter. Tully and Ingham had heavy flooding yesterday. Babinda suffered worst, with 500 homes damaged. Innisfail had 90 homes damaged and most other towns had every house damaged in some way. A Salvation Army spokesman, Captain Ian Hutchinson, said from Brisbane yesterday that teams of Army workers were ready to move into cyclone affected areas as soon as the roads opened. ""Five teams with vehicles are ready to go in," he said. ""What's mainly needed is food parcels and personal necessities, especially for young mothers and their babies." Townsville railway traffic superintendent, Mr Max Smith, said yesterday all train services had stopped at Townsville because of water over several sections of the track. Normal services might resume today. More reports, pictures; town-by-town list of damage, Pages 10, 11 ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 4, 1986 Tuesday $60M DAMAGE TO CANE - KATTER SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: EARLE G LENGTH: 461 words $60m damage to cane _ Katter CYCLONE Winifred's damage to the cane crop and associated businesses could be between $60 million and $70 million, the Queensland Northern Development Minister, Mr Katter, said yesterday. He said the disaster made it imperative that the Federal Government give total financial support to Queensland's sugar industry. The Commonwealth wants Queensland to join a $150-million, three-year program of assistance to the industry in return for deregulation, but the Queensland Government so far has refused. The Primary Industries Minister, Mr Kerin, said it would be some days before the full damage could be assessed. ""The Queensland Government can get hardship money straight away," he said. ""But that is a separate category _ dollar for dollar. ""When we are looking at crop and flood damage, it takes some time to assess. ""To date, 40 percent of the Innisfail cane crop has been flooded, but worse is to come as the overflow runs off the tablelands." The State Emergency Service, local councils and community groups yesterday continued the massive clean-up between Cairns and Ingham. The service's deputy director, Mr Allan Windsor, said the counter-disaster operation was running smoothly. The Insurance Council of Australia State manager, Mr John Hall, said it would be some time before a total estimate of damage could be made. Social Security Department officers in far north Queensland went into the field yesterday to help provide quick financial aid to those affected. Loss adjusters and extra staff were flown to Innisfail yesterday to set up an insurance emergency service in the town hall. The service will help the hundreds of people who have insurance claims. It was the first time the Insurance Council of Queensland has been forced to put its special emergency service into action. The council regional manager, Mr John Hall, said yesterday: ""No matter who they are insured with, they can fill in one special abbreviated claim form and forget about it after that." People without their policy number or the name of their company can go to the centre and get free advice. The centre was scheduled to open late yesterday, after the council's Cairns representative went through the region on Sunday and decided the emergency service should start immediately. The service was developed some years ago, but this was the first time it had been fully deployed in Queensland. The council estimated at least 2000 houses had been severely damaged. ""There are commercial properties too," Mr Hall said. If necessary, the council will open a second emergency office in another centre to cope with claims. The council had no idea of the full damage. ""All we know is that it is very extensive," Mr Hall said. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 4, 1986 Tuesday POLICE SURVEY OF ALL DISTRICTS, DAMAGE SOURCE: QNP LENGTH: 587 words POLICE yesterday reported the following damage at centres hit by cyclone Winifred: Atherton: One house severely damaged. One man suffered minor injuries when hit by a falling tree. Babinda: 16 buildings (houses, shops, churches) damaged severely. 50 houses unroofed. 40 sheds destroyed. 500 houses damaged in the district. Three men injured with bad bruising and two women injured, one cut by flying glass and one hit by a slamming door. Water available. Bread by SES helicopter. No power. Bargara Island: No damage reported. Bingal Beach: One house unroofed. One house with tree through roof. Pacific Motel roof damage. Cairns: Five houses unroofed, 10 damaged, trees uprooted. Power lines down. Power restored to 25 percent of Cairns yesterday and water available. Telephone trunk facilities restricted. Cardwell: Six houses unroofed and every other house damaged. Water available. Bread by SES helicopter. No power. Charters Towers: Greenvale Road closed by flood waters. Roads north closed. Cowley Beach: Minor damage to homes. No evacuation required. Dunk Island: Superficial damage only. East Russell: One house damaged. El Arish: One house destroyed and 15 unroofed. Most others damaged. No injuries. Gordonvale: Some flooding. Extensive damage to crops. Trees uprooted and power lines down. Halifax: Isolated by floodwaters. Shops flooded. Herberton: No damage to buildings. Trees uprooted. Archer Bridge on Kennedy Creek severely damaged and closed. Power and phone out. Ingham: Serious flooding. Flood- waters in shops. Caravan park evacuated. Avergowie College (260 boarders) without power or water. Bread from SES. Innisfail: About 190 houses damaged ranging from extensive to minor. Power lines down. Trees uprooted. Flooding in low-lying areas. 200 people evacuated from caravan parks to the Johnstone Shire Council hall. Water restored to Innisfail township. Electricity restored to essential services and business area. Marlin Beach: Extensive damage to foreshores. Two houses unroofed. Nine others and three sheds damaged. Caravonica school roof damaged. Power lines down. Mena Creek: Town isolated by floodwaters. No communications. Milanda: 30 homes damaged and 20 farm buildings severely damaged. Telephone, power and water being restored. One man fatally injured when blown off a ladder while trying to fix roof during cyclone. Millaa Millaa: 12 houses damaged. Between 150 and 300 farm buildings damaged. No injuries. The old Palmer- ston Highway between Millaa Millaa and Innisfail closed. No power or water. Mirriwinni: 50 houses damaged. power poles down. Lines across highway. Mirriwinni to Innisfail Road cut by debris and minor washouts. Mission Beach: Two houses destroyed. Minor damage to others. Services being restored. Mourilyan: 20 houses unroofed. Every other house damaged. 12 vessels sunk in harbor. No injuries. 47 people evacuated to social club hall. Murremine Beach: 25 houses severely damaged. 51 partly damaged. power lines down. Isolated flooding. Ravenshoe: Minor damage to houses. Flooding subsiding. Minor road damage. No injuries. No power or water. Silkwood: 30 houses severely damaged, 25 partly damaged. Water restored. Bread re-supplied. No power. South Johnstone: 30 houses unroofed. 50 damaged. Bread supplies by SES. No power. Townsville: No damage. Tully: Six houses partly unroofed. Heavy flooding. Watchhouse damaged. Water reconnected. Bread delivered by SES. No power. Woopen Creek: Three houses damaged. Yungaburra: Two houses minor damage. No injuries. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 4, 1986 Tuesday FISHERMAN JIM LOST MORE THAN A HOME SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: WESTON P LENGTH: 200 words Fisherman Jim lost more than a home CAIRNS._ For north Queensland fisherman Jim Terjesen, the debt left by cyclone Winifred was greater than any lost home. Mr Terjesen found his 50-year-old yacht Umbuka yesterday smashed against the rocks at the entrance to Mourilyan Harbor. The 6 m ""old crayfisher" was the first craft the fisherman had lost in 46 years. He sat with Pat Clarkson at a small cove around from the wreckage yesterday morning, and stared out to sea. Around him were the ropes and life jackets washed ashore from 12 other vessels that sank in the harbour. Umbuka had meant everything to him. ""We had flogged a few trips with a good breeze," he said. ""She has seen some blue water, that ship. She has had a few hidings in her time." The two men had searched the rocks for a red cedar figurehead, a carving of an Aboriginal man, which was missing from under the bow of the yacht. Mr Terjesen had just replaced the top deck of the yacht which had not been insured. He said: ""I'm not going to buy another one. I'm getting too old to fix them now." He cast his eye out to sea from where Winifred had come and said: ""There's a good blow out there today, if you've got a boat." ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 4, 1986 Tuesday HELP WAS SWIFT, SAYS MINISTER SOURCE: QNP LENGTH: 184 words Help was swift, says Minister THE Social Security Minister, Mr Howe, yesterday said his department had moved quickly to help all those in need of immediate aid as a result of cyclone Winifred. Mr Howe said department staff Cairns and Townsville had spent yesterday morning trying to see where emergency teams were required and what services were needed. He said the staff at the Cairns office, some of whom had suffered damage to their own homes, were still being hampered by communications and transport difficulties. ""However, in consultation with the State Emergency Service, the Cairns office had sent teams to centres where people were in greatest need _ Innisfail and Babinda. ""The main service they will be able to provide will be to collect and process claims for financial assistance as quickly and sympathetically as possible," Mr Howe said. ""The department can mainly provide help in the form of special benefits payments, although with the damage reported to farms, sugar mills and factories, it is also likely that many people will be eligible to apply for unemployment benefits." ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 4, 1986 Tuesday LOOTERS ADD TO CYCLONE MISERY SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: DOORLEY N LENGTH: 324 words Police "disgust' at night forays LOOTERS ADD TO CYCLONE MISERY By NEIL DOORLEY Looting of vacated houses has broken out in cyclone-torn north Queensland. In Innisfail, looters used a truck to take goods away from an unattended, damaged home, a police spokesman said. He said: ""It is disgusting. People already hit by tragedy are having more misery inflicted on them by these heartless persons." The spokesman said looters in the Innisfail area operated mostly at night. The town still was without power. ""They comb through the wreckage taking anything of value they find," he said.190 damaged About 190 houses were damaged when Cyclone Winifred swept across the town on Saturday. ""We had a couple of cases of looting last night," he said. ""A truck was used in one case." The spokesman said goods stolen included furniture, refrigerators, radios, and other electrical appliances. ""With the situation the way it is here, police are too busy to conduct normal patrols," he said. ""There could more cases of looting than reported. We are finding it difficult keeping an eye on everything."Power wait Innisfail, Cairns, Tully, Silkwood, South Johnstone, Gordonvale, Ingham, Ravenshoe, and Millaa Millaa today were waiting to have full power restored. Several towns remain isolated by floodwaters. An SES helicopter dropped fresh bread to residents today. Heavy flooding continued in Tully and Ingham. Co-ordinator of the north Queensland clean-up, SES deputy director, Mr Allan Windsor, said today it could take three weeks for full power and water to be restored. Mr Windsor said 1200 tarpaulins were flown to the area yesterday, and 1000 more were expected to arrive today. Power had been restored to Babinda overnight. About 500 homes in the town were damaged in the big blow. A police spokesman in Cairns, where power has been restored to half the city, said today showers and thunderstorms were hampering the clean-up. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 4, 1986 Tuesday NO INCOME NOW FOR NINE MONTHS SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: WESTON P LENGTH: 251 words No income now for nine months From PAUL WESTON in Cairns INNISFAIL farmer Mrs Helen Devaney looked at the family's destroyed banana plantation yesterday and said: ""What do you think Joh is going to do for us?" Her husband, Mr Bill Devaney, who was salvaging some of the crop, echoed: ""We're hoping to get some assistance." About a half million dollars worth of crop ready for harvest was flattened on their farm by cyclone Winifred. Mr Devaney said the family had worked until lunchtime Friday gathering the crop until the winds became too dangerous. The wind was so strong it bent the irrigation pipes. ""It's taken us up to seven years to get the plantation to this stage, and it will take three years to get it back into the cycle." The farm would not make any money for at least nine months. Mr Devaney said: ""It will be that long before we have any trees again. We're picking up a few bunches, but you can't salvage much." At Deeral, south of Cairns, enterprising nursery wholesaler Mrs Carol Stroud probably staged the first cyclone sale in north Queensland yesterday. Mrs Stroud was selling $40,000 worth of tropical plants damaged by the cyclone at discount rates. She said: ""A friend came yesterday and suggested I have a sale. She said the ghouls on the highway would come in just to see the damage." A stream of visitors arrived in the first two hours, spending more than $300. Mrs Stroud said she would not give details of the discounts as they might offend her retailers. ================================================================ The Times (London) February 4, 1986, Tuesday North suffers in the snow (261) /SCT BYLINE: MICHAEL HORSNELL LENGTH: 275 words Drifting snow up to 10 ft deep brought further misery to the North, Wales and Scotland yesterday. The severe weather continued to hit the Pennines and the Derbyshire Peak District hardest. Most major roads were closed and police said the only safe route was the M62. In mid-Wales, high winds and snow drifts closed the A470 Merthyr to Brecon road at Storey Arms, and in Scotland the A939 Cockbridge to Tonintouol road and the A93 near Spittal of Glenshee were closed. Freezing weather caused an underground explosion of methane gas and put two pits in south Wales out of action. No one was hurt but miners working a mile away from the blast were knocked over. Electricity engineers using helicopters where trying to restore power to isolated communities in the Buxton area after conditions worsened early yesterday, freezing lines and bringing down cables, affecting 600 households. About 1,500 homes lost power in the Ludlow area of Shropshire. On the Continent, southern Europe began to return to normal. But fresh snowfalls and avalanches continued to paralyse parts of south east France. Two firemen were caught in an avalanche in the Ardeche. A soldier died and four were injured when an avalanche swept them away during a training exercise in the Alps near Bramans. In Australia, a man was killed and a thousand homes destroyed when cyclone Winifred struck the north Queensland coastal areas; in Tlemcan, Algeria, four children were killed when a chimney collapsed in their classroom during a windstorm; and in Peru, at least twenty people died when the flooding River Tambo swept away the village of Maranchari. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 5, 1986 Wednesday ROW OVER TARPAULIN SHORTAGE SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: DOORLEY N LENGTH: 483 words Disaster volunteers abused ROW OVER TARPAULIN SHORTAGE By NEIL DOORLEY Tempers are flaring in cyclone-ravaged north Queensland as desperate residents are faced with tarpaulin shortages. State Emergency Services welfare section officer, Mrs Norma Merle, 40, herself a victim of Cyclone Winifred, said today that residents were abusing volunteer relief workers. ""They come to the centre wanting tarpaulins but we just haven't got enough to go round," said Mrs Merle from the SES's centre in Innisfail Town Hall. ""I have been working at this centre since Saturday morning _ I haven't even been able to go home and have a look at the damage we received. ""People get abusive when we tell them there aren't enough tarpaulins _ or not enough manpower to put them up. ""It makes me very angry. ""They must realise everyone up here at the moment has a hard-luck story to tell." Mrs Merle said about 50 people were sleeping in the hall and that number swelled to 400 around meal time. She said the SES's manpower in Innisfail would be reduced by 100 today when Army Reserve and Navy units returned to Cairns. Many towns, including Tully, Silkwood, Babinda and Ingham, were without full electrical power today. SES director, Mr Kev Whiting, said food drops would be made to communities cut off by floodwaters. Ingham police believe a man found dead in a stormwater drain could have died in flooding caused by Cyclone Winifred.Drowned Police said Shane Patrick Smith, 30, a male nurse of Ingham Hospital, could have drowned after falling from his bike. A 43-year-old pensioner, George Allan Dunn, of Malanda, was killed when he was blown from a shed roof during the height of the cyclone on Saturday. Although over 800km from where Cyclone Winifred crossed the coast on Saturday night, the tiny western community of Adavale was today preparing for flooding. The remnants of Winifred dumped rain in the catchment areas north of the town and the water is expected to reach Adavale today or tomorrow. Preliminary estimates suggest the Federal Government may have to pay out between $65million and $140million in disaster relief as the result of Cyclone Winifred. The Federal Minister for Primary Industry, Mr Kerin, reported to senior Ministers last night on the extent of damage and possible relief measures. This will be discussed by Cabinet on Monday. Based on early damage assessments, which include those by Queensland Government Ministers, the federal allocation almost certainly will have to exceed the $24million provided in the budget this financial year to help all states meet the cost of natural disaster relief. Based on a 15-year moving average it was estimated that the Federal Government would have to pay Queensland $4.3million in disaster relief in 1985-86. However, in reality the figures vary from year to year depending on what disasters occur. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 5, 1986 Wednesday SCHOOLS COULD TAKE 12 MONTHS TO RECOVER SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MARTIN H LENGTH: 362 words Schools could take 12 months to recover NORTH Queensland schools could take a year to recover fully from cyclone Winifred, a regional education spokesman said yesterday. Thousands of students, especially in the Innisfail and Tully areas, have been affected by the cyclone. The spokesman said it would be at least six months before the worst hit-schools functioned normally again and a year before damage was fully repaired and equipment replaced. Innisfail State High School, with more than 1000 students, suffered building losses expected to exceed $500,000. Several classrooms were demolished, roofing was torn off, windows were broken and water extensively damaged most rooms. A new library was one of the few building to escape serious damage. Teachers suffered extensive personal losses. The spokesman said three Innisfail teachers lost their homes and others had flood water reaching their windows. The Education Department was trying to move demountable buildings to the area for use as classrooms. School buildings were still being used for emergency accommodation. Year 11 and 12 Innisfail State High School students would return to classes tomorrow with the rest of the school resuming on Monday. A fallen tree caused serious structural damage to the Hambledon State School. Silkwood State School lost a large roof section and had extensive water damage. Goondi State School was badly damaged by water. The Education Minister, Mr Powell, said yesterday it was still too early to predict the full cost of damage to schools, including losses of books and resources. Students in cyclone-hit and flooded areas would filter back to school when they could, he said. Sugar cane growers said discount loans offered by the State Government would not be enough if they were to survive the effects of cyclone Winifred. The Queensland Cane Growers Council chairman, Mr Fred Soper, said: ""It's not on. You would be better with straightforward money as a grant." Mr Soper yesterday visited farms in Innisfail and Babinda, and estimated damage to crops to be at least $50 million, with 800 growers in the district losing 60-80 percent of this year's harvest. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 5, 1986 Wednesday FRUIT PRICES SET TO RISE SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: GREEN P LENGTH: 186 words Fruit prices set to rise Banana, avocado, papaw and pineapple prices are set to rise as a result of Cyclone Winifred's fury in far north Queensland at the weekend. The cyclone's 220kmh winds devastated half of Australia's $50million banana harvest in the Babinda-Cardwell region and has also damaged avocado crops in the Atherton-Yungaburra area, papaws around Innisfail and some of the pineapple plantations around Rollingstone. The full extent of the damage is still being estimated. Committee of Direction of Fruit Marketing general manager, Mr Neville Smith, is in the far north today seeing the destruction first hand, with the chairman of the COD banana committee, Mr Jim Dobson. Before leaving for the north, Mr Smith said early indications were that the effects of Cyclone Winifred would be felt in the fruit marketing area for some time. ""And, like any shortage, prices will be pushed up as a result." Mr Smith said bananas had been in heavy supply recently giving growers low returns, but pleasing consumers. Main suppliers now will be southern Queensland and Coffs Harbor area growers. ================================================================ The Advertiser February 5, 1986 Wednesday Hawke pledges aid for cyclone victims SOURCE: aap LENGTH: 232 words CANBERRA - Immediate aid for those affected by cyclone Winifred was pledged today by the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, under the Natural Disaster Relief Arrangements. Mr Hawke said the Commonwealth would share further outlays with Queensland on a dollar-for-dollar basis up to a further $7m. Thereafter, three Commonwealth dollars would be provided for every State dollar made available. "Queensland has already expended disaster relief funds above the required base amount for 1985-86, $10.48 million," he said. It was now imperative that the Queensland Government adopt the Federal Government's offer of $150m assistance to the sugar industry, because the cyclone had compounded its already critical state. "While some crops escaped and late-cut cane will rehabilitate, there are many areas so knocked down that there will be no crop this year and no availability of plant cane next year," he said. Mr Hawke said the affected area's 213 banana growers had lost all their crops. "The crop will rehabilitate but the losses due to cyclone damage could mean a reduction by half in Australia's banana production." Mr Hawke said the Government was particularly concerned by the impact on unemployment because of the narrow economic base of the affected area. The Social Security Department had acted quickly to ensure it could handle claims for assistance. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 5, 1986 Wednesday SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: ROY N LENGTH: 484 words FAI joins Bond in Harriet venture LARRY Adler's FAI Insurances Ltd has paid $25 million for a stake in the Harriet oilfield off the Western Australian coast. FAI's wholly-owned subsidiary, FAI Natural Resources Pty Ltd, has acquired a 6.02 percent interest in exploration permit WA-192-P, which includes the Harriet field and the related onshore permit EP-307. FAI said it bought the exploration areas, including Harriet, for $4.15 million per percentage points. The Harriet joint venture partners _ the major one being Bond Corporation _ approved the purchase and admitted FAI to the partnership. FAI also yesterday beefed up its holding in Sydney-based brokerage firm Pembroke Securities Ltd to 40 percent by acquiring a 15 percent stake previously held by UK sharebroker T. C. Coombs and Co. THE Federal Government's tight monetary policy continued to take its toll on lending by building societies last November. New lending by building societies fell to $372 million in November _ down 10.2 percent from the $415 million lent in October and $452 million in November 1984. Deposits and investments in building societies increased by 12.8 percent in the year ended November to $17,633 million. BARRY and Roberts and Yelirq Pty Ltd, Southern Farmers subsidiaries, have withdrawn their takeover bids for Retail Stores Development Ltd and Queensland Independent Wholesalers, leaving Davids Holdings as the only bidder. KAYAREM Pty Ltd and Merayak Pty Ltd have shed some of their shareholding in News Corp. The two Murdoch family companies sold 1.2 million shares at $10.50 a share to lower their holding to 49.3 percent of News Corp. BRIERLEY Investments Ltd will invest $NZ21 million to take a majority holding in Brewer Dominion Breweries Ltd by buying a further 6 million shares at $3.50 a share. NEW YORK._ World sugar futures firmed early yesterday on news of cyclone Winifred destroying up to 70 percent of the sugar cane crops. In active dealings, spot March sugar jumped 0.18 cent to 6.1 cent a pound and deferreds were ahead 0.2 cent to 0.14 cent. LONDON._ Total world tea output in main producing countries, mostly up to December, was 1.13 million tonnes, up 60,900 tonnes or 5.7 percent from the end-December 1984 level. ANZ is extending its global network with the opening of a wholly-owned subsidiary in Canada, based in Toronto, and a new branch in West Germany, based in Frankfurt. ANZ is the first Australian bank to gain an operational presence in both countries. DIRECT Acceptance Corp will make a renounceable rights issue of 12 million 50 cent shares at 73 cent each to assist funding of its reconstruction program and overall growth plan. CUB will spend more than $50 million to upgrade its Melbourne brewing facilities. The major portion of the money is for draught production facilities to be installed at the Abbotsford brewery. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 5, 1986 Wednesday FLOOD THREAT SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: DOORLEY N LENGTH: 50 words FLOOD THREAT Residents of the western Queensland town of Winton were preparing for flooding caused by 300mm of rain, the remnants of Cyclone Winifred. The Weather Bureau has issued a flood warning for the Diamantina River. Floodwaters had reached the southern outskirts of the town late today. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 5, 1986 Wednesday INGHAM DRAIN DEATH TIED TO NQ CYCLONE SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: WRIGHT J LENGTH: 91 words Ingham drain death tied to NQ cyclone POLICE believe a man found dead in a stormwater drain near Ingham yesterday could have been a second victim of Cyclone Winifred. They said the 35-year-old man, whose name was not available last night, probably drowned in the floodwaters unleashed after the cyclone crossed the coast north of Ingham on Saturday night. A post mortem will be conducted today. A 43-year-old pensioner died at Malanda, on the Atherton Tableland, on Saturday night after cyclonic winds blew him from the roof of a shed. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 5, 1986 Wednesday 'WORST DISASTER' TO GET IMMEDIATE FEDERAL AID SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: PIE T LENGTH: 599 words "Worst disaster' to get immediate federal aid CANBERRA._ The Primary Industry Minister, Mr Kerin, yesterday described cyclone-devastated north Queensland as the worst disaster he had seen. Mr Kerin spoke on his return from a tour of the area ravaged by cyclone Winifred last Saturday. Last night, the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, promised immediate federal aid for cyclone victims. The massive clean-up of north Queensland is being hampered by slowly subsiding flood waters. Many towns, including Tully, Silkwood, Ingham and Innisfail, were still without full electrical power yesterday. Some areas also were without water. The State Emergency Service made food drops to homesteads and communities still cut off by floods. Mr Kerin said: ""I guess it's the worst disaster I've seen. It is the worst flood for 20 years in that place. For Innisfail, I was told it was the worst cyclone since 1918." Mr Hawke said the aid would be given under the Natural Disaster Relief Scheme. The Queensland Government had already spent disaster relief funds above the required base amount of $10,480,000 for 1985-86, he said. A further $7 million relief would be shared by the Commonwealth and State Governments on a dollar-for-dollar basis. Above that, three Commonwealth dollars would be provided for every State dollar made available. Mr Kerin said any assessments made so far of the crop damage in the area were ""guesstimates". ""They should be able to get an accurate assessment of damage to crops, except sugar cane, within a week or 10 days," he said. Mr Kerin, who visited Babinda, Innisfail and Tully during the two-day trip, said it could take months to assess the damage done to sugar crops planted with new varieties of cane. ""Banana growers who appear to have lost their entire crop will be able to receive assistance through the National Disaster Relief Arrangement," he said. ""This includes loans at low interest to provide carry-on finance." He said he was concerned the cyclone would worsen the problems already facing the Queensland sugar industry. Mr Hawke said the cyclone would compound the already critical state of the sugar industry in the area, and it was imperative that the Queensland Government accept the Federal Government's offer of $150 million assistance to the industry. He said Mr Kerin had reported on the disaster area's special needs. The report would be considered by Federal Cabinet next Monday, and any further necessary action would be taken. The Government was particularly concerned at the unemployment caused by the disaster, particularly in the banana industry, Mr Hawke said. The area's 213 banana growers had lost all their crops. Though the banana crop would recover by next October if plantations were cleared of fallen trunks quickly, Australia's banana production could be halved. State Cabinet yesterday decided to establish disaster recovery units in the worst-hit areas of Babinda, Innisfail, Mission Beach and Silkwood to look at urgent accommodation problems and assist families. The Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, yesterday asked the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, for urgent discussions on additional assistance for cyclone victims. He said the damage bill could be as high as $100 million and the Queensland Government could not be expected to foot the entire bill. Sir Joh told Cabinet the standard assistance measures agreed to between the Federal and State Governments would be inadequate. The State Primary Industry Minister, Mr Turner, said the loss of production in the rural sector could be more than $40 million. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 6, 1986 Thursday MAN MISSING IN CYCLONE FLOODS SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MAHER N LENGTH: 349 words Man missing in cyclone floods A BURDEKIN Dam construction worker who is missing may be the third fatal victim of cyclone Winifred. Police said the man, 52, was reported missing about 9 p.m. on Tuesday night. They fear he fell into the Burdekin River which was swollen by heavy rain from the cyclone. A torch he was carrying was seen in the water shortly after he disappeared. The State Emergency Service helicopter was called in yesterday to help nine search parties. Police said the river below the dam was ""a raging torrent" and the man's body could have been washed several kilometres downstream. His name has not been released. Cyclone Winifred, which has weakened into a rain depression, has already claimed the lives of two men at Ingham and Malanda. Heavy rain has cut roads to the major western Queensland towns of Longreach and Charleville and isolated Winton. About 50,000 sq km was reported to be under water last night. About 250 mm of rain has fallen around Winton and the shire has asked the State Government to declare the town a disaster area. Several motorists and truck drivers are trapped by floods around Winton but police say they are not in danger. Farmers have had heavy livestock losses in the floods. Thousands of insurance claims have been received in the wake of cyclone Winifred. The Insurance Council of Australia general manager, Mr John Hall, said yesterday about 1000 claims were being received a day. ""We expect the home damage bill to exceed the $25 million paid out after cyclone Althea hit Townsville in 1971," he said. It was not possible yet to estimate how much damage had been done to homes in north Queensland. North Queensland farmers claim that banana and sugar crop damage alone will cost more than $100 million. A war of words has broken out on how the controversial Cape Tribulation road fared during the cyclone. The Environment Minister, Mr Tenni, said the road was virtually undamaged in the heavy rain. But a Wilderness Society spokesman, Mr Michael Rae, said the road had been washed out and should be closed permanently. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 6, 1986 Thursday PRIMITIVE LIFE FOR HUNDREDS SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: DOORLEY N LENGTH: 378 words Cooking, lighting problems By NEIL DOORLEY Hundreds of victims of Cyclone Winifred continue to live in primitive conditions. Many of them still do not have power connected to their houses and are enduring cooking and lighting problems _ six days after the big blow. Most of the cyclone-hit north Queensland coastal area remains strewn with debris and continuing showers have kept the ground sodden and muddy. Many people in damaged houses find it difficult to keep essential items such as food and clothing dry. Innisfail, Mission Beach and Silkwood still are without full power supplies. State Emergency Services director, Mr Kevin Whiting, said today a critical new phase had developed in accommodating homeless people. The prescribed time for many people in alternative, temporary accommodation was running out. Up to 400 people were sleeping at a SES relief centre in the Innisfail Town Hall. ""We will keep helping until the situation is sorted out," Mr Whiting said. ""Long-term accommodation is needed to house families while houses are repaired or rebuilt." Townspeople face a huge reconstruction and repair task. Shortages of buiding materials are adding to their problems. Babinda police say repair work in the town, where 500 homes were damaged, could be hampered by timber shortages. Sen.-Constable Peter Dale said the town relied on supplies from two mills at Miriwinni, but the mills still were without power. Secretary of the Co-operative Sugar Millers' Association, Mr Steve Edwell, said today several sugar crushing mills might be forced to close. ""Although Cyclone Winifred caused significant structural damage to most mills in the area, it is the loss of cane supply that will have the most impact," he said. Mr Edwell said one mill under threat was at Babinda. The mill crushed 722,876 tonnes of cane last season. ""Significant government assistance will be necessary if the mill is to survive," he said. Mr Edwell said preliminary estimates put the loss of cane in the Mulgrave, Babinda, South Johnstone, and Tully mill areas at 1million tonnes _ representing a revenue loss of $14million. The Insurance Council of Australia today reported that cyclone damage claims of $2million were being received each day. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 6, 1986 Thursday SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: ALCORN G LENGTH: 47 words Cyclone steals jobs UP TO 400 workers on Queensland banana farms might be made redundant following cyclone Winifred, a Commonwealth Employment Service spokesman said yesterday. Winifred destroyed about 213 farms in the Tully district south of Innisfail. Third victim, Page 8 ================================================================ The Advertiser February 6, 1986 Thursday Daintree road washed out LENGTH: 56 words BRISBANE - The controversial Cape Tribulation Road through the Daintree rainforest in far north Queensland has been washed out by rains from tropical cyclone Winifred. Wilderness Society campaign director Mr Michael Rae said yesterday mud was being washed on to the Great Barrier Reef, causing significant environmental damage. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 6, 1986 Thursday FLOODING HITS WESTERN TOWNS SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MCCARTHY B LENGTH: 131 words Flooding hits west A 10,000sq km inland sea has developed around the western Queensland town of Winton as widespread flooding continues in the wake of cyclone Winifred. Winton, which has been cut off since Saturday, is the worst hit of many western Queensland towns experiencing the flooding. Adavale, Windorah and their surrounding areas also have been affected by the flood. About 50,000sq km in that area was reported to be affected. Winton shire clerk, Mr Vince Corbin, said the town had not received fresh milk supplies since Saturday. ""The main worry is that the rail link to Longreach is cut off," he said. Mr Corbin said some creeks in the area were running 5km wide. The Winton Shire Council has asked the State Government to declare the town a disaster area. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 6, 1986 Thursday SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: AAPFINANCE LENGTH: 591 words Coopers eyes Qld foothold SMALL South Australian brewer, Coopers Brewery, has set its sights on Queensland to expand its interstate market. Managing director, Mr Bill Cooper, said yesterday that greater interstate inroads had held the key to its continued growth in the first half of 1985-86 when beer sales were up by 12 percent overall. ""A national advertising campaign for Coopers Ale has resulted in increased sales in WA, Victoria and particularly NSW," he said, adding that despite the increasingly competitive national marketplace, the brewer would seek to break into the Queensland market. Coopers beers would be distributed throughout Queensland by Thomas Hardy. THE managing director of the Pick 'n Pay Hypermarket in Brisbane's northern Aspley, Mr David Goldberg, has resigned. Mr Goldberg's intention when he originally came from South Africa, where the company was founded, was to eventually settle in the southern states and ""the time is right". Mr Peter Rice is being transferred from South Africa to fill the space. Mr Rice is currently running Pick 'n Pay's oldest and largest supermarket in Bokseburg. METROPOLITAN Permanent has become the first building society to be registered as an issuer and packager under the Mortgages (Secondary Market) Act in Queensland. Registration will enable Metropolitan to use its large portfolio of housing loans to issue Secondary Mortgage Market securities to investors in national financial markets. THE money market opened yesterday with a deficit of $150 million and $160 million in Treasury notes to be settled. The Reserve Bank offered to buy short Commonwealth government securities. Cash rates were little changed, with official overnight cash at 18 percent. On the unofficial market, 11 a.m. cash traded at 18.25 percent and 24-hour call cash at 18.4 percent. Bank bill yields were steady, with 90-day paper at 18.45 percent and 180 at 17.9 percent. THE 28 members of the Australian Finance Conference will ""sympathetically consider" hardship cases resulting from cyclone Winifred in north Queensland. Customers who felt they had a genuine case of hardship repayment should contact the local office of the company with which they do business. AUR NL has completed the gold testing program at Mount Madden, north Queensland, and is to expand the gold treatment plant. It will work on a 24-hour a day basis starting next month. AUSTRALIAN savings bank deposits fell to a seasonally adjusted $39,281 million in December, compared with $39,646 million in November and $35,693 million in December, 1984. Statistics Bureau figures show that unadjusted, deposits increased to $39,710 million from $39,279 million and $36,078 million respectively. THE Australian dollar's devaluation and an industrial stoppage in September trimmed Bridgestone Australia Ltd's earnings growth during 1985. Bridgestone, 60 percent owned by its Japanese namesake, lifted net profit 15 percent from $3.07 million to $3.54 million with directors recommending a steady final dividend of 5 cent a share, making an unchanged 8.75 cent for the year. AUSTRALIA maintained its position last year as the world's leading coal exporter, the Joint Coal Board and Queensland Coal Board said yesterday. They said preliminary 1985 figures showed exports of all types of black coal rose 15.8 percent to a record 87.9 million tonnes; exports of metallurgical coals increased 6.6 percent to 50.1 million tonnes; and steaming coal exports 31.3 percent to 37.8 million tonnes. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 7, 1986 Friday JOH FEARS FLOOD OF BANANAS IN CYCLONE'S WAKE SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MAHER N LENGTH: 341 words Joh fears flood of bananas in cyclone's wake THE Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, fears bananas might be imported into Australia to meet a possible shortage following cyclone Winifred. Banana are not allowed to be imported into Australia to prevent the introduction of serious pests and disease. Sir Joh said a shortage of bananas could place pressure on the Federal Government to allow foreign fruit in to satisfy demand. He telexed the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, yesterday stating his opposition to any move to import bananas. Up to 400 workers in the north Queensland banana industry, which supplies half the Australian market, face unemployment after more than 200 farms were destroyed by the cyclone. An Australian Trade Commission spokesman in Canberra said yesterday he did not know of moves to import bananas. The State Industry Minister, Mr Ahern, said yesterday application forms for special disaster relief loans were being distributed throughout northern Queensland. The loans, to be offered over five years at 4 percent, were limited to $25,000 to any one applicant except in extra- ordinary circumstances, when a $50,000 loan would be considered. The Education Minister, Mr Powell, is to visit Babinda and Innisfail today to inspect damage to schools. Up to 400 people are sleeping in the Innisfail Town Hall and the area is still without full power. Insurance claims are being received at the rate of $2 million a day. The Insurance Council of Australia regional manager, Mr John Hall, said last night he expected there would be a shortage of building supplies and good tradesmen in north Queensland to handle the repairs. In western Queensland, flood waters over 50,000 sq km are starting to recede. A national appeal to help victims of cyclone Winifred was launched yesterday by Queensland businessman Sir Sydney Williams, who said major banks had agreed to receive donations. The organising committee is the Far North Queensland Youth Assistance Fund. Donations may be posted to PO Box 643, Cairns, 4870. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 7, 1986 Friday $235M - WINNIE DAMAGE BILL ESTIMATE SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: DOORLEY N LENGTH: 239 words $235m _ Winnie damage bill estimate The damage bill from Cyclone Winifred could reach $235million _ the largest for a natural disaster in Queensland. Insurance Council of Australia regional director, Mr John Hall, today estimated that Winifred, which hit north Queensland last Saturday, caused between $30million and $50million damage to insured property. Northern Development Minister, Mr Katter, estimated $85million damage to banana crops, $40million to sugar crops, and up to $50million damage to roads, public transportation facilities and bridges. Mr Katter said pineapple, papaw and avacado plantations also were battered. ""Going by estimates already received, I'd say Winifred's damage bill will be the greatest for a natural disaster in Queensland," Mr Katter said. The insurance bill for damage caused by a thunderstorm which lashed Brisbane in January, 1985, was $177million. Millions of dollars' damage also was caused to uninsured Government buildings and vehicles, and private property not covered by insurance. The insurance bill for the 1974 Brisbane floods was $197million. Queensland businessman, Sir Sydney Williams, has launched a national appeal to help victims of Winifred. He said major banks had agreed to receive donations. The organising committee is the Far North Queensland Youth Assistance Fund. Donations should be posted to PO Box 643, Cairns, 4870. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 7, 1986 Friday SUGARMAN CLAIMS 80% LOSS SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MCARTHUR I LENGTH: 104 words Sugarman claims 80% loss NORTH Queensland sugar farmers hit by cyclone Winifred want emergency relief separate from long-term aid for the industry. The Queensland Cane Growers Association chairman, Mr Fred Soper, said yesterday after a tour of cyclone ravaged sugar areas that farmers appeared to have suffered 60-80 percent crop losses. He said: ""In some cases, people will have practically no income at all. ""Babinda people are very worried. With only half a crop, it is almost impossible for the mill to start up." Mr Soper said cane farmers wanted a more flexible assessment of their needs after such losses. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 7, 1986 Friday FEDERAL-STATE TASK FORCE WILL PLAN DISASTER RELIEF SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MORLEY P LENGTH: 229 words Federal-State task force will plan disaster relief QUEENSLAND and Federal Government officers will meet in Canberra today over aid for cyclone Winifred victims. The Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, said yesterday that the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, in agreeing to the talks, was setting up a natural disaster task force similar to the one which operated after Darwin's devastation by Tracy. Sir Joh said a team of key State Government officials, working with federal officers, would draft strategies. ""We will provide expertise from such areas as the disaster relief section of my department, the Primary Industries Department and the departments of Industrial Development and Employment," he said. ""Their task will be to sit down with Canberra and address the multitude of problems associated with the disaster that may not be covered by disaster relief guidelines. ""Foremost among these will be the necessity to provide employment opportunities for those who will lose their jobs because of massive damage to sugar cane and other crops. ""There are urgent problems of financial hardship facing both primary producers and small businesses where a joint State-Commonwealth approach is needed." Sir Joh said it might be possible to bring forward works programs such as reconstruction of the Bruce Highway, to provide bridging employment in the disaster region. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 7, 1986 Friday SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: KILLEN S LENGTH: 51 words $10 mil. cyclone claims AN emergency centre set up by the Insurance Council of Australia to handle cyclone damage claims at the Innisfail shire hall will close at 6 o'clock tonight. In the week following cyclone Winifred, it handled about 1500 inquiries and claims estimated at $10 million. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 7, 1986 Friday HELP! I'M BOGGED NEAR MUTTABURRA - CB RESCUE SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: WRIGHT J LENGTH: 182 words Help! I'm bogged near Muttaburra - CB rescue CENTRAL Queensland police late yesterday used a light aircraft to find a semi-trailer missing in flooded country north of Muttaburra. The semi-trailer, carrying steel from Port Kembla to Townsville, was reported missing early yesterday by a Gippsland, Victoria, CB radio operator who picked up a message from the driver. The driver radioed to say he was bogged north of Muttaburra for three days by rising flood-water and had run out of food. Sen. Constable Robert Maher, of Muttaburra, said last night he had chartered a light aircraft to search for the truck after an earlier attempt to drive north out of the town failed. The truck was found about 75 km north, on the Prairie road, and the driver, whose name was not available, was unharmed. Sen. Constable Maher said the blacksoil country north of Muttaburra had been turned into a quagmire by creeks flooded by the effects of cyclone Winifred and by steady rain over the past two days. Several properties were isolated by flooded roads but there had been no reports of stock losses. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 7, 1986 Friday SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: PARTRIDGE D LENGTH: 519 words TALK about disenchantment between the parliamentary and administrative wings of the National Party appeared just hot air at a big Gold Coast NP bash at Jupiters Casino this week. The best-known trio since Peter, Paul and Mary _ the Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, his wife, Senator Lady Bjelke-Petersen, and the National Party President, Sir Robert Sparkes _ were the VIP guests and speakers, and appeared in perfect harmony. THE joke doing the rounds of Canberra's Parliament House has a group of drinkers at a bar. One orders a XXXX, another a Swan, and the third asks for a ""Shadow Treasurer". Go on, you can work it out. FOR the first time in at least six years, an Oxley resident found a city council wash and brush kerb cleaning truck at work in his street on Wednesday morning. On Thursday, another council truck arrived, this time with two men who worked their way along the street, chipping away at the overgrown footpath edges. The rubbish went into the truck, but enough was left behind to spoil the effects of the brushing and washing which had gone on the morning before. Shine on Brisbane. MOTORING enthusiasts would like to know the story behind the Alfa Sud Sprint spotted in Petrie Terrace yesterday. It has the personalised plates of HDT-05, the HDT for Holden Dealer Team, and 05 indicates the number of motor racing champ, Peter Brock. An Alfa is not a Holden. RSPCA vet Cam Day was offering advice on a radio program yesterday, dealing with a caller who had a problem with a pet poodle. ""You could take the dog to a massage parlor to be clipped," said the vet, before he corrected himself. ""I mean a poodle parlor." MOMENT of small embarrassment for Mr Stan Deer, SM, in the Brisbane Magistrates Court yesterday. Before the court on a driving charge was Robbie Randell, remembered as the missile in the Gold Coast's infamous dwarf throwing contest. ""Stand up defendant," instructed Mr Deer, before he quickly realised that Mr Randell, who stands not much higher than the Bar table, was already on his feet. EIGHT Oscar nominations for the movie Witness directed by Australian wonder boy Peter Weir have encouraged local distributors to bring the mystery thriller back for a return season leading up to the Academy Awards. It will screen at the Forum from next Thursday, and if you missed it first time, don't delay. THERE'S a follow-up to yesterday's par about our short story writing Prime Minister, Mr Hawke. The story, in the March issue of Australian Short Stories is a transcription of an anecdotal speech Mr Hawke gave when he launched the magazine in 1982. GOURMET food lovers appear to have missed the bargain of the century. A correction carried in the Daily Sun yesterday pointed out that ""The Beluga caviar advertised yesterday should have read $950.00 per kg, not $9.50 per kg." And we had the vodka all ready, too. LIONS from The Gap have set a nice example for other service clubs to follow. They have sent donations of $300 to three Lions Clubs in areas hard-hit by cyclone Winifred, at Babinda, Innisfail and Mission Beach, to be used where needed. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 8, 1986 Saturday BAN STAYS ON BANANA IMPORTS SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: COLLIE G LENGTH: 137 words Ban stays on banana imports BANANA imports will not be allowed despite the disastrous crop losses caused by cyclone Winifred in north Queensland. The Federal Primary Industry Minister, Mr Kerin, yesterday assured the banana industry that the quarantine ban on imports would stay. The ban was placed to protect the industry from the threat of overseas pests and diseases. ""suggestions that the immediate supply problems caused by cyclone Winifred will result in imports are nonsense," Mr Kerin said. Meanwhile, conservative estimates put canegrowers' losses at $40 million and banana growers' losses at $30 million. Speaking from Tully yesterday, the Federal Opposition spokesman on trade, Mr Braithwaite (NP, Dawson), said farmers desperately needed low-interest loans so they could rebuild their farms. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 8, 1986 Saturday $50,000 GIFT BY STATE TO START NORTH RELIEF APPEAL SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MORLEY P LENGTH: 241 words $50,000 gift by State to start north relief appeal A NATIONAL appeal for victims of cyclone Winifred started yesterday with a Queensland Government donation of $50,000. The Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, announced the appeal as talks were held in Canberra to get special aid for north Queensland. The discussions, involving Queensland and Federal Government officers, covered specific assistance outside the national disaster relief arrangements. Interest subsidy schemes for primary producers and special grants for cleaning up, replanting and harvesting were discussed. Queensland Cabinet will receive a report on Tuesday. Launching the special appeal, Sir Joh said: ""Queenslanders have dug deep for fellow Australians following natural disasters in other States and now it is our turn to ask for help for the hundreds affected by the cyclone." Sir Joh said donations to the Cyclone Winifred Disaster Relief Appeal should be sent to the Premier's Department, PO Box 185, North Quay, 4000, or made at a collection point on the ground floor of the Executive Building, 100 George Street. The State Government would ask that donations of $2 or more be allowed as tax deductions. The Brisbane Lord Mayor, Alderman Atkinson, pledged $10,000 from the city, saying that in 1974 ""when many of us were suffering the effects of the floods, the people of northern Queensland gave generously to help". Storm hits north, Page 12 ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 8, 1986 Saturday STORMS ADD TO WINIFRED'S TOLL SOURCE: QNP LENGTH: 301 words Storms add to Winifred's toll STORMS over north Queensland have caused further damage to areas already devastated by cyclone Winifred. Winifred swept across the coast between Innisfail and Tully last Saturday, killing two people and causing damage that could cost more than $200 million. The Far North Queensland Electricity Board general manager, Mr Don Lister, said yesterday that storm damage had been reported at Cairns, Edmonton, Gordonvale, Bellenden Ker and Innisfail. He said cyclone damage to power lines in the Cairns area had been repaired but work was still being carried out in the Babinda, Innisfail and Tully areas. A Cairns police spokesman said thunderstorms had set back repairs to some cyclone damaged buildings. He said rain had seeped under tarpaulins and toppled large trees that had brought down power lines and blocked roads. In Canberra, cyclone Winifred has placed further pressure on insurance companies to increase premiums after Australia's worst three years of disaster in recent times. The Insurance Council of Australia group manager (industry services), Mr Tony Carter, said disasters since 1983 had cost companies about $500 million. This figure included payouts for the Ash Wednesday bushfires, the 1984 Sydney storms, the 1985 Brisbane hail storm and now the cyclone damage. Mr Carter said early estimates put the insured loss from the cyclone at $50 million. The effect of the string of disasters on insurance policies would depend on negotiations with the international reinsurance industry. ""There's an old story that premiums have to be put at a level to meet the claims," Mr Carter said. ""Companies have done their best to try to absorb the impact. They can only go so far down the track until they have to pass the costs on to the community. ================================================================ SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) February 9, 1986 Sunday CYCLONE WARNING NOT GIVEN, SAYS SES SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: WESTON P LENGTH: 546 words Cyclone warning not given, says SES Coastal towns were not given early warning that Cyclone Winifred had turned towards them, a State Emergency Service spokesman said yesterday. The SES officer in charge of Cardwell and Kennedy districts, Mr Jim McLaughlin, said there were no Bureau of Meteorology reports from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. last Saturday. ""We were anticipating a cyclone not knowing where it was going. That's the frightening part about it. No report came in at 9 a.m. It moved alarmingly in two hours and no one notified us," he said. He said the 8 a.m. report located the cyclone about 220 km north-east of Cardwell moving parallel to the coast. By 11 a.m. it was 130 km off the coast. About 10 a.m. Cardwell SES workers plotting the cyclone from earlier reports told The Sunday Mail the cyclone would cross the coast to the south, at Bowen or Ayr. Mr McLaughlin said: ""It moved 91 km and no one notified us. It not only moved _ it went west-south-west. It changed direction." A Weather Bureau report shows the first movement towards the coast was detected about 5 a.m. The report says: ""The movement became more definitive by 11 a.m. therefore a "flash' warning was issued for Babinda to Cardwell coastal section indicating destructive winds could be expected by afternoon. Warnings were maintained hourly up to the coastal crossing about 7 p.m." The Brisbane Weather Bureau head, Mr Rex Falls, said the cyclone appeared to turn on Friday night. ""The Cairns radar picked it up late on Saturday morning. With the facilities we have at our disposal now I don't think we would have picked up that turn any earlier than we did," he said. Mr Falls said the Brisbane bureau could not issue bulletins at frequencies greater than hourly. ""I don't think any more frequent advice would help cyclone preparation by the community. People got plenty of warning," he said. Motorists were stranded at Winton and Quilpie last night after central western rivers broke their banks as a result of the rain depression caused by cyclone Winifred. A Quilpie police spokesman said the Bulloo River had cut roads east to Charleville at a bridge about 100 m outside Quilpie. A weather bureau spokesman said flood warnings had been issued for the Bulloo, Barcoo, Thomson and Diamantina rivers and for Cooper Creek. The Thomson River was rising slowly, peaking at 5.55 m at Jundah, south of Longreach. The town of Windorah would be under threat when flood waters reached their peak tomorrow. The Landsborough Highway from Winton to Charleville was cut about 5 km east of Winton at Jessimine Creek. About 15 motorists are reported stranded at Jessimine Creek. In Brisbane yesterday storm lightning brought down an 11,000 volt powerline at the corner of Rosedale Street and Boundary Road, Coopers Plains, at midday, and cut power to most of the suburb for two-and-a-half hours. Parts of Calamvale were blacked out. Victoria was hit by gales and fires yesterday. Winds of up to 90 km/h carved a path of destruction across Melbourne and damage was reported from the Mornington Peninsula to the Dandenong Ranges. Blackouts were reported in nearly every suburb. Fires near Daylesford and Metcalf, both about 100 km north-west of Melbourne, were burning out of control. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 10, 1986 Monday SWOLLEN STREAMS CUT OFF TOWNS SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MCCARTHY B LENGTH: 159 words Swollen streams cut off towns Many towns in western Queensland remained cut off by flooded creeks and rivers today. The streams have been swollen by heavy rain farther to the north in the aftermath of Cyclone Winifred. Although most of the western centres have not received any rain, floodwaters have risen as high as 5m in some areas. Windorah was cut off early yesterday when Coopers Creek rose 5.1m. Floodwaters in Quilpie were falling today. All roads to the town were cut by flooding during the weekend. Sgt John Burton, of Quilpie, said that the Bulloo Creek rose about 1m over the weekend, but floodwaters did not threaten any houses. Most properties in the area were hoping for some rain. The flooding had not helped them much. ""Unless they were in the areas where the creek broke its banks they didn't get any water," he said. Sgt Burton said the floodwaters probably would hit Thargomindah, south of Quilpie, some time tomorrow. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 10, 1986 Monday CYCLONE'S 'ANGELS OF MERCY' SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: DOORLEY N LENGTH: 303 words CYCLONE'S "ANGELS OF MERCY' Babinda children today were hailed as ""angels of mercy" for their clean-up efforts in the cyclone-devastated township. Sgt John Howell, of Babinda police, said today that the ""kids have been great in this area's hour of need". Babinda suffered worst at Cyclone Winifred's hands, with 500 houses damaged. The Babinda State Primary and Secondary School, with about 360 pupils, reopened today after 220kmh winds and driving rain caused thousands of dollars damage. ""They put in a tremendous effort _ they were out on the streets helping other people," Sgt Howell said. ""It will take ages for Babinda to return to its pre-cyclone stage. It was such a pretty place." School principal, Mr Gordon Cooke, said today the forced closure was the first in the school's history. ""The last cyclone hit in 1956, but it was nothing compared to Winifred," he said. Mr Cooke said the cyclone had ""brought out the best" in his students. ""I was talking to one of the more "difficult' students and he told me he had helped clean up three houses," he said. Mr Cooke said classes were normal, from Grade 1 to Grade 12. State Emergency Services spokesman, Mr Graham Jonsen, said power still had to be fully restored to some north Queensland areas.Relief Mr Jonsen said SES relief operations had ceased on Friday. He said the Innisfail Town Hall, where 500 people had been sleeping, was no longer being used as a relief centre. ""People left homeless by the cyclone are being care for by relatives or have been housed," Mr Jonsen said. Major banks are receiving donations for a national appeal launched by Queensland businessman Sir Sydney Williams. The organising committee is the Far North Queensland Youth Assistance Fund and donations can be posted to PO Box 643, Cairns, 4870. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 11, 1986 Tuesday CYCLONE WINIFRED COST FARMERS $200M: MUNTZ SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: HAMMOND P LENGTH: 414 words Cyclone Winifred cost farmers $200m: Muntz CYCLONE Winifred caused an estimated $200 million damage to rural industry, the Administrative Services Minister, Mr Muntz, said yesterday. On his return from a weekend road and helicopter inspection of the damaged region, Mr Muntz said the real effects of the cyclone were only just emerging. ""I don't think the general public realises the magnitude of the destruction in the north. More evidence of losses and personal heartbreak are emerging every day," he said. ""It could well be the worst natural disaster that has hit the area. The damage is far greater than in 1956." Quite apart from agricultural damage, the personal hardship and mental trauma caused by cyclone Winifred was incalculable, he said. ""I have never seen banana plantations flattened like those at Tully. Not one sucker, not one plant was standing in 5000 acres. The same applies to plantations in the Mission Beach area." Mr Muntz estimated $50 million damage and the complete loss of the region's banana crop,m 30 to 50 percent loss of the sugar crop, 30 percent loss of the corn crop and extensive losses to tropical fruit crops. Some avocado farms had lost 80 to 90 percent of their crops and mature lychee plantations had been destroyed. Mr Muntz has ordered an immediate report on fire risks in the devastated area. Large areas of rainforest could now be seen to be brown with foliage stripped from trees. Mr Muntz said he would urge at today's Cabinet meeting an appeal to the Federal Government for interest rates on disaster relief to be pegged at 4 percent, for a review of criteria under which farmers and small business operators were eligible for financial assistance, and other changes. The new Welfare Services Minister, Mrs Chapman, was touring the devastated area yesterday and was due to report to Cabinet on relief services today. The Industry, Small Business and Technology Minister, Mr Ahern, said preliminary reports indicated 30 to 50 special loan applications could be expected from small businesses hit by the cyclone. Industry Development Department officers would visit Tully, Innisfail and Babinda to assist eligible applicants. The Queensland Association of Permanent Building Societies director, Mr Maurice Stitt, said yesterday more than 850 branches and agencies of societies would act as collection agencies for the Cyclone Winifred Disaster Relief Appeal. He said donations of $2 or more were tax deductible. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 11, 1986 Tuesday CYCLONE APPEAL STARTED SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: GRAYDON K LENGTH: 118 words Cyclone appeal started CAIRNS: A far north Queensland group has launched an appeal to raise funds for cyclone Winifred victims. The Far North Queensland Youth Assistance Fund, which raised $350,000 for liver transplant baby Kevin Mitchell, has already raised about $20,000 for cyclone victims. Today, thousands of posters seeking donations will be printed at the Cairns Post newspaper and displayed in banks throughout the nation. Donations to the Far North Queensland Youth Assistance Fund cyclone Winifred appeal can be made through all branches of Westpac, National Bank, Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Bank throughout Australia. Further information: Contact Ted Elliott on Cairns 516-590. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 11, 1986 Tuesday JOBS PROGRAM TO HELP FUND RELIEF WORK SOURCE: QNP LENGTH: 202 words Jobs program to help fund relief work CANBERRA._ The Federal Government will provide special funds to north Queensland local councils through a cyclone Winifred special area rehabilitation project. The Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, said yesterday the money would be provided through the Commonwealth element of the Community Employment Program. The money would be used to assist in the restoration of public parks and gardens, and provide employment opportunities for the long-term unemployed. Mr Hawke said the Darwin city engineer, Mr Duncan Beggs, would be made available at federal expense to help organise clean-up and reconstruction work in the Johnstone and Cardwell shires. Mr Beggs was reponsible for the rehabilitation of Darwin after cyclone Tracy, and provided expert assistance after cyclones Gretel and Max in northern Australia and the Macedon bushfires in Victoria. Under federal-State natural disaster arrangements, Queensland has met the first $10,480,000 in relief aid for cyclone Winifred victims. A further $7,860,000 is being provided on a $1 for $1 basis by the Queensland and Federal Governments. The Federal Government is providing three-quarters of further aid. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 11, 1986 Tuesday 2 CHARGED WITH WINNIE FUND FRAUD SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: DOORLEY N LENGTH: 260 words 2 CHARGED WITH WINNIE FUND FRAUD By NEIL DOORLEY Innisfail police have uncovered two cases of alleged fraud involving emergency relief fund payments to victims of Cyclone Winifred. A police spokesman said two men had appeared in Innisfail Court charged with fraud. Both had been remanded. The charges alleged that the men made false claims in a bid to get more funds than they were entitled to, he said. The spokesman said police were still were trying to track down looters in the cyclone-torn town. Insurance Council of Australia regional director, Mr John Hall, said today insurance companies expected to receive some ""padded' claims for cyclone damage. ""Judging from our experience in the Brisbane storm (January 18, 1984), claims will be padded," Mr Hall said. ""We are hoping it won't occur, but when there are a mass number of claims, some people are prone to take advantage of the situation." Mr Hall estimated a insurance payout between $30million and $50million. As the clean-up continued _ 10-days after the cyclone _ north Queensland residents were faced with a new hazard. Police and fire officers warned that tonnes of foliage ripped off trees by 220kmh winds would become a major fire risk. Cairns Fire Brigade station officer, Mr John Lawless, said residents from Cairns to Cardwell faced the risk. ""Thousands of trees were stripped of their foliage. The foliage is still pretty green, but when the dry season comes, someone will only have to drop a match and we will have one great fire on our hands," he said. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 11, 1986 Tuesday SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: SHARMA V LENGTH: 56 words Appeal aids victims ABOUT $20,000 has been raised in a cyclone relief appeal launched in Cairns last week. The Townsville City Council gave $15,000 to the appeal organised by the Far North Queensland Youth Assistance Fund in aid of cyclone Winifred victims. Musgrave Shire Council donated $5000. More reports, Page 10 ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 11, 1986 Tuesday SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: PARTRIDGE D LENGTH: 513 words VICTORIAN Mrs Joan Child, the first woman Labor member of Federal Parliament in 1972, will become the first woman Speaker of the House of Representatives today. But Mrs Child will miss going into the history books as the first woman to chair the chamber of an Australian Parliament. Mrs Child's swearing-in as Speaker will occur about 3 p.m. if the secret ballot in the House goes according to plan. At noon today, Mrs Anne Levy is to be sworn in as the first woman President of the Legislative Council in South Australia, giving her the honor of being the first woman to chair a parliamentary chamber there. THE Industrial Affairs Minister, Mr Lester, offered a view on one-vote, one-value elections in Rockhampton recently, condemning the practice as a ""communist system". This prompted a response in the Rockhampton daily newspaper by Labor Senator Mal Colston. ""Now I know why Mr Lester used to be referred to as "Pinky'," responded Senator Colston, making word play of the nickname commonly used in the Clermont area to identify the fair-skinned Mr Lester. MEDIA were advised by the office of the Corrective Services Minister, Mr Muntz, yesterday that the Minister was returning to Brisbane after inspecting damage caused by cyclone Eleanor in far north Queensland. Wait a moment. Eleanor? Last week's damage was caused by cyclone Winifred. ""Quite so," admitted Mr Muntz's press secretary. When the media alert was being prepared, ""Eleanor" _ which just happens to be the name of an employee in Mr Muntz's office _ somehow appeared instead of Winifred. A READER spotted an Army truck being towed by another Army vehicle south of Burpengary yesterday morning. A hand-chalked sign attached to the rear vehicle warned following motorists: ""Under toe. No signals." A WEEKEND visitor to Jupiters Casino tells us she felt nostalgic for the clanking sound of poker machines as she played the video games _ the Clayton's pokies _ at the new complex. But she felt quite at home when she went to a public telephone to make an STD call. As she dropped a coin into the telephone, there was the familiar jangling of falling 20 cent coins, and she scooped up $2 in coins in a totally unexpected payout. THE new Bald Hills satellite hospital has had to cope with its first emergency. There was a call from the RSPCA, who reported they had taken a distress call from a local resident. He was concerned to notice that two hospital budgies had been left outside in the dark. The non-medical drama ended without further incident. A STORY that has a golden glow: a Nundah couple, Mr and Mrs Jack Larkins, of Hedley Avenue, celebrated their golden wedding anniversary with a family party on Saturday night. Among cards they received in honor of the big occasion was one from Mrs Maude McGeorge, a friend of the couple when they were married in Quilpie on February 8, 1936. Mrs McGeorge, who now lives at Kallangur, did more than send along a congratulatory card. She enclosed the invitation she had received to the Larkins' wedding, a memento she had preserved over the years. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 12, 1986 Wednesday PEOPLE DO NOT REALISE CYCLONE DAMAGE: JOH SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MORLEY P LENGTH: 404 words People do not realise cyclone damage: Joh CYCLONE Winifred had devastated north Queensland and Australians apparently did not realise the magnitude. The Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, said this yesterday when appealing for more public help. Sir Joh launched the Queensland Government Cyclone Winifred Disaster Relief Appeal on Friday with $50,000 from the State Government and $10,000 from the Brisbane City Council. ""From Cooktown down to Ingham and inland, there have been enormous losses and thousands of homes demolished," he said. ""Unlike cyclone Tracy which wiped out Darwin, the damage is not concentrated so people have not seen it and cannot realise the size of it, the extent." Sir Joh said the Government hoped the nation would rally to help the victims of last week's cyclone as Queensland often had supported disasters in the south. He said the Federal Government's announcement on Monday about aid did not amount to a ""great deal" and was just the usual assistance for disasters. ""The only difference was that they decided to give a bit of money to local authorities to provide jobs for people who have seen their work wiped out," he said. State Cabinet yesterday approved further measures aimed at helping cyclone victims. The Agricultural Bank and the Industry Development Department would be asked to adopt a flexible approach to interest rates and the limit of loans available to primary producers and businesses trying to re-establish. ""The financial standing of the enterprise and the number of jobs it supports should be the main criteria in determining any special additional assistance," he said. Authorities would be given discretion to defer interest repayments for 12 months or vary the rate of interest downwards from 4 percent for a period while enterprises found their feet. The State Government would proceed with the proposals while awaiting Federal Government decisions on other assistance initiatives discussed on Friday. These included asking the Commonwealth to approve: Inclusion of public companies and statutory authorities in eligibility guidelines for disaster relief assistance; and Special grants on a crop area basis for producers who had exhausted borrowing capacity. (Donations to the appeal can be posted to the Premier's Department, P.O. Box 185, North Quay, Brisbane. There is also a collection point at the Executive Building, 100 George Street.) ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 12, 1986 Wednesday GREAT BARRIER REEF DAMAGED BY WINNIE SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: DOORLEY N LENGTH: 111 words Great Barrier Reef damaged by Winnie Cyclone Winifred caused extensive damage to Queensland's famous Great Barrier Reef, surveys have found. The surveys found extensive coral destruction to a depth of 15m on reefs in the path of the cyclone, which devastated north Queensland eleven days ago with 220kmh winds. Winifred tracked adjacent to the outer Barrier Reef from Cape Melville south, crossing the reef offshore from Innisfail, and hitting the coast at Silkwood. The surveys were conducted by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife, the Australian Institute of Marine Science and James Cook University. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 12, 1986 Wednesday WINIFRED'S INSURANCE 'RAINCHECK' SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: HOLLIDAY M LENGTH: 262 words WINIFRED'S INSURANCE "RAINCHECK' People claiming for lost holidays By MIKE HOLLIDAY More than 100 holidaymakers caught by Cyclone Winifred, or its rain depression aftermath, already have claimed insurance under the Trans-Australia Airlines rain insurance system ""Raincheck". People had up to a month to claim restitution for a rain affected holiday and more claims were expected, said a spokesman for TAA. So far about 50 claims had been received from Dunk Island and the Cairns area and claims from the Whitsunday area would double that, he said.Wrecked The claims were for the last week in January and the first week in February, when Cyclone Winifred crossed the north Queensland coast wrecking homes and crops and causing damage estimated at more than $200million. The storms had swung the ""Raincheck" emphasis from Tasmania, which had a very wet December, to north Queensland, said the spokesman. ""Claims figures are perhaps a little early and we are expecting a lot more over the next couple of weeks," he said. TAA's ""Raincheck" insurance was introduced on October 1, 1984, and since then, more than 500 successful claims costing more than $700,000 had been made, said the spokesman.Replacement Under the scheme if any three days of a seven-day or longer holiday are rained out, TAA will pay for a replacement holiday at any of its Australian destinations. To qualify as rained-out, at least 6mm of rain must be recorded between 9am and 3pm and TAA relies on data from 900 Federal Government rainfall recording stations to verify claims. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 12, 1986 Wednesday CHANNEL COUNTRY LOOKS FOR MORE SUMMER RAIN SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MCARTHUR I LENGTH: 196 words Channel country looks for more summer rain THOMSON and Diamantina Rivers channel country has benefited most from rain which followed Cyclone Winifred's battering of north Queensland coastal areas earlier this month. More is needed if stock producers are to last through the winter. The Longreach Primary Industries Department district inspector, Mr Dick Law, said good rain had fallen over much of the Thomson's upper reaches. He said the river had risen but there was no serious flooding. Most of the heavy rain fell to the west, north and south of Longreach. ""There was no threat to the rail lines except near Winton but that is largely resolved," Mr Law said. ""In some instances, they have been drought breaking rains. ""But the Ilfracombe Shire missed and east of Blackall missed because it was fairly light there. Barcaldine missed most. ""We are looking for a really good old fashioned soaking. It'll give six months feed but not a long, comfortable season." The Winton DPI stock inspector, Mr Dom Marshall, said flooding in the Diamantina was unlikely to cause stock losses. He said the rain would not be enough to lift the drought declaration still in force. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 12, 1986 Wednesday POLICE TO CHECK CYCLONE CLAIMS SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MAHER N LENGTH: 310 words Police to check cyclone claims POLICE will question about 500 people who accepted disaster relief funds after cyclone Winifred. They will check all claims made in north Queensland after uncovering several cases of fraud involving up to $800. Two men already have been charged and further arrests are expected in the next few days. Det.-Sgt Nev Hackett, of Innisfail police, said yesterday he expected to find that most people had made valid claims. Suspicions were raised when some people in cyclone-ravaged towns began buying television, stereos, video recorders and other expensive items late last week. When police began to check claims, they discovered that some people did not live at the houses they had said had been damaged. The Innisfail Magistrates Court is an agency where people go to apply for the emergency assistance that is funded jointly by the State and Federal Governments. Grants of up to $2700 are available for families who need food and clothing and up to $5700 can be given for urgent home repairs. Sgt Hackett said yesterday that the fund was being well administered but there were people who were determined to take advantage of it. He said many claims were accepted at face value because it was necessary to get funds out quickly to people who needed money urgently. A team of six detectives will now visit the addresses of all people who have made claims to check if there has been cyclone damage. ""There is a lot of talk around town about the money being misused," Sgt Hackett said. ""Certainly it seems that a lot of money has not been spent wisely. ""There are allegations that relief cheques are being cashed in hotels and sport stores or just being deposited in banks." He said anyone convicted of fraudulenty accepting relief funds could face up to five years' jail. People "don't realise damage', Page 8 ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 12, 1986 Wednesday BABINDA WILL CLOSE WITHOUT A GOVERNMENT GRANT: CHAIRMAN SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: COLLIE G LENGTH: 455 words Babinda mill will close without a government grant: chairman By rural editor GORDON COLLIE THE Babinda sugar mill will be forced to close if it fails to get a government grant, the co- operative's chairman, Mr Guido Ghidella said on Monday. With more than a third of the 1986 crop wiped out by Cyclone Winifred, the financially struggling mill was in an impossible position. Mr Ghidella said the mill had borrowed heavily to get through the sugar crisis and further loans were out of the question. ""Either we get a government grant or that's it," he said. ""It's up to the governments now. There are 2500 people in this community and they virtually all depend on the mill for their livelihood." Mr Ghidella said any closure would be permanent. Directors were considering their legal standing under the Companies Code. ""We know that if we operate, we will make a substantial loss," he said. Under sugar industry legislation the Central Sugar Cane Prices Board would be advised of the position. The board had the power to appoint an administrator to oversee crushing of the 1986 crop. Mr Ghidella said there was insufficient time to arrange crushing of the remaining crops at other mills this season. The gloomy assessment for Babinda was confirmed by the Co-operative Sugar Millers Association secretary, Mr Steve Edwell, who attended a Babinda board meeting on Monday. ""There is unequivocally no choice but for the directors to close the mill if they can't get government support to underwrite the cyclone losses. Both the State and Federal Governments have been made aware of this." Mr Edwell said the mill directors had worked hard at overcoming their problems and before the cyclone had been looking to hold their own in 1986. Mr Edwell co-ordinated an assessment of damage in the nine far northern mill areas which put cane losses at more than 1.5 million tonnes. South Johnstone and Mourilyan mills at Innisfail had each lost 300,000 tonnes of cane which for Mourilyan was half its 1986 crop. The Queensland Canegrowers Council secretary, Mr Ron Belcher, said this week changes would be sought to the disaster relief program offered by the State Government. ""The canegrowing industry was in crisis before the cyclone hit and needs special consideration," Mr Belcher said. The council would be seeking loans of up to $100,000 at 4 percent interest. The loans needed to be spread over 10 years with no repayments in the first two years. He said about 100 applications for assistance would be expected. Mr Belcher said growers also had a strong case for a sum of money to be granted for subsistence. ""It is morally wrong to treat farmers with no income differently to anyone else who is out of work," he said. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 13, 1986 Thursday CYCLONE AREAS FACE FIRE THREAT SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MARTIN H LENGTH: 377 words Cyclone areas face fire threat UNCONTROLLABLE fires could sweep north Queensland rainforest battered by cyclone Winifred unless rain fell soon, a fire chief said yesterday. The Tully fire chief, Mr Bob Long, said the area needed only a spark to start a forest fire that could run out of control for days. ""Every day of sunshine dries out the forest floor," he said. Mr Long said it could take the rainforest years to recover if a fire erupted now. ""If people don't observe the voluntary fire ban, lives could be lost as well as major properties," he said. Mission Beach and Bingil Bay were inhabited areas particularly at risk. The Innisfail deputy fire chief, Mr Bruce Dade, said the risk area covered from Mission Beach to Babinda and no rain was in sight. ""Foliage blown from trees is feet deep in some places in the rainforest," he said. ""It's tinder dry and it would only need a match for fires to start everywhere." Mr Dade said the fire risk was one of the most serious in the area for years. Surveys have found extensive damage to areas of the Barrier Reef worst hit by cyclone Winifred 12 days ago. Winifred tracked adjacent to the outer Barrier Reef from Cape Melville south, crossed the reef off Innisfail and hit the coast at Silkwood. Ground surveys found coral destruction 15i deep on reefs in the cyclone's path. According to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, surveys of the area only three weeks before the cyclone allowed scientists to see the before-and-after effects of a cyclone on the reef. Scientists hope to find evidence to explain differences in the structure and composition of coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef region. The Local Government Minister, Mr Hinze, said modern buildings in Babinda and Innisfail were not damaged by cyclone Winifred, proving the benefits of building regulations introduced four years ago. He said a department survey showed major structual damage to buildings to be worst in the two areas but no single family homes built in accordance with the new regulations had any structual damage. ""Neighboring older style houses were damaged substantially in some cases," he said. ""Damage to some buildings varied from minor roof and wall cladding failures to total structural collapse." ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 14, 1986 Friday SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MORLEY P LENGTH: 47 words Cabinet goes north STATE Cabinet will meet at Babinda on March 3 so Ministers can get a first hand account of cyclone Winifred relief measures. The Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, said National Party members Mr Rowe (Hinchinbrook) and Mr Menzell (Mulgrave) had requested this. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 14, 1986 Friday ROSES ARE RED - AND $75 A DOZEN! SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: GREEN P LENGTH: 130 words Roses are red _ and $75 a dozen! Brisbane florists have been forced to import roses to meet the demand for St Valentine's Day. This has forced the price of a dozen roses as high as $75 at some city stores. However, the majority of stores appear to be selling roses around $30 to $55 a dozen depending on their grade. One of the reasons behind the local shortfall is Cyclone Winifred, which wiped out northern growers' crops. Despite the shortage of roses, florists expect a ""boom day" in all other lines, especially novelty lines. While Brisbane romantics may be reeling at the cost of roses here, spare a thought for Sydney buyers who are paying as much as $96 a dozen, and New Zealanders who are paying a mimimum of $5.50 for each rose. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 15, 1986 Saturday WINIFRED MORE DAMAGING THAN 100 YEARS OF LOGGING: GLASSON SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MURRAY R LENGTH: 209 words Winifred more damaging than 100 years of logging: Glasson CYCLONE Winifred caused more damage to north Queensland State forests during its eight hours than 100 years of logging could ever do, the Forestry Minister, Mr Glasson, said yesterday. He had inspected damage to State Pine Plantations and rain forests in the Ingham-Atherton forestry districts. He said final losses would go above the initial $1 million estimate. The loss of production potential was also about $1 million. ""In general, where ever the 220 km/h winds did hit, it made no difference whether logging had taken place or not. The type of damage is exactly the same," Mr Glasson said. ""If thousands of young pine trees in the Ingham district plantations flattened by the winds cannot be stood up within 10 to 12 weeks, they will be a total write-off and cost more than $300,000 to replant. ""This is apart from more than 60 percent losses in several older pine plantation blocks in the Cardwell- Kennedy area, some of which were close to harvesting." Because the access bridge was cut, no one could enter the forest to make an accurate loss assessment, Mr Glasson said. He said rubbish under trees was becoming a fire hazard as it dried out in the hot weather. ================================================================ SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) February 16, 1986 Sunday POWER DEAL IS QUESTIONED SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: DAVIDSON I LENGTH: 618 words Power deal questioned Turkish plan in spotlight By DAVID LANDERS The Government has been told it should fully disclose Queensland's involvement in a proposed coal-fired power station in Turkey. The station, disclosed last week, would use Queensland coal. The Liberal MLA for Sherwood, Mr Innes, yesterday sought assurances the deal would not result in a financial liability to the Government, its citizens or the State Electricity Commission. ""The State Government must not become a debtor to a scheme which could fail," he said. ""Involvement must be on a basis of no financial commitment. ""Queensland should proceed very cautiously in this venture in a third world country. Turkey has a history of military takeovers and political instability and its international credit rating is so poor that the World Bank won't give it funds." Mr Innes said Queensland electricity consumers, already saddled with an electricity industry debt of more than $3100 million, did not want to lose out overseas as well. Mr Innes also called for answers on whether Central Queensland Coal Associates had come to the State Government's rescue by selling the coal to Turkey. He said industry sources told him the State Government was committed to buying Curragh coal from CQCA for the now postponed Stanwell power station on a ""take or pay contract". That meant Queensland had a legal obligation to pay for the coal whether it was to be used or not. He said he knew the Government had been looking at various alternatives on what to do with the surplus coal including building enormous storage pits. ""This Turkish deal will get them off the hook," he said. Mr Innes also asked if the boilers and turbines which the State Government had ordered for Stanwell from Japan also would go to the Turkish station. ""Let's have a full disclosure of the choice of options to get us out of this mess which mistaken planning has put us into," he said. The Mines and Energy Minister, Mr Gibbs, could not be contacted for comment. The total indebtedness of the Queensland Electricity Industry rose to $3130,828,000 in 1985. That is revealed by figures published in the Queensland Electricity Commission's financial report tabled in State Parliament last year. The 1984 total debt was more than $2800 million. The industry borrowed more than $582 million from Australia and overseas in 1985 and paid out more than $400 million interest on loans. Phil Dickie writes: The Northern Development Minister, Mr Katter, has joined the call for more of north Queensland's power to be generated in the north. Mr Katter last week confirmed that he is to take a submission calling for more northern power generation to the Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, and Mr Gibbs. Mr Katter's submission will add to the growing controversy in the north over the partial closure of the Collinsville power house near Bowen, a controversy that was further fuelled this month by damage to electrical installations inflicted by cyclone Winifred. At Babinda, a large power pylon of the type that is projected to carry an increasing proportion of the area's power up from the south was blown over, and wood and debris in floodwaters severely disrupted power generation from the north's hydroelectric stations. ""It shows the vulnerability of our supply to cyclonic conditions," Mr Katter said. ""Many people here would like to see more base load generation in north Queensland, rather than being just on the end of the line from central Queensland." But Mr Katter drew short of embroiling himself fully in the controversy over the partial closure of the north's largest and only coal-fired power station at Collinsville. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 17, 1986 Monday DRY AREAS WARNED OF FIRE DANGER SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: CONNORS D LENGTH: 312 words Dry areas warned of fire danger TINDER-DRY conditions in north and south-east Queensland has created a severe fire risk. The Brisbane Fire was notified of 11 grass fires yesterday. The Rural Fires Board yesterday warned everyone in those areas to use the utmost caution. A Weather Bureau spokesman said it was unlikely these conditions would change in the foreseeable future. The board's senior inspector, Mr Bob Burke, said the most troublesome spots were the cyclone-devastated Innisfail-Mission Beach area, and south-east Queensland. He said cyclone Winifred severely stripped vegetation in the north Queensland area which dried and became a serious fire problem in a matter of days. The shires had either made special dumps for the vegetation or started small controlled burn-offs, when conditions were suitable, to reduce the fire danger. ""We are really concerned about a fire getting away and going through the rainforest. It would create tremendous destruction," Mr Burke said. He said the ridgetops in south-east Queensland were now as ""dry as chips" with the lack of rainfall in the last six weeks. The Western Darling Downs from Dalby to Roma was very dry, apart from areas which had received storm rain. ""The winds in the last few days have played havoc with conditions. While these conditions are around, more than extra caution is needed," Mr Burke said. A Brisbane Fire Brigade spokesman said yesterday the 11 grass fires occurred at The Grange, Mansfield, Inala, Rocklea, Sandgate, Hemmant, Wacol, Meeandah and three at Rochedale. The spokesman said a number of vehicles had to be shifted at Rocklea because of the risk created by a grass fire. The Fire Services Minister, Mr Muntz, has appealed to ""feeble-minded louts" to stop raising false fire alarms. He said fire brigades answered all calls, even malicious or accidental false alarms. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 17, 1986 Monday FEDERAL POLICIES CRIPPLING NATIONAL PROGRESS - JOH SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: GERAGHTY A LENGTH: 344 words Federal policies crippling national progress _ Joh HIGH bank interest rates were forcing more Queenslanders into financial difficulty and crippling national progress, the Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, said yesterday. Sir Joh said the interest rates increase was the result of Federal Government economic incompetence, a direct effect of the tight monetary situation its policies had caused. But there was worse to come, with the tax package the Federal Government would introduce in September, he said. ""Australia must not forget that the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, promised there'd be a fall in interest rates," Sir Joh said. ""Instead, they have skyrocketed. He said there'd be no capital gains tax either, but we're going to get one. ""Now there are signs they are no longer certain about giving tax cuts in September." Sir Joh said high interest rates had resulted in Queenslanders having their homes repossessed or being forced to take personal loans of up to 25 percent to keep them. He said there was still a need for banks in north Queensland to cut their loan interest rates to people affected by Cyclone Winifred. ""Quite clearly, the Federal Government does not recognise the hardship high interest rates cause the average person," Sir Joh said. ""Farmers in particular are being driven to bankruptcy and pushed further below the poverty line by Canberra." One impact of Federal Government monetary policies had been a 21 percent drop in home approvals in the October-November period. ""Because of their economic bungling, young Queenslanders struggling to buy their first home are finding it an almost impossible task," he said. ""Businesses are also being sent to the wall because of interest rates that are now more than double the national inflation rate. It's the highest in more than 50 years." Sir Joh said it was inconceivable that the Federal Government could claim the economy was soundly based when inflation was running at 8.2 percent, while in the United States, inflation was only 3.6 percent and in Japan only 1.9 percent. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH February 18, 1986 Tuesday CYCLONE APPEAL AID SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: COOK V LENGTH: 44 words Cyclone appeal aid The Lord Mayor, Ald. Atkinson said today Brisbane would give $15,000 to help victims of cyclone Winifred. The City Council would give $10,000 to the State Government appeal and $5000 to the appeal established by local authorities. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 18, 1986 Tuesday SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: HAMMOND P LENGTH: 57 words Highway check after cyclone AN inspection began yesterday for cyclone damage to the Bruce Highway between Cairns and Townsville to hasten repairs. The federal member for Herbert, Mr Ted Lindsay, said an engineer would check for weak spots on the highway so the Federal Government could learn from cyclone Winifred in road construction. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 18, 1986 Tuesday SUPPORT FOR NATIONAL PARTY SOURS IN SUGAR COMMUNITY SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: COLLIE G LENGTH: 385 words Support for National Party sours in sugar community By rural editor GORDON COLLIE THE sugar industry crisis could severely embarrass the National Party at the next State election. This is likely if the disenchantment revealed in a survey of the Babinda sugar community reflects the mood along the rest of the canegrowing coast. A social impact study released yesterday shows traditional Babinda National voters are preparing to desert the party in droves. The study, compiled by students and staff at James Cook University, Townsville, suggests desertions by canegrowers threaten to scuttle the Nationals and put Labor in a winning position at the next State election. It was completed just before cyclone Winifred tore through the region, destroying more than one third of the 1986 cane crop. The voting intentions in such a typical farming region were the ""biggest surprise" reported in the 123-page study. It showed a slump in support for the Nationals to 39 percent compared with 52 percent at the last State election. Labor made a decisive gain on voting intentions jumping from 44 percent at the last election to 51 percent. The survey included a cross-section of farmers, sugar mill workers and the local business community. Of the farmer vote, support for the Nationals was down from 88 percent at the last election to 73 percent. Support for Labor federally also firmed from a healthy 54 percent to 58 percent. The researchers said the Nationals had lost ground to Labor over the lengthy delay in getting a sugar industry rescue package in place. ""More people are blaming the Nationals for the impasse than are blaming Labor," they said. Sugar price support was expected to be the cornerstone of a rescue package. A majority in the Babinda survey said the State should contribute a proportion of the guaranteed price. This is at odds with the stance of the Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, who has maintained that price support is solely a federal responsibility. The survey showed there was great animosity towards Australian authorities who failed to warn growers that a slump was coming. Farmers were angry that they had been misled into expanding production by marketing agent CSR Ltd, their own canegrowers executive and governments. The dreams sour, Page 4 Price laws revamp, Page 8 ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 18, 1986 Tuesday A DOCUMENT OF HUMAN MISERY SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: COLLIE G LENGTH: 426 words A document of human misery By Rural Editor GORDON COLLIE TALES of debts and ulcers, worry and fatigue dominate a major social impact study of the sugar industry crisis. The small north Queensland sugar town of Babinda was put under the microscope by a team of researchers from Townsville's James Cook University. Their report, which was commissioned by the Mulgrave Shire Council, was released yesterday. The depth of human misery they found in the community makes it a very disturbing document. Babinda is a town of about 2000 people almost totally reliant on the district's cane farms and co-operative mill. The district has borne the brunt of the sugar industry collapse, with the mill on the brink of closure. Since the researchers completed their study, Cyclone Winifred has torn through the district, adding to the community's misery. More than one third of the 1986 crop has been destroyed. In one of the most comprehensive studies of the sugar slump, a team of six students spent six weeks in Babinda and contacted more than 300 familes. They spoke with mill employees, town businessmen and local canegrowers. Their findings were compiled into a 123-page report by associate professor Wolfgang Gritching and lecturers Patrick Foley and Ronald Fyffe, staff members of the university's department of behavioral sciences. The researchers said the study revealed more suffering, particularly among canegrowers, than they had expected to find. ""We soon found that the stereotype of the wealthy canegrower living a life of ease is no longer (if it ever was) valid," they said. ""Nobody around Babinda appeared untouched by the crisis." Canegrowers especially were found to be hurting badly. Family relationships were suffering and emotional and physical health was showing deterioration attributed to the sugar crisis. There was a general feeling of disillusionment within the community. ""Families with as many as three or four adult members working on the property from dawn to dusk, showed us accounts indicating an annual income below the poverty level." Fear and suspicion were frequently expressed that politicians and the major company in the industry, CSR Ltd, did not really want to help the family canegrower. Some residents were prepared to change the voting habits of a lifetime because of the lack of political response to the sugar crisis. Mill employees and town business people were extremely concerned about the possibility of the mill being forced to close. Most surveyed were not confident of the mill's long-term future. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 19, 1986 Wednesday SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: ALLEN E LENGTH: 54 words $15,000 cyclone aid THE Brisbane City Council would donate $15,000 to help the victims of cyclone Winifred, the Lord Mayor, Alderman Atkinson, said yesterday. The council would give $10,000 to a State Government appeal and $5000 to a joint appeal established by local authorities throughout the State. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 19, 1986 Wednesday SORGHUM CROP ESTIMATES CUT SOURCE: QNP LENGTH: 143 words Sorghum crop estimates cut ESTIMATES for Queensland's sorghum crop have been cut following dry weather across the grain belt. The Bulk Grains Queensland chairman, Mr Don McKechnie, said this week dry weather had reduced sorghum estimates from 1.4 million tonnes to between 750,000 and 800,000. ""In the south, the rain is too late to benefit the sorghum," Mr McKechnie said. ""We need a lot more yet to build up a lot of subsoil moisture for the winter crop." Mr McKechnie said a total intake of all grains of more than three million tonnes was still achievable if favorable rain fell in central Queensland. Rain from Cyclone Winifred earlier this month did not benefit the central Queensland sorghum growing areas, the operations officer of the Central Queensland Grain Sorghum Marketing Board, Mr John Cruickshank, said in Gladstone this week. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 21, 1986 Friday GRANTS FOR CYLONE-HIT FARMS PLAN SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MCARTHUR I LENGTH: 175 words REVISED VERSION PLEASE USE THIS VERSION FIRST EDITION Grants for cyclone-hit farms plan THE Queensland Government has asked the Federal Government to offer grants or loans of $250 a hectare for cane farmers and $1500 a hectare for banana farmers whose crops were devastated by cyclone Winifred. A Premier's Department official confirmed yesterday that the proposal had been sent to the Federal Government last Friday. A reply could be expected from the Finance Minister, Senator Walsh, within two weeks, he said. ""We cannot guarantee it will get through. It's just another option we are asking the Federal Government to look at," the official said. The proposal is part of a package of alternatives for getting concessional loans for farmers and others in difficult circumstances following cyclone Winifred which hit the north Queensland coast on February 1. The official said the proposal would enable farmers to weather economic hardship over the next year as a result of the cyclone. State Cabinet approved the plan last week. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 22, 1986 Saturday ZOOLOGISTS HEADING NORTH IN BID TO SAVE CASSOWARY SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: ALLEN E LENGTH: 339 words Zoologists heading north in bid to save cassowary STATE Government zoologists will travel to cyclone-devastated Mission Beach next week to investigate the plight of suspected starving cassowaries. It is feared the large flightless birds have been left without food after cyclone Winifred wiped out their supply of berries and fruits. If necessary, the National Parks and Wildlife Service may amend an existing policy against hand-feeding wild birds. A National Parks spokesman said yesterday two zoologists from Townsville would visit the Mission Beach area between Innisfail and Cairns to assess the cassowaries' plight. ""We don't know the extent of the problem or how many cassowaries are in the area," he said. The possibility of hand-feeding the birds until berry and fruit-bearing trees grew again was a ""ticklish question". It was against Government policy to encourage anyone to feed wild birds and animals because it made them dependent on man. The zoologists would report to the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service's executive management group in Brisbane which would decide what to do. Cassowaries grow to about 1.5 m tall and are found in north Queensland scrub. The Federal Health Minister, Dr Blewett, flies to north Queensland next week to assess cyclone damage and report to Cabinet. He will visit Cairns, Innisfail, Tully and Atherton Tableland. The Johnstone Shire Council, based in Innisfail, is facing a tricky insurance problem after it changed its insurance company from 4 p.m. on February 1 _ three hours before cyclone Winifred's eye hit the shire. The council is sifting through the rubble to see which of its assets were blown away on, or before, 4 p.m. and which were flattened after that time, so that claims can be lodged with the appropriate company. A Brisbane electrical wiring device manufacturer, HPM Industries, said yesterday it would give power points and light switches to any Queensland electrical contractors willing to install the equipment in damaged homes free of charge. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 22, 1986 Saturday FEDERAL GOVT IS LASHED OVER CYCLONE RELIEF SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MURRAY R LENGTH: 239 words Federal Govt is lashed over cyclone relief THE Federal Government was not sympathetic enough to cane farmers affected by overseas subsidies and cyclone Winifred, the National Party federal leader, Mr Sinclair, said yesterday. He said in Brisbane that the Government's disaster relief was too low. ""We think the Federal Government has the prime responsibility to help the cane growers and the Queensland Government the responsibility to help the mills," Mr Sinclair said. ""I don't believe the basis of the Federal Government's approach to the sugar industry is being predicated on sympathy or concern. I believe it's been based on the ideological commitment of Mr Kerin (the Primary Industry Minister) to try to make the industry immediately bear the full burden." European Economic Community price supports could change in a few years, making the market more competitive for Australia, but the sugar industry should be supported in the meantime. Mr Sinclair was critical of the Federal Government's Bill of Rights and Affirmative Action Bill, and called for an 11 cent drop in the petrol price. The Government's main priority should be to lower interest rates. He also criticised its planned intervention into electoral redistribution, and said the one-vote, one-value principle would change Parliament _ meaning ""the Commonwealth will have a fight on its hands". MR SINCLAIR . . . Government not being sympathetic enough. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 24, 1986 Monday IT WAS THE YEAR THAT QUEENSLAND DIDN'T HAVE A WET SEASON SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MURRAY R LENGTH: 397 words It was the year that Queensland didn't have a wet season _ so far SOUTH-EAST and western Queensland were drought-stricken, a Weather Bureau spokesman said yesterday. The wet season had failed in most areas except north of Townsville and west of the ranges, where cyclone Winifred brought rain, he said. Brisbane had the fourth driest ""wet" on record in January. Rainfall in Brisbane last month was 28 mm, well short of its 166 mm average. This month, with a 163 mm average, the city had about 14 mm. Rain from cyclone Winifred and thunderstorms supplied the only State-wide relief, but not the necessary long-term, soaking rains usual for the wet season. The spokesman said the dry was partly caused by failure of the high pressure systems to move south, and from a lack of cyclone activity. Hand in hand with the dry weather in the south-east corner were high temperatures and a fire risk. The bureau spokesman said the fire risk in the west was low, as there was little herbage. There was some concern, however, in areas damaged by cyclone Winifred, because of fallen timber. In Charleville, police said storms had helped the town, but further west it was very dry. Longreach and Mount Isa police said there had been no wet season. The Weather Bureau issued flood warnings for Coopers Creek in the Channel Country. Windorah police said the floods had slowly passed through the town and were about 450 km south, near the South Australian border. The police spokesman said flooding had been caused by storms from cyclone Winifred further north, not by local rains. Closer to Brisbane, the drought conditions have affected Redland Shire. The shire chairman, Cr Merv Genrich, said over-use of town water had led to sprinkler restrictions being enforced. There was no shortage of water, but, without restrictions, demand had been unnecessarily high. He said most farmers had underground water. Many strawberry farmers who relied on town water needed rain, as it was planting season. Cr Genrich said strawberry farmers still had three weeks to plant. Drought conditions have hit a Redland Shire family with a cattle grazing property. Rod and Jes Hungerford, from Sheldon, have lost their main dam used to irrigate grass. This was the first time they had seen the dam dry up. They are now feeding cattle, helped by their three grandchildren _ Wayne, 13, Brett, 10, and Ian, 7. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 26, 1986 Wednesday SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: SHARMA V LENGTH: 51 words Project to save forests THE Federal and State Governments will spend more than $161,000 to save thousands of pine trees in north Queensland State forests battered last month by cyclone Winifred. The trees cover 400 ha in the Ingham and Cardwell areas. The project will employ 26 people for 13 weeks. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 26, 1986 Wednesday SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MAHER N LENGTH: 51 words Fire warning after cyclone A STATE of fire emergency has been declared in the Mission Beach and Bingil Bay areas, north of Tully, in far north Queensland. All outside fires have been banned. Extremely hot conditions have dried out vegetation in the area damaged by Cyclone Winifred earlier this month. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL February 28, 1986 Friday HOWARD SMITH STEAMS TO $20M, DIVIDEND INCREASE SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: AAPFINANCE LENGTH: 365 words Howard Smith steams to $20m, dividend increase INCREASED coal sales, complemented by the Australian dollar devaluation, enabled the Howard Smith Ltd coal, shipping and sugar group to nearly double its December half net result and lift shareholders' interim dividend by 25 percent. Directors yesterday reported a 94 percent increase in net profit from $10.47 million to $20.28 million for the December 31 half year on turnover that inched forward by 3.6 percent _ from $366.49 million to $379.56 million. They said that in light of the improved result interim dividend would rise from 10 cent to 12.5 cent a share, describing the 2.5 cent extra payout as a ""bonus component". But they also put a dampener on the result by warning that trading results for the second half were not expected to match that of the first, adding that: ""while current earnings give cause for optimism, there are events which have recently emerged which would cast something of a shadow over the future." ""Those events include the current campaign by mining unions for a new log of claims, substantially lower oil prices, downward pressure on coking and steaming coal prices, high interest rates and the loss of investment incentives. ""The company trusts there will be continued moderation in government charges and prompt payment of compensation for freehold coal expropriated by the NSW Government in 1981 once its claim has been assessed by the Coal Compensation Board." The period under review saw earnings from coal improve following an increased Australian dollar return from sales contracted in US dollars and expansion of overseas marketing activities. The group's two sugar mills met with differing fortunes during the crushing season: Mourilyan achieved mill peak after crushing 609,000 tonnes of cane producing 85,756 tonnes 94NT sugar; while prolonged wet conditions throughout the season resulted in nearly 20 percent of available crushing time being lost at the Moreton mill at Nambour (sugar production at 59,510 tonnes 94NT was 1 percent below mill peak). Cyclone Winifred inflicted widespread damage at Mourilyan with early estimates putting cane loss at 30 percent. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL March 1, 1986 Saturday PM TO GET DISASTER AID REPORT SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: HAMMOND P LENGTH: 161 words PM to get disaster aid report GOVERNMENT agency responses to disasters like cyclone Winifred could be improved, the Federal Health Minister, Dr Blewett said yesterday. When local emergency supplies of tarpaulins became exhausted, some north Queensland houses had remained unroofed for three rainy days before tarpaulins were brought from stores in Dubbo in New South Wales. Dr Blewett, who this week toured the cyclone-devastated areas, said he would make a report to the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, on ways of further helping the communities. He said he would consider a proposal by James Cook University in Townsville to do an assessment of the problems faced by the cyclone victims during the first 100 days, including psychological effects. While it would be some time before the full cost of Winifred's damage was known, the federal contribution could amount to $50 million, with the Queensland Government expected to provide about the same amount. ================================================================ SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) March 2, 1986 Sunday $40M DAMAGE TO CROPS IN CYCLONE AREA SOURCE: QNP LENGTH: 430 words $40m damage to crops in cyclone area Damage to Queensland's banana industry as a result of cyclone Winifred has now been estimated at a staggering $34.6 million, making it one of the worst disasters ever to hit a sector of Australia's primary industries. A fruit and vegetable industry spokesman told Sunday Country last week that damage to other crops such as papaws, lychees, avocados and custard apples put total losses at more than $40 million. ""It's a terrible disaster to the industry _ and one which will have a devastating impact for some time on employment in an area of north Queensland from Babinda to Cardwell," said general manager of Queensland's Committee of Direction of Fruit Marketing, Mr Neville Smith. Mr Smith said that 40 percent of Australia's bananas were grown in the cyclone-battered area. More than 200 growers were hit and the jobs of up to 2000 north Queenslanders in associated industries were lost ""for at least nine months". Effects on consumers would be possible supply shortages and higher prices. Apart from banana losses, the marketing services branch of the Primary Industries Department has estimated that papaw losses from cyclone Winifred in coastal districts and on the Atherton Tableland were worth about $4.9 million. Other crop losses included avocados ($1 million), lychees ($1.1 million) and custard apples ($50,000). Mr Smith said he was concerned that the extent of damage to horticultural crops was virtually unknown to most Queenslanders. ""In a sense, we are regarded as the poor cousins of primary industry," he said. ""The truth is that fruit and vegetable growers support Australia's fourth largest primary industry and provide employment for tens of thousands of Australians. ""As a result, the impact from damage such as that sustained to banana crops in north Queensland will be widespread. ""It is undoubtedly the worst disaster ever to have hit Australia's banana growing industry. ""Growers will have to battle to re-establish their crops over the next two or three seasons. ""In the meantime, many face financial ruin and will be seeking assistance from national and state disaster relief programs." Mr Smith said the Committee of Direction of Fruit Marketing, which represents the interests of the state's fruit and vegetable growers, was maintaining close contact with growers in the affected areas. ""We have carried out on-the-spot investigations and provided information and guidance to growers on how to cope with the aftermath of the cyclone," Mr Smith said. ================================================================ SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) March 2, 1986 Sunday BABINDA WILL DIE WITHOUT MILL: DIRECTOR SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: LANDERS D LENGTH: 534 words Babinda will die without mill: director ]By DAVID LANDERS The State Government will be told bluntly in Babinda tomorrow that the town will die unless its sugar mill gets a $2 million financial rescue package. Cabinet is meeting in the small north Queensland town after cyclone Winifred lashed the district, destroying half the sugar cane crop in the field. More than 2500 people live in Babinda and the surrounding area. Nearly 1000 depend directly or indirectly on the sugar mill, which employs 210 seasonal workers, now on a 10-week stand-down, which may be extended. The Babinda Mill chairman of directors, Mr Guido Ghidella, said yesterday: ""The whole community is waiting with bated breath. This is a very tense and anxious town. ""The mill is Babinda as far as employment is concerned and its reason for being. ""We don't get any satisfation from the impression that we are holding a gun to the Government's head, but it's a very real position for us," he said. Mr Ghidella said the mill had completed financial restructuring, rearranging its debts and losing some workers and was on the way to recovery when the storm hit. It now looked like losing between 46 and 50 percent of its crush, depending on whether any damaged cane could be salvaged. This would not be economic and the mill simply could not carry any more debts, he said. ""We have made submissions to Treasury and they are aware of our plight. We really require a grant but it depends on how it's structured. A low interest loan might be acceptable." Cabinet also will be told local canegrowers urgently need financial help. The chairman of the local Canegrowers Council, Mr Jim Biancotti, said yesterday the aid should not be linked to or confused with the row between the Queensland and Federal Government over a rescue package for the sugar industry as a whole. Mr Biancotti said crop losses ranged from 15 percent to between 75 and 80 percent on some farms. The Canegrowers Council already had requested straight out grants for growers or disaster relief low interest loans. The loan ceiling should be lifted from $60,000 to $100,000 and relief should be available across the board, not means tested, he said. Cr Fred Kruckow of Babinda said a survey had shown the area's residents already were suffering health problems caused by the severe sugar depression, when the storm hit. Cr Kruckow said a public committee, formed as a result of the report, would discuss the area's needs with the Welfare Minister, Mrs Chapman, the Industry Minister, Mr Ahern, and the Primary Industries Minister, Mr Turner. Immediate and long-term problems included: Small business needed to diversify, expand or rebuild. Retired people in the district needed special assistance. Some were too proud to seek help and were living in sheds while their houses were still unrepaired. ""Some seem to be in a daze," he said. A number of houses incapable of being repaired and many people underinsured or with no insurance. There was a long list of people needing accommodation. Cyclone damge to nearly all council buildings in Baninda. Cr Kruckow said the hardest thing seemed to be to convince people they could seek ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL March 3, 1986 Monday JOH TO 'SET RECORD STRAIGHT' ON STATE HELP FOR SUGAR INDU SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MORLEY P LENGTH: 299 words Joh to "set record straight' on State help for sugar industry From PETER MORLEY in Babinda THE Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, was too busy watching cricket and playing golf to worry about the sugar industry, the Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, said here last night. Sir Joh attacked the Federal Government for alleged insensitivity. He said that despite a Queensland approach on February 14, Mr Hawke had not replied to Queensland's urgent pleas for assistance which were even more important since cyclone Winifred had worsened the plight of northern growers. Today, State Cabinet meeting here will consider further assistance to the cyclone devastated area. Special attention will be paid to the Babinda mill which has financial problems. Yesterday the Queensland BHP manager, Mr Bob Walker, presented Sir Joh with a $10,000 donation towards cyclone damage relief. Following the Cabinet meeting, the Premier will address meetings here and in Innisfail at which criticism of the Government's performance is expected. The Premier, however, intends to ""set the record" straight on the sugar industry. ""We have constantly stated our willingness to play our part in reconstruction," he said. ""We will, however, not alter our stand on the issue of price support. That is clearly a Commonwealth responsibility and one which the Commonwealth must accept." The ALP State secretary, Mr Beattie, said the Labor Party's State council expressed its concern at the weekend about the State Government's apparent lack of action to assist the sugar industry. ""The council has given its assurance that a State Labor government would act in co-operation with the Federal Government and the sugar industry organisations to raise the industry from its present financial distress," Mr Beattie said. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL March 4, 1986 Tuesday CANE MEN URGE: DON'T WAIT FOR FEDERAL ACTION SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MORLEY P LENGTH: 455 words Cane men urge: Don't wait for federal action From PETER MORLEY at Babinda SUGAR growers hit by cyclone Winifred yesterday urged the State Government to start its own industry rescue. More than 300 growers at a public meeting here urged the Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, not to wait for a Canberra-backed price support scheme. The growers said they were being sandwiched by the State and Federal Governments which were trying to capitalise politically on their plight. ""We are in the middle of the football game and we cannot even tackle," one grower told Sir Joh. Sir Joh's repeated answer was that the problem lay with Canberra which should be thrown out of office. Earlier, State Cabinet decided to cover the interest cost of increasing the delivery advance on the 1985 season by $20 to $190 a tonne. This was part of a $170 million assistance package to which the State was committed over three years provided Canberra came in with price support. ""I want to make it perfectly clear to Canberra that from the sugar industry's point of view, a decision must be made within the next few weeks," Sir Joh said. ""There is no point in Queensland going ahead without a commitment of $230 million from the Commonwealth as part of the proposed package. ""Half measures are not good enough. Queensland should not have to go it alone." But the Babinda meeting, backed up by one at Innisfail, urged the Queensland Government to proceed with its package irrespective of what Canberra did. Babinda growers also made it clear that the Government's announcement on the $20 increase in the advance would give them little benefit. One grower told Sir Joh the actual return to suppliers of the Babinda mill would be $1.46. At another meeting yesterday, Sir Joh told the Babinda mill operators the State could not meet their request for $2.3 million to get the plant operating this season. Sir Joh said he told a delegation that the mill ""had to open" and its problems would be sorted out later. In the meantime, the Government would pick up the $20,000 bill for a study to determine parameters for the mill's future. The State had also asked the mill's banker to defer interest repayments. Sir Joh also announced that Cabinet had agreed to extend the Commonwealth-State natural disaster relief scheme to cover business indirectly affected by cyclone Winifred. Businesses in the Mulgrave, Johnstone, Cardwell and Hinchinbrook shires which relied substantially on the banana and sugar industries would be eligible for carry-on loans of up to $25,000 for as much as five years at 4 percent. THE Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, makes a point during yesterday's meeting at the Babinda sugar mill. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL March 5, 1986 Wednesday NORTHERNERS UPSET AT CYCLONE APATHY SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MORLEY P LENGTH: 255 words Northerners upset at cyclone apathy From PETER MORLEY at Babinda NORTH Queenslanders affected by cyclone Winifred are angry at southern apathy towards their plight. They consider they have been deserted by the rest of Australia which has virtually ignored Queensland's relief appeal. The fund launched by the Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, has raised $77,700. Of this, only $7700 has come from the public. The rest is made up from State, local authority and corporate donations. When Brisbane was devastated by the floods in 1974, the northern region now similarly affected by national disaster raised $20,000. People in the cyclone ravaged area extending fromm Cooktown to Ingham believe the rest of Australia has forgotten their plight. The southern media, apart from reporting the immediate aftermath, had carried little publicity about the campaign to raise funds. Yesterday, a councillor from the Johnstone Shire, centred on Innisfail, claimed northerners were wondering if they still lived in Australia. Cr George Pervan said: ""After the worst cyclone in living memory tore through the middle of our shire, it seems that most of Australia south of Townsville does not want to know us." Appeals in Darwin and Cairns to raise funds for victims who lost homes and possessions had drawn good responses. But the appeal launched by Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen had failed to attract widespread support. ""People around here have big hearts and have contributed to southern disaster appeals," Cr Pervan said. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL March 6, 1986 Thursday JOBS FOR 69 AS CYCLONE AREAS GET $600,000 AID SOURCE: QNP LENGTH: 262 words Jobs for 69 as cyclone areas get $600,000 aid CANBERRA._ The Federal Government yesterday announced projects worth $600,000 to aid Queensland communities hit by cyclone Winifred last month. The Employment Minister, Mr Willis, said 12 Community Employment Program projects had been approved in north Queensland to restore and improve public areas. He said the money would also provide work for the disadvantaged and long-term unemployed in Cairns and the Mulgrave, Johnston and Cardwell Shires. There would be work for 69 people in jobs ranging from tree-planting to general landscaping over periods of 13 to 20 weeks, Mr Willis said. Workers would be recruited through the Commonwealth Employment Service. In Cairns, a $25,000 project will employ four people planting trees in parks and on footpaths. A $31,567 grant will employ five people to restore a nursery and a grant of $39,251 will allow six people to restore a boardwalk and plant trees. In Mulgrave Shire, grants of $102,131, $24,214 and $30,327 will employ 21 people to restore tracks and parks, restore Bramston Beach and restore the Babinda park. Johnston Shire will receive grants of $41,919, $87,569 and $63,967 to restore playground equipment, restore the Innisfail esplanade and restore Innisfail park areas. A $47,038 grant in Cardwell Shire will allow restoration of the Coral Sea Battle Memorial Park. There were grants of $52,728 for repairs to the Tully esplanade and $52,728 to improve parks at Wongooling and South Mission Beach. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL March 6, 1986 Thursday HELP FOR ENDANGERED NQ CASSOWARIES SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: SHARMA V LENGTH: 126 words Help for endangered NQ cassowaries HAIL-damaged apples from the Granite Belt will be used to feed endangered cassowaries in the Mission Beach area of north Queensland. The National Parks Minister, Mr McKechnie, said yesterday the Transport Minister, Mr Lane, had agreed to waive rail freight charges on the deliveries. The area's natural vegetation had been badly damaged by cyclone Winifred, and fruits and berries normally eaten by cassowaries were destroyed. Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service zoologists have said as many as 30 cassowaries in the area might die if they did not receive suitable food. The feeding, in forested areas, might be necessary for more than 12 months until natural fruits and berries were available again. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL March 11, 1986 Tuesday BEWARE OF THE HUNGRY CASSOWARY SOURCE: QNP LENGTH: 283 words Beware of the hungry cassowary MISSION BEACH._ The cassowary could join the crocodile as one of the north's most feared inhabitants. A National Parks ranger yesterday warned that feeding of cassowaries by tourists in the Mission Beach area could change the bird's lifestyle. ""There has been widespread publicity about the cassowaries starving here because they have lost their natural food source after cyclone Winifred," ranger Karl Siener said. ""But if the birds have been hand-fed and then suddenly people stop feeding them, it only needs a frightened bird to strike out with its feet and give a lethal blow." Cassowaries were stronger than emus and were capable of killing a child with the powerful centre claw on each foot. ""I would prefer tourists not to feed the birds, but it is hard to stop them because everyone up here uses the cassowary logo to promote tourism and they even call this stretch of coastline the Cassowary Coast," Mr Siener said. Mr Siener said at least 60 cassowaries were in the Mission Beach-Bingil Bay area. The cyclone damage brought most of them out into the open in search of food. Mrs Frieda Jorissen, who has hand-fed cassowaries for 25 years, backed Mr Siener's theory. She said she had not been hurt by the birds during that time, although she knew their signs of aggression. Her property at Garners Beach is home to six cassowaries, the eldest of them 22. She said land development had cost them much of their tropical rainforest habitat, although she donated 27 ha to the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service. ""People are getting the birds to come to their cars to get fed and already cassowaries have been run over," Mr Siener said. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL March 13, 1986 Thursday SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MAHER N LENGTH: 58 words Third cyclone death A GIRL, 13, who has died in Cairns Hospital, is the third victim of cyclone Winifred. Megan Kylie Higgins died from injuries she received when the cyclone hit Innisfail on February 1. A man, 43, who was blown off the roof of a shed at Malanda, and a man, 35, who drowned in floodwaters at Ingham, were the other victims. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH March 17, 1986 Monday CYCLONE SEASON NOT YET FINISHED SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: KENNEDY N LENGTH: 258 words Cyclone season not yet finished Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the northern coast comes the revelation that the cyclone season has not finished. Although we have had our largest cyclone for 15 years, we are due for another two cyclones to keep up the average of five cyclones every season. For each of the past two seasons we have had seven cyclones, but this season so far there have only been three. With the season finishing on the last day of April, there is still plenty of time for northern Queensland to be devastated yet again. But residents of our cyclone areas need not panic, because, according to the Cyclone Watch Centre, the main period for cyclones runs only from January to the end of March. This season the cyclones, other than the infamous Winifred, were Vernon and Alfred, neither of which crossed the coast and therefore were almost unheard of. According to the James Cook University at Townsville, Cyclone Winifred had a greater extent and duration than the horrific Cyclone Althea of 1971, but it was less intense. The Cyclone Watch Centre said the radius of the maximum winds of Winifred were larger than Althea, which means it caused damage to a larger area. For the past 10 years, cyclones have been alternately named male and female and the names this season have reflected our multicultural society with German, French and traditional English names. If it does prove unsafe to return to our northern coast, it will be because of a yet-to-be-born cyclone named Blanche. _ NICK KENNEDY ================================================================ TELEGRAPH March 18, 1986 Tuesday CYCLONE EFFECT STILL FELT IN NORTH SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: HAIRSINE M LENGTH: 204 words Cyclone effect still felt in north Two elderly women had been admitted to hospital suffering severe depression because of the lack of financial help in the wake of Cyclone Winifred, according to a north Queensland politician. Mr Max Menzel MLA (NP, Mulgrave) said the women were just two of the many casualties of the disastrous cyclone appeal which had now run dry. A meagre $58,000, raised in the Australia-wide appeal, had been spent. Cyclone Winifred flattened homes and crops throughout north Queensland on February 1. Mr Menzel said at least $500,000 was needed to provide the basics of life for cyclone victims. More than one-third of homes were still without roofs. He appealed to all Queenslanders to dig-deep, and give much needed support to a very depressed community. ""A lot of pensioners are feeling it more than anyone else. They cannot physically get out and are getting very depressed over the situation," Mr Menzel said. Mr Menzel said he would chair a meeting in Cardwell on Saturday to organise the distribution of $100,000 held in a cyclone fund started by the Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen. This would help immensely, but more support was needed urgently from the public. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL March 19, 1986 Wednesday CYCLONE WATCH UPDATE SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: GRAY S LENGTH: 151 words Cyclone watch update THE Federal Government will upgrade the Meteorology Bureau's cyclone early warning system. The proposals include upgrading of satellite information, installation of computers in regional offices and improvement of the weather watch radar network. The Industry, Technology and Commerce Minister, Senator Button, said proposals were being prepared to upgrade the bureau's warning system for severe weather. Senator Jones (ALP, Qld) had asked what plans were being made for aid to bureau scientists following the devastation in north Queensland by cyclone Winifred. The Professional Officers Association industrial officer, Ms Santina Bertone, said yesterday the association supported the move. ""New technology is great and we support that, but staffing levels at the bureau are still a serious problem," she said. The association wanted a national review of staffing figures. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL March 21, 1986 Friday ALP CLAIMS VICTORY ON PAYMENT FOR FOOD LOSSES SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: ROUS S LENGTH: 180 words ALP claims victory on payment for food losses THE Opposition claimed a major victory yesterday over a decision that Suncorp would reimburse cyclone Winifred victims for food losses. Mr Keith De Lacy (ALP, Cairns) had accused Suncorp in Parliament of being heartless because it was the only insurance company refusing to pay for refrigerated and frozen food which spoiled during power blackouts caused by the cyclone. Mr De Lacy said he had been advised that all the other insurance companies had decided to pay for food losses, even in cases where the householders' policies did not specify that coverage. ""However, this has not applied and has not been recognised by Suncorp," he said. Mr De Lacy said a Suncorp official had been contacted about food loss coverage and had said Suncorp was not interested in what the other insurance companies were doing. Later yesterday the Deputy Premier, Mr Gunn, told Parliament that Suncorp had decided that it would reimburse food losses. ""I'm surprised, pleasantly surprised, by this sudden change of heart," Mr De Lacy said. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL March 22, 1986 Saturday NO HELP FROM SOUTH FOR CYCLONE VICTIMS SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: EATON M LENGTH: 328 words No help from south for cyclone victims THE Cairns-based national appeal for victims of cyclone Winifred has gained almost no response from other Australian States. The Far North Queensland Youth Assistance Fund in Cairns organised the appeal, which will officially finish at the end of March. The association vice-president, Mr Peter Cominof, said yesterday it had raised less than $70,000. ""We were hoping a national appeal would bear some fruit, but it has fallen far short of expectations," he said. Mr Cominof said appeal organisers had expected people and big companies to open their hearts more. ""People here have always responded to appeals in other parts of Australia. They deserved a far better result than this," he said. There were people in the far north living in unroofed houses who had not asked for money, as they believed there would always be someone more needy nearby. ""That's the sort of people they are," Mr Cominof said. Further funds from the State Government might take the appeal total to about $100,000, he said. Devastation from the cyclone had cost the Johnstone Shire Council $1.7 million. The shire chairman, Cr Ross Overton, said council workers had begun the clean-up the morning after Winifred hit and were still at it. His cost estimate included $600,000 for clearing debris to reopen roads, clearing footpaths and parks, standing up trees and moving stores, equipment and plant as pre-cyclone precautions. Other costs had covered establishing garbage dumps for the refuse created, repairing damaged roads and replanting trees and gardens. Cr Overton said the council had made strong claims to the State and Federal Governments for assistance. ""We are also looking to the Federal Government for more Community Employment Program schemes, a permanent office of the Social Security Department, and funding of a James Cook University investigation into the social and economic impact of Winifred," he said. ================================================================ SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) March 23, 1986 Sunday ELECTRICITY SWITCH TO JAIL HINTED SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: DICKIE P LENGTH: 330 words Electricity switch to jail hinted By PHIL DICKIE Collinsville power house could be used as a prison or an Aboriginal hostel, according to a letter from the Queensland Electricity Commission to the Mines Minister, Mr Gibbs. The letter, discussing the disposal of the north's only thermal power station and one which the Government has not yet admitted it intends closing, is certain to cause further controversy in northern Queensland. Collinsville was partly closed last year and the Northern Development Minister, Mr Katter, was reported to be furious at the decision. Cyclone Winifred added to the northern power row earlier this year when it caused extensive damage and disruption to the hydroelectric power stations and transmission lines. In his letter to the Minister, dated February 28, the Electricity Commissioner, Mr Galwey, said: ""Potentially the power station with its modern workshop, administration block, site area of 283.5 ha and associated accommodation units could be used for a variety of purposes including defence training, prison complex, youth or trade training facility, Aboriginal hostels." The letter referred to ""the sensitive nature of the eventual total closure of the power station" and said that a senior commission officer would discuss with interested departments and instrumentalities the future use of accommodation units and the power station complex itself. The letter referred to the disposal of 67 electricity and Housing Commission houses now vacant at Collinsville and discussed the future of 165 ""additional accommodation units available on full closure of station". Mr Galwey is in Perth at a conference and could not be contacted yesterday. Mr Gibbs said no decision had been made to close the Collinsville power station. ""We examine the situation and viability of power stations year by year. The fact is that they all have a limited life," he said. ""There are no problems with power supply to north Queensland." ================================================================ TELEGRAPH March 24, 1986 Monday CYCLONE APPEAL RESPONSE 'POOR' SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: ZANOTTO J LENGTH: 175 words Cyclone appeal response "poor' The response to the Cyclone Winifred Appeal was disappointing, given the willingness of north Queenslanders to contribute to disaster appeals in other areas, it was claimed today. The Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen and the Lord Mayor, Ald. Atkinson said north Queenslanders had given generously after the 1974 Brisbane floods and the Ash Wednesday bush fire. But the response to the Cyclone Winifred disaster relief appeal so far had been poor. ""It is obvious that people have not realised the magnitude of the destruction caused by Cyclone Winifred," Sir Joh said. ""But make no mistake, many people have lost their homes and their livelihoods." Ald. Atkinson met the Premier on Friday to hand over a $10,000 contribution from the Brisbane City Council. She joined Sir Joh in calling for Australians to show their appreciation of the previous generosity from North Queensland. ""Now it's time to help them," she said. Donations can be sent to PO Box 185, North Quay, Brisbane. _ JEANETTE ZANOTTO ================================================================ TELEGRAPH March 24, 1986 Monday APPLES TO THEIR RESCUE SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MCCARTHY B LENGTH: 125 words Apples to their rescue Cassowaries in the Mission Beach area are being fed on apples shipped from Stanthorpe because their food supplies were destroyed by Cyclone Winifred. A spokesman for the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Service said as many as 30 cassowaries might have to be fed by rangers for up to one year if they were to survive. ""We don't like doing it because it is tampering with nature's balance," he said. But it was necessary if the cassowary population in the area was to survive. In the past the cassowaries would have headed inland to find food after a disaster, but owing to man's development they were ringed in. Cyclone Winifred had destroyed the fruits and berries normally eaten by the birds, he said. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH March 24, 1986 Monday CYCLONE DETECTION GEAR BID SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: HAIRSINE M LENGTH: 282 words "ASK U.S. FOR IDLE EQUIPMENT' Cyclone detection gear bid By MARK HAIRSINE The Federal Government should negotiate with the United States to use idle cyclone-detection equipment during Queensland's cyclone season, according to a State Cabinet Minister. The Minister for Corrective Services, Administrative Services and Valuation, Mr Muntz, whose Whitsunday electorate falls within the tropical cyclone zone, has urged the move in the wake of the devastating Cyclone Winifred. Winifred ripped through north Queensland on February 1, causing millions of dollars damage to homes and crops. ""Victims of Cyclone Winifred complained of not receiving enough information, or receiving information that was out of date," he said. ""Warnings were still coming through after the damage had been done." Mr Muntz has contacted the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, seeking improved cyclone-detection equipment in north Queensland. He asked Mr Hawke to consider an approach to the US Government to station high-tech surveillance equipment during our summer season, which is their off-season for cyclones. Mr Muntz said the cost of the equipment would be almost insignificant compared with the damage bill caused by Winifred. ""Aircraft that fly right into the eye of the cyclone and gather invaluable data are left on the ground between December and March, the height of our cyclone season," he said. ""The Federal Government should demonstrate a commitment to northern Australia and negotiate with the United States to use their information-gathering aircraft." American equipment had been used on cyclone surveillance in Australia in Febuary and March, 1979, when cyclones Kerry and Rosa struck. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH March 25, 1986 Tuesday CYCLONE RELIEF AID TO SCHOOLS SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: HOLLIDAY M LENGTH: 203 words Cyclone relief aid to schools School sporting facilities will get about $20,000 of the $100,000 cyclone aid relief fund if State Cabinet this week accepts a north Queensland recommendation. The National Party Member for Mulgrave, Mr Menzel, said BHP gave $10,000 for restoring school sporting facilities provided by local Parents and Citizens' groups. Donation Damage to such facilities was estimated at close to $20,000 and it was planned to use the BHP donation and about $10,000 from the general fund for the work, said Mr Menzel. If Cabinet approved, the rest of the money would go towards helping people who slipped through the net provided by the joint Federal-State Government agreement on disaster relief. ""There have to be hard and fast guidelines, but they don't always work out and there are some grey areas," said Mr Menzel. ""An elderly woman with a grandchild living with her might be deemed to have an able-bodied member of the family and so miss out," he said.Tore Cyclone Winifred tore through north Queensland at the beginning of February and was followed by days of intense rain. The cyclone resulted in three deaths and damage estimated at more than $200million. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH March 25, 1986 Tuesday STATE'S INSURERS DELUGED SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: GRANT D LENGTH: 245 words STATE'S INSURERS DELUGED By DARREN GRANT When it rains, it pours _ that would appear to be the plight of Queensland insurers. After 15 relatively prosperous years, insurance companies are now facing massive payouts as the State is beset by one natural disaster after another. State Insurance Council regional manager, Mr John Hall, said last year's devastating Brisbane hailstorms, cyclone Winifred and a ""string of other significant storms" had cost insurers $219million since January 1985. In adjusted terms, the five-year period from January 1980 to 85 had cost insurers only $65million, he said.In peaks Storms which unleashed their fury on Brisbane's southside only two weeks ago would cost about $5million, said Mr Hall. ""We had quite a lucky period up until 1985, but these sorts of disasters have a habit of arriving in peaks. ""The latest disasters have been more than a blip, they have been a significant bump," said Mr Hall.Premiums up Mr Hall said premiums would rise as insurers battled to contend with rising costs in other areas, such as theft, burglary and increasing court awards for household liability claims. ""We have a very competitive insurance market and the lid is kept firmly on rising premiums, but there has to be a threshold for all companies as their reserves run down," said Mr Hall. ""But to what extent and when individual companies will choose to increase their premiums is impossible to predict," he said. ================================================================ SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) March 30, 1986 Sunday EL NINO MAY TURN PASTURE TO DUST SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: ROSS D LENGTH: 522 words El Nino threat to Qld pasture Queensland appears headed for a drought as crippling as the one in 1982-83 which ruined many farmers and took hundreds more to the brink of bankruptcy. With six of the state's largest shires already declared drought-stricken, fears are held that most of Queensland's good grazing country will again be dust by the end of this year. Weather experts in Australia and overseas believe the world's climate is about to be thrown into chaos again by El Nino, a mysterious climatic condition that reverses the world's major ocean currents and temperatures. When it last occurred, in 1982, El Nino played havoc with the Pacific's wind and rainfall patterns. Australia suffered its worst drought. El Nino's early-warning symptons have started to show up on the world's weather charts. In August 1982, the Darwin weather bureau recorded its highest pressures in a century. Last month the bureau again recorded consistently higher-than-normal pressures. ""We are now awaiting the March figures," the Queensland regional director of meteorology, Mr Rex Falls, said yesterday. ""However, while there have been warning signs, it is too early yet to be sure that El Nino is again on the way." He said one strong sign of El Nino's approach was a fall in sea temperatures between Australia and Indonesia. ""That sign is missing at this stage," he said. ""On the other hand, there has been some warming of cold ocean currents in the equatorial eastern Pacific area _ and that is a sign of El Nino. ""If El Nino does eventuate, it could result in a lack of winter, spring and early summer rains in northern and eastern Australia. ""That would quickly worsen the drought conditions that already exist in parts of inland Queensland." The drought secretariat of the Primary Industry Department said yesterday six areas of Queensland were already in the grip of a major drought. The six shire areas that have not had rain for about a year are McKinlay (east of Cloncurry), Richmond (east of McKinlay), Diamantina (south of Boulia), Barcoo (east of Cunnamulla), Isisford (north of the Barcoo) and Blackall.The Wet has failed Mr Falls said: ""Even without El Nino a significant part of northern Queensland _ the lower Carpentaria region _ and the western part of the state have been starved of rain this summer. ""Normally, two or three monsoon depressions or cyclones go inland from the Gulf region and bring good rain. ""This summer there was only one _ cyclone Winifred _ and this brought little rain to the west and south-west. Queensland did not have a wet season this summer." He said the small town of Duchess, south of Mount Isa, had had its lowest summer rainfall on record. ""Normally Duchess records 235 mm over December, January and February," he said. ""This summer it managed 24 mm _ that's about an inch _ in the three months. This month it has had no rain. ""We hope it doesn't happen; but, if El Nino returns, the drought conditions in Queensland could become very grim." DROUGHT . . . where it has hit hardest. The map is based on information supplied by the Brisbane Weather Bureau. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH April 4, 1986 Friday DISASTERS: SHIRE PLANS AHEAD SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: LLOYD P LENGTH: 221 words DISASTERS: SHIRE PLANS AHEAD By PAT LLOYD Maroochy Shire Council is well into forward planning for something it hopes will never happen _ a disaster in the area. ""We hope to be like some airport firemen," Cr Ken Hicks said. ""They're trained, ready, but never encounter a crash fire." Cr Hicks is chairman of the shire's counter-disaster committee. The committee has made an in-depth study of Cyclone Winifred which devastated large areas of north Queensland in February. ""We must learn from other people's experiences," Cr Hicks said. ""If we can educate the public to be ready, we can avoid much damage and loss of life."Flood The Sunshine Coast's most recent natural disaster was a flood which devastated large areas in June, 1983. ""With the way our population expands, half the people here now would never have experienced cyclonic conditions," Cr Hicks said. ""Few can remember a cyclone here. ""The main target for cyclones usually is the northern half of Queensland's coastline between November and April, but there is no ironclad rule, as cyclones can strike at any time. ""We have brochures advising people how best to protect themselves and their property from cyclones. ""And the campaign is being taken into the local schools, so children can help educate their parents, where necessary." ================================================================ TELEGRAPH April 4, 1986 Friday DAM WORK PROGRESS SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: HAIRSINE M LENGTH: 89 words Dam work progress By MARK HAIRSINE Work on the $80million Burdekin Falls Dam has moved back into top gear following delays caused by floodwaters in the aftermath of Cyclone Winifred. Water Resources Minister, Mr Tenni, on his first official visit to the dam site, said construction on the massive project was progressing at a steady rate. The dam is part of the $402million Burdekin River Irrigation Project which should be in operation by December, 1988. Mr Tenni said the project would service some 500 farms. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL April 8, 1986 Tuesday GOVT AT CENTRE OF SUGAR MILL CLOSURE ROW SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: COLLIE G LENGTH: 518 words Govt at centre of sugar mill closure row From rural editor GORDON COLLIE TOWNSVILLE._ The State Government has become embroiled in a battle over the closure of CSR Ltd's Goondi sugar mill at Innisfail. It became clear yesterday that Goondi had become the latest victim of the sugar industry crisis. The Government has been left with two choices _ to approve a bid by Howard Smith Industries or to help finance the sale to two neighboring co-operatives. The prize both parties are seeking is the right to crush the Goondi cane supply once the mill closes. CSR confirmed yesterday it had agreed to terms for the multi-million dollar sale of the mill to Howard Smith Industries. The mill would be immediately scrapped and its cane supply transferred to the adjacent Howard Smith mill, Mourilyan. The State Government has come under pressure to block the deal in favor of a joint sale to the Babinda and South Johnstone co-operatives. The co-operatives delivered a confidential draft plan to the Government last week. This was followed up at meetings yesterday with the Primary Industries Minister, Mr Turner, and the Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen. The co-operatives have not been able to make a bid for Goondi because their takeover would require government financial backing. The joint co-operative takeover is seen as critical to the survival of the struggling Babinda sugar community north of Innisfail. Sir Joh pledged to help the Babinda region survive the sugar crisis at a Cabinet meeting held in the town in the wake of devastating cyclone Winifred. The mood of disenchantment with the Government in the region has put National Party seats at risk in the coming State election. The Babinda mill chairman, Mr Guido Ghidella, and the South Johnstone chairman, Mr Fred Lizzio, have both spoken out publicly against the sale of Goondi mill to Howard Smith. CSR Ltd Goondi mill manager, Mr Don Brown, said yesterday plans for the sale to Howard Smith were well advanced, subject to approval by the Central Sugar Cane Prices Board and the Queensland Government. The closure was expected to take place before the start of the 1986 crushing season. Mill staff, employees and union officials were advised yesterday. Mourilyan mill manager, Mr John Logan, said Howard Smith had made an offer which was accepted by CSR. He described the sale as a ""fait accompli". He said about 160 canegrowers supplying Goondi mill would be involved. The Howard Smith deputy chief general manager, Mr Allan Thomson, said from Sydney yesterday he was nonplussed by opposition to his company's offer for Goondi. ""The industry has been talking about the need to rationalise for a long time now," he said. ""The minute we make a move in that direction people start jumping up and down and giving us 10 good reasons why we shouldn't do it." The Babinda Co-operative had been free to make a bid for Goondi, the same as Howard Smith had, Mr Thomson said. Sir Joh said last night that while the sale to Howard Smith had virtually been finalised, the Government was hopeful the Babinda mill would benefit from the arrangement. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL April 8, 1986 Tuesday SUGAR: THE BAD TIMES DRAG ON SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: COLLIE G LENGTH: 664 words Sugar: the bad times drag on DESPITE a significant improvement in world prices in recent months, the Australian sugar industry remains in big trouble. Sugar producers are reeling from the effects of a massive global surplus which is going to take years to work out of the system. The industry is taking one of the worst batterings in its 100-year history. Canegrowers and millers have built sugar into one of Australia's great export industries. Sugar was single-handedly responsible for making Queensland the most decentralised State in Australia. The industry provided the wealth necessary to found and support whole communities in the tropical north. It is ironic that producers are now paying a heavy penalty for their efficiency in export development. With 80 percent of sales made overseas, the Australian industry is feeling the brunt of the world price collapse more than any other country. International free market prices crashed to their lowest level last year, bottoming at a giveaway US 2.5c a lb. The market has since picked up to better than 7c a lb, but this is still below the cost of production for most. There is little prospect of any significant improvement in the near future. The sugar industry over the years has learned to live with world prices among the most volatile of all commodities traded. But the past trend of booms helping to offset the busts is now much less likely to occur. The European Economic Community, which started the rot with a huge production surge, can swing back into sugar beet very quickly to cash in on any market strengthening. The other major change on the world scene has been the advent of alternative sweeteners, with high fructose corn syrup being the big seller. Sugar usage is now much more price sensitive, with other products to choose from. Most sugar producers in Australia have weathered three years of low prices, but cash reserves have been severely depleted in the process. The price crash has brought serious questions about the industry's tight regulatory structure, which has changed little since it was introduced early this century. For the most part, the industry has enjoyed prosperous times. With plenty of money to go around, the accent has been on equity rather than efficiency. Low returns have shown up weaknesses in the system, but there has been great reluctance among canegrowers to accept change. The Federal Government has pushed hard for deregulation, but as sugar is essentially a one-State industry, progress has been negligible. To sweeten the change Canberra sees as necessary, the inducement of a multi-million dollar aid package has been dangled in front of producers. With the State Government also contributing, more than $300 million in funds could be available over three years _ including $200 million in grants. The sugar price crash has already taken its toll, with many of the 6500 producers already forced out of the industry. The first mill to fall victim was Qunaba at Bundaberg, which closed at the end of last season. The 1986 season will be another difficult year, even with firming world prices. Several long-term contracts returning well above the free market price are close to expiring, so total industry income will continue to fall. Crop production has held up remarkably well considering most growers have slashed their inputs. This year could see a considerable fall in output. Producers in the far north are still reeling from the devastating impact of Cyclone Winifred, which destroyed up to half the 1986 crop in some mill areas. In south-east Queensland, a record dry summer has severely retarded crops during the main growing months. The position has become so bad that even producers hopelessly in debt have been unable to get out of the industry. The biggest rationalisation is likely to occur naturally when the market strengthens and buying a cane farm again becomes a viable proposition. THE graph shows how the price of sugar has tumbled. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL April 9, 1986 Wednesday DOUBLE BLOW AS PRICES, 'DRY' HIT QLD CATTLEMEN SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: COLLIE G LENGTH: 591 words Double blow as prices, "dry' hit Qld cattlemen By rural editor GORDON COLLIE THE Queensland grazing industry has been dealt a double blow with the onset of a widespread drought and a collapse in stock prices. Cattle prices have slumped an alarming 20 percent since the beginning of the year. The fall in returns has been attributed partly to a weakening in the key United States market. The manager of Catons-Primac in Toowoomba, Mr Norm Jenner, said on Monday the volume of beef exports to America had dropped because of two factors. The recent strengthening of the Australian dollar had meant that as the Australian dollar rose in value, American beef importers, who spent the same amount as before, would receive less beef for their money. The other reason was that beef imports traditionally fell during the northern summer _ a time when Americans eat less beef. Mr Jenner said an influx of stock from drought stricken properties also had contributed to the drop in prices. ""Something like 9000 head will be sold in the three Toowoomba sales this week, which will be a record," he said. ""Beef is like any other commodity _ when supply exceeds demand the price drops." He said the huge numbers of cattle entering the market were too great for abbatoirs to handle and could force processors to hold cattle until they could be killed. Buyers would take the added cost of this holding period into account when they purchased cattle and would pay less. ""They'll still buy the cattle but their killing capacity is limited," he said. Market erosion since Christmas has alarmed graziers. In Toowoomba, the biggest selling centre in Australia, steers and bullocks sold for 104 cent to 106 cent a kilogram liveweight at the first sale in January. In early April, comparable cattle sold for just 82 cent. In Rockhampton, the picture has been the same with steers slipping from 103 cent to 86 cent a kilogram inside three months. In Longreach,, the Primary Industries Department district stock inspector, Mr Dick Law, said this week there was a major exodus of cattle from the dry far north and west. Cattle were being trucked and railed out by the tens of thousands. Meatworks were booked up weeks ahead. Normally, these cattle would not be coming on to the market until July or August. Mr Law said parts of the Longreach and Winton districts which received the remnants of Cyclone Winifred would carry through the season fairly well. But in other areas, the outlook going into winter was grim. Most of south-east Queensland also had been hit hard by the big dry. Kilcoy Pastoral Company managing director, Mr Ian Kennedy, said the district was in the worst shape since the big drought of 1977. Mr Kennedy, who also is president of the Australian Meat Exporters Federal Council, described the United States beef market as ""very sick". Export cattle now were showing the effects of the dry season with pressure mounting on producers to quit their stock before they got worse. Producers in all rural industries are reeling from the failure again of the summer wet season. The Queensland shires of McKinley, Richmond, Diamantina, Barcoo, Isisford and Blackall have been drought-declared and the list is expected to lengthen quickly with the approach of winter. A Primary Industries Department spokesman said yesterday most of the State had received below average rainfall during 1986, with the north-west corner worst affected. With little hope of substantial rain before next spring, pasture conditions were expected to deteriorate rapidly. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL April 11, 1986 Friday MILL SALE A BLOW TO INNISFAIL SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: COLLIE G LENGTH: 762 words Mill sale a blow to Innisfail By Rural Editor GORDON COLLIE THE depressed Innisfail sugar community was thrown into turmoil on Monday when news broke of plans to close Goondi mill. The mill, one of three in the Innisfail district, has been crushing cane for the past 100 years. Farmers and the townspeople who depend almost exclusively on sugar for a living were shellshocked by the suddenness of the news. CSR Ltd announced it had accepted an offer to sell Goondi mill to Howard Smith Industries, a company which operates neighboring Mourilyan mill. If the sale was approved, Goondi would not open for the 1986 crushing, now only a matter of weeks away. It had been common knowledge in the sugar industry for some time that CSR wanted to quit the small Goondi mill. But everyone assumed it would be done in a much more planned, orderly fashion with plenty of advance notice. The catalyst for the sale was undoubtedly Cyclone Winifred. The cyclone which tore through the tropical coast in January destroyed more than 1.5 million tonnes of cane in northern mill areas. Ironically the loss of half of Mourilyan's 600,000-tonne crop to the cyclone would give Howard Smith the opportunity to absorb all Goondi's depleted crop for crushing this season. But closing down a sugar mill is far from being an administratively simple decision. The jobs of many Goondi mill employees are at stake. Mourilyan could handle double the cane volume with not many more employees. That is what rationalisation is all about _ crushing more cane at less cost. Goondi workers, on standown during the slack season, have been asked to report to the mill on April 21 when there should be a clearer indication about their future. The CSR move to sell out to Howard Smith has also bitterly divided the local canegrowing community. Many growers resent the fact that they are treated as little more than suppliers of a commodity to be bought and sold at the whim of mill owners. The mix of mill ownership in the region has greatly complicated an already sensitive issue. The third Innisfail mill, South Johnstone, and the mill further to the north at Babinda are both co-operatives. Babinda mill has amassed multi-million dollar debts in recent seasons. The added blow of Cyclone Winifred has forced it to the brink of closure. If Babinda mill closed, the small Babinda community would virtually fold up. The social implications have been such that the State Government has been drawn into the issue. Government assistance will be necessary just to get the mill through the coming season. Beyond 1986, increased throughput has been seen as essential to Babinda's survival. Realising this, Babinda directors devised a plan to make a joint bid with South Johnstone for Goondi mill and its cane supply. The plan, which would have required heavy government financial backing, was based on each mill taking about half the Goondi cane crop, divided each side of the North Johnstone River. With no definite State Government commitment, the co-operatives were only able to give CSR a broad proposal. CSR then chose the more attractive cash offer from Howard Smith Industries. The Babinda directors now have been left to fight for a share of the Goondi cane after the CSR-Howard Smith deal goes through. In pushing for cane supply from Goondi, the Babinda directors have run up against bitter opposition from Goondi growers who have refused to have anything to do with processing their crops at Babinda. They have been less than impressed with the Babinda mill management record and want to retain their identity as part of Innisfail district. The complex tangle is now set to be resolved by arbitration. It will go before the Central Sugar Cane Prices Board, which administers legislation governing the milling and zoning of cane. An application by CSR and Howard Smith for the change in ownership of Goondi mill already has been lodged with the Central Board. Evidence will be heard from all affected parties before any decisions are made. The decisions of the Central Board will have great implications for the rest of the sugar industry. The only other mill to close in the current crisis was Qunaba at Bundaberg. That case was a much more administratively simple one, with all the mills in the district operated by Bundaberg sugar company. A thorny industrial issue the Central Board will have to grapple with in the Innisfail case will be round-the-clock crushing. Mills are likely to push for non-stop crushing in a bid to absorb the Goondi cane supply without prohibitive capital expenditure. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL April 14, 1986 Monday BANANA PRICES ROCKET SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: FITZPATRICK K LENGTH: 146 words Banana prices rocket BANANA prices are rocketing and there could be worse to come. Fruit shops said at the weekend bananas were selling for about $3 a kg (about 50 cent each) against about $1 a kg last year. Cyclone Winifred destroyed about $50 million of the north Queensland crop. A Queensland Chamber of Fruit and Vegetables spokesman, Mr Des Calthorpe, said recent hailstorms and abnormally low rainfall also affected the crop in other banana-growing regions of south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales. The Coffs Harbor, Murwillumbah and Caboolture areas were supplying the east coast States as well as South Australia. ""The situation won't improve until at least July and cold weather could cause further disruptions," he said. Mr Graham Symes, manager of Fruit City, said bananas already had reached a price at which people were not buying. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH April 14, 1986 Monday WINIFRED: IT COULD HAVE COST MORE SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: NIELSEN M LENGTH: 224 words WINIFRED: IT COULD HAVE COST MORE By MICHAEL NIELSEN The $30million insurance payout after Cyclone Winifred was far less than that of comparable natural catastrophes because of the Innisfail area's small population. Had Winifred crossed the coast at Townsville, or Cairns, the cost would have been much higher, said the Insurance Council of Australia's regional director, Mr John Hall. The payout did not include crop damage, because this had to be calculated on a special basis, but the final figure was not expected to be much more than $30million, he said. Farmers sometimes insured their crops against loss, but storm damage could be misleading. Some experts pointed out that crops which looked devastated could recover after a few weeks, he said. Almost all the money was spent on property damage, he said. Queensland's insurance companies paid $177million in claims for the January 19 hail storm last year. ""It's easily the biggest insurance payout of its type we've had in Queensland and it's not easily rivalled in Australia," said Mr Hall. The Brisbane floods and Darwin's Cyclone Tracy in 1974 cost about $200million in property damages, he said. The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia several years ago cost about $300million, but most of that was for loss of life, he said. ================================================================ SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) April 20, 1986 Sunday SATELLITE USE AIDS RURAL QLD SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: LANDERS D LENGTH: 676 words Satellite use aids rural Qld By DAVID LANDERS Queensland has established a world-wide reputation in the application of United States-developed remote sensing satellite technology. The Landsat satellite is sending data round the clock to the Australian earth station at Alice Springs. And the Queensland Mapping and Surveying Department has made such innovative use of that data that foreign states, including the US, are taking notice, according to the Surveyor-General, Mr Kevin Davies. Last week he outlined some of the developments: Using Landsat satellite data, Queensland graziers will be able to better manage drought conditions. Satellite remote sensing maps of Queensland's natural grasslands are being compiled monthly. These will be used with maps of the state's natural water resources. Graziers will be able to pin point good feed and water supplies for their stock and accurately work out their current carrying capacity. ""It will end the days of graziers working by guess or by God," Mr Davies said. A grazier on a remote, vast Northern Territory property is mustering with the aid of the satellite. He is receiving maps on where the best feed and water supplies are and knows that is where his stock should be. Queensland foresters knew within a few days the extent of serious damage which Cyclone Winifred caused to northern Queensland rain forests. Goondiwindi road builders were able to find good gravel supplies based on information collated from the satellite. Drug enforcement agencies are able to locate marihuana plantations using the satellite imaging techniques. The depressed sugar industry may benefit from the strides being made in the technology with an earlier and more accurate assessment about the state of the crop. Mr Davies is fiercely proud of the progress being made by his staff. ""Some of we geriatrics will have to hold on or we'll fall off," he joked. ""This department is developing a world-wide reputation." He said one of the exciting spin-offs from the technology was the development of a revenue-earning export market to low-tech south-east Asian countries. Queensland was in the running with Canada to provide the first satellite mapping of the Thai capital, Bangkok, using the Landsat data, Mr Davies said. The capital had mushroomed in size and population. Many illegal structures had been erected and authorities were losing million of dollars in local taxes. Another project, now completed, had mapped shallow water in the Trobiand Islands, in Papua New Guinea. This disclosed that most of the old, local charts used by shipping were completely inaccurate. Satellite mapping of the Barrier Reef is under way. The overseas ventures and local projects are a partnership between the department, private enterprise and academia. The Australian Key Centre for Land Information Studies, a pooling of resources between the department, Queensland University, the Queensland Institute of Technology and the Darling Downs College of Advanced Education, has been set up in Brisbane. Under the remote-sensing technology, Landsat 5 records an image of a particular part of the earth's surface. It scans the image with a light-sensitive device and divides it into millions of parts. It assigns a numerical value to each part which are recorded on computer tape. The Alice Springs earth station receives millions of numbers each 24 hour period from Landsat _ and that is where Queensland comes in. ""Once you get that image on computer tape you can do wonderful things with it," Mr Davies said. The application of remote-sensing technology is only one of the developments in mapping and surveying with which visitors to Mr Davies' department are bombarded. There is the Land Information System which will provide improved, regularly-updated maps in computerised form. Information on a particular block of land might be stored in 10 different departments now. ""We're talking about putting this information on interconnected computers so that people can access it instantly," Mr Davies said. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL April 23, 1986 Wednesday SOCIAL SECURITY EXPANDS ITS SERVICES IN NORTH QLD SOURCE: QNP LENGTH: 118 words Social Security expands its services in north Qld CANBERRA._ The Social Security Minister, Mr Howe, yesterday announced plans for upgrading access to social security for people in north Queensland. Mr Howe said the strategy would include new regional offices, outreach and information programs, a new computer system and work reorganisation. He said the problems of rural industries and the economic mismanagement of the Queensland Government made the need for a coherent strategy urgent.The Cairns regional office would be divided in two to improve services. Mr Howe said the Innisfail emergency office, which was opened after cyclone Winifred, would be maintained while additional funding was sought. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH May 14, 1986 Wednesday BANANAS ROUND RECOVERY CURVE SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: CLARK L LENGTH: 238 words Bananas round recovery curve The Queensland banana industry is on the road to recovery after Cyclone Winifred's devastation in February, but prices could be high and supply low until the end of the year. According to the general manager of the Committee of Direction of Fruit Marketing, Mr Neville Smith, restricted supplies would come from some areas during the winter months. ""The industry will be back into full production by the end of the year, but until then, prices will be up, but not unduly high," he said. A Department of Primary Industry extension horticulturalist at Innisfail, Mr Geoff Walduck, said a combination of factors was slowly bringing ""the industry back from the brink of disaster". These included financial assistance from the Agricultural Bank, hard work and careful managment by growers, and technical help from DPI and the Banana Industry Protection Board. The chairman of the National Banana Growers Council, Mr Jim Dobson, said banana production may be under way, but it would take a lot longer for the industry to recover, perhaps two years. ""The planting progress and the production program has been upset, it has been a trying year for the banana industry," he said. Another factor having a detrimental effect on crops was the amount of rain. ""We have just had 37 days of rain, with no sunshine, and the paddocks are waterlogged. ""I don't see any immediate relief," he said. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL June 4, 1986 Wednesday SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: AAPAUSNEWS LENGTH: 35 words Grant for disaster study CANBERRA._ James Cook University in Townsville has been awarded a $30,000 Federal grant to develop a program for disaster management and to study the effects of Cyclone Winifred. ================================================================ SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) June 15, 1986 Sunday LOGGING HELPED WINIFRED SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: ORD B LENGTH: 473 words Logging helped Winifred Cyclone Winifred's devastation of large areas of Queensland's northern rainforests early this year would not, could not, have been so heartbreakingly extensive if the fury of the storm had not been channelled and concentrated by logging and other man-made clearances. ]And unless there is an end to these clearances and unless a major effort is made to reafforest areas suffering from natural or man-made wounds, another cyclone of Winifred's size and strength could do even more damage. This is the central conclusion Rainforest Conservation Society president Dr Aila Keto has drawn from an inspection of some of the areas between Cardwell and Babinda to the east, and Herberton and Ravenshoe to the west, where the cyclone damage was greatest. All told, says Dr Keto, about a third of the 1,060,000 hectares of rainforest between Townsville and Cooktown took a hammering, in greater or lesser degree, from the cyclone, judging from Landsat satellite observations. But not merely the forests suffered, she reports in the current issue of Liane, the RCS' always-interesting and fact-filled newsletter. So, too, did the animal and birdlife, whose food resources and habitat generally suffered with the vegetation. This damage was so extensive, says Dr Keto, that ""in the immediate term there should be no removal of fruiting or flowering trees, particularly by logging in the upland forests, that would put extra pressure on wildlife already stressed by loss of food resources due to cyclone Winifred". She adds: ""Lowland rainforest wildlife communities such as the cassowary are at unprecedented risk . . . Specific plans need to be drawn up for the establishment of wildlife corridors for the already heavily cleared tropical lowlands." Certainly, she says, there have been many Winifred-strength cyclones _ at least six in the past 150 years _ that have caused havoc in the northern rainforests, and Winifred won't be the last. But, although there has been a degree of natural recovery in most cases, that recovery has been least and slowest the closer the damage lies to man-made forest disturbances and destruction because that's where the damage is, far more often than not, the greatest. What Dr Keto is saying is that forest protects forest. It seems self-evident, hardly worth saying. Unless, that is, you're attempting, for the hundredth, wearily determined time, to spell it out to the Queensland Government which appears equally determined to ignore the fact. The northern rainforests, she says, need nothing less than a protective management program comparable to that developed for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park. For these forests are no less a natural wonder of world significance than the Reef itself. What man is doing to them is sad, bad and mad. When will it stop? ================================================================ TELEGRAPH June 23, 1986 Monday CYCLONE DETECTION 'IGNORED' SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: HAIRSINE M LENGTH: 321 words CYCLONE DETECTION "IGNORED' By MARK HAIRSINE A Queensland Minister has accused the Federal Government of neglecting cyclone-detection problems in north Queensland. Corrective and Administrative Services Minister, Mr Muntz, said the Federal Government had off-handedly rejected a request to base American surveillance aircraft in Queensland to monitor cyclone activity. Mr Muntz, whose Whitsunday electorate lies in the cyclone zone, made the proposal early this year. It was referred to the Federal Science Minister, Mr Jones. Mr Muntz was among government officials who inspected cyclone-ravaged north Queensland in February in the wake of cyclone Winifred. He later wrote to the Prime Minister, Mr Hawke, suggesting Australia approach the US to have sophisticated tracker aircraft based here during the northern winter. ""While these planes are idle from September to March, the northern part of Australia is facing its greatest threat from tropical storms," he said. ""It makes good sense to have the latest storm detection and monitoring technology based here on alert, rather than left idle during the American winter." Mr Muntz said Mr Jones had replied four months after the request, acknowledging its value but saying it was too expensive. Mr Muntz said it was a typical response from the Federal Government, who had forgotten north Queensland. ""Their priorities are all wrong," he said. ""The north is vital to the security and well-being of this country, yet is all but forgotten in Canberra. ""The Hawke government is expert at crying poor, but it has no trouble finding money for such "worthwhile' projects as Sydney's gay mardi gras, a women's bar in Canberra and a myriad of grandiose socialist schemes." Mr Muntz said early-warning systems in cyclone regions were not only an investment, but they offered peace of mind for tens of thousands of Australians living in the tropical north. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL July 11, 1986 Friday STATE'S CANE CROP LOWEST FOR 10 YEARS, SAY GROWERS SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: CONNORS D LENGTH: 194 words Growers fight wage increase THIS year's Queensland sugar crop was the lowest in 10 years, the Queensland Cane Growers Association claimed yesterday. It was making submissions during the State Industrial Commission Full Bench hearing of union applications for a State wage increase. The Queensland union movement is seeking the flow-on of the national wage decision which includes a 2.3 percent wage increase, 3 percent productivity-superannuation negotiations and 38-hour working week. The association's advocate, Mr Ken Hunt, said this year's crop estimate was 22 million tonnes because of cyclone Winifred in north Queensland and drought in other districts. Canegrowers' revenue would fall below $500 million for the first time this decade, he said. Mr Hunt joined all employer organisations in opposing the 2.3 percent wage increase, superannuation and right for the commission to arbitrate 38-hour working week applications. The Australian Sugar Producers Association advocate, Mr Steve Pawlowski, said the commission should take account of the remaining prosperity component in the industry's wages and award at the most a 2.2 percent increase. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH July 24, 1986 Thursday INSURANCE 'COPS IT' SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: CROSS N LENGTH: 241 words Insurance "cops it' Queensland is officially rated internationally as ""exposed to catastrophe", according to the general manager of Sun Alliance Australia, Mr John Mallick. Mr Mallick said the Australian insurance industry had been severely affected by natural disasters over the past two years. ""The Melbourne bushfires cost a considerable amount of money and they were followed by a bad storm in Sydney in November 1984, a hailstorm in Brisbane in January last year and cyclone Winfred in north Queensland this year," he said. ""These disasters are costing insurers millions of dollars and we are going to have to recoup that money somewhere," he said. He said professional reinsurers had been hit every year by Australian disasters and would not tolerate the existing premium rates. ""The end result is that insurance companies will not be able to offer insurance at rates which have existed in the past," Mr Mallick said. The insurance payout for damage caused by cyclone Winifred earlier this year is now estimated at $40million. In the past four months, 10,500 claims have been lodged, representing $27million in losses by home owners and commercial interests. Mr Mallick said isolated cases of insurance fraud were detected during assessment of cyclone insurance claims. He said said insured who had any difficulty with claims relating to Winifred should contact the Queensland branch of the Insurance Council of ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL August 16, 1986 Saturday 50 STORM AID CLAIMS FRAUDULENT: BARRISTER SOURCE: QNP LENGTH: 701 words 50 storm aid claims fraudulent: barrister ABOUT 50 percent of claims for disaster relief by Logan City residents had contained anomalies, a barrister told the Brisbane District Court yesterday. Police had already uncovered 50 cases of deliberate fraud and false claims by residents for emergency funds, the Crown Prosecutor, Mr Ross Martin, said. Thousands of dollars were paid out needlessly after the Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, had declared Logan City a disaster area following a storm on March 9, he said. Another barrister, Mr Tony Martin, said many people made claims for disaster relief funds after people went around Logan City saying money was being ""given away" to anyone who claimed it at a courthouse. Statistics concerning the false claims were revealed yesterday. Mr Ross Martin said nine out of 10 people already dealt with for the false claims had been jailed for short terms by magistrates. About 10 people are waiting to be dealt with by the Brisbane District Court, and police are investigating many other claims they believe were fraudulent. Yesterday, Diane Moore, a single mother, 30, became only the second person out of 11 to stay out of jail for cheating on the State Disaster Relief Plan. She pleaded guilty to two charges of claiming money from the plan by false pretences. Mr Ross Martin said a savage storm hit Logan City and it was declared a disaster area by Sir Joh. A fund was set up with State and Federal Government backing. Clerks of the court were authorised to cut red tape and pay funds to needy people who made claims, Mr Martin said. Moore, of Ewing Road, Woodridge, went to the Beenleigh Court on March 27 and gave a non-existent address. She claimed she had three children and had lost clothes, food, schoolbooks and bedding in the storm. She was given $1216.90. On April 1 she went to the Holland Park Court, made similar false claims, and was given $804. Mr Martin provided the first statistics for the special fund set up after the storm and the declaration of the disaster area. He said 384 claims were made at Beenleigh, resulting in a payout of about $190,000. There were 38 applications at Holland Park, with $31,000 being paid out. All 422 applications were investigated by police and 204 contained anomalies such as the same person claiming twice, different people in the same house making the same claim, and different addresses being given by the same people. Police so far had concentrated on cases containing the anomalies. They had 82 files to look at. Only 16 cases proved to be bona fide and 50 cases showed concrete evidence of fraud, Mr Martin said. Ten people already had been dealt with by two magistrates at Beenleigh and only one, a woman with a handicapped child, was not sent to jail for a short term, he said. By comparison, the disaster caused in Innisfail by cyclone Winifred earlier this year had resulted in 781 applications for funds. Payouts had totalled $278,000 and only 12 claims had been found to be false. Mr Martin argued that the community was justified in requiring jail sentences for people who exploited disaster funds. Mr Tony Martin, for Moore, said she now had a job and could repay the money she claimed falsely. She had to look after a foster child, a boy, 8, and had been in financial difficulties when the storm struck. She had been living with her sister and had owed $900 in car repayments, he said. Mr Tony Martin said Moore had heard from other people: ""They're not doing any checks down there. You can go in and get some money", so she got more than $2000 to help overcome her financial troubles. Judge C.F. McLoughlin said there was a danger of becoming emotionally overcharged when considering cases of people who cheated on disaster funds. He said there was public indignation at this type of offence. ""If the practice of making false claims is not stopped quickly, it could lead to the cancellation of these types of funds, to the detriment of genuinely needy people," he said. He placed Moore on probation for one year and ordered her to do 240 hours' community service. He also ordered her to repay the money in weekly $100 instalments. Continued, Page 2 ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL August 18, 1986 Monday WINIFRED'S IMPACT STUDIED IN DETAIL SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: ROSS D LENGTH: 179 words Replace for home edition Winifred's impact studied in detail SCIENTISTS at Townsville's James Cook University have been given $30,000 to study the social and economic effects of cyclone Winifred on north Queensland's coastal communities. ""A $30,000 Federal Government grant will enable the University's department of behavioral science to conduct the investigation," the Federal member for Herbert, Mr Ted Lindsay, said yesterday. He said the inquiry would assist local authorities and emergency services with planning for future disasters. ""Interviewers will be employed to knock on doors in the Johnstone and Mulgrave Shires and record experiences brought about by the February cyclone," he said. ""The field interviews will be conducted through September and November and an interim report should be ready early next year. ""Final results will be available about four months after that." He said the university had applied for the grant as an earlier investigation had revealed that cyclone Winifred may have caused ""even more distress" than expected. ================================================================ The Advertiser August 28, 1986 Thursday Cyclone Winifred damages MMHL SOURCE: aap LENGTH: 290 words Cyclone Winifred and poor driving hit Mercantile Mutual Holdings Ltd in the year to June 30, when the company's profit dived from $8m to $1.02m. If not for a $1.05m tax credit, the group would have lost $29,000 in the term. It is not certain what sort of performance the market was looking for from Mercantile Mutual, but the company has been very firm since the start of the month, since when it has jumped from $6 to $7.20. Mercantile indicated at the halfway stage that it would be hit in the June period by more than $3m in claims from Queensland as the result of Cyclone Winifred and that a downturn in car insurance and commercial fire business had also been experienced. Despite the downturn, its shareholders, notably Dutch insurer Nationale-Nederlanden (50 p.c.) and Mr Larry Adler's FAI Insurances (25 p.c.), can take solace in the fact that annual dividend has been held at 23c a share. FAI is not expected to be overly concerned as the market is looking for a bumper result from the company when it reports for 1985-86 on Friday. Mercantile's managing director, Mr Paul Shirriff, said yesterday a $3.42m loss had been incurred in the year by Mercantile Mutual Insurance (Workers Compensation) and Mercantile Mutual Insurance (Australia) and subsidiaries. On the positive side, Mr Shirriff said the company's life operation had performed well in the year and that its finance company had increased its pre-tax profit contribution from $1.7m to $3.3m despite a difficult trading environment. Mercantile Mutual Life contributed a $2.4m dividend to the company, 60 p.c. better than 1984-85. Mercantile increased revenue 17 p.c. to $218m in the 12 months. ================================================================ SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) September 21, 1986 Sunday FUND 'MISUSE' INQUIRY TO HIT NATIONAL SEAT SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: LANDERS D LENGTH: 436 words Fund "misuse' inquiry to hit National seat By DAVID LANDERS A Federal Government inquiry into the alleged misuse in Queensland of National Disaster Relief Scheme loans, will scrutinise funds paid to Cyclone Winifred victims. The inquiry is likely to target the north Queensland National Party seat of Mulgrave, which the February cyclone hit hard. The inquiry into money provided to Queensland under the National Disaster Relief Scheme stems from the $145,000 Agricultural Bank loan given to a National Party official, Mr Mike Behan, under instructions from the State Primary Industries Minister, Mr Turner. That money, like the National Disaster Relief Scheme, includes a federal component. The National Party MLA for Mulgrave, Mr Max Menzel, yesterday said of the allegations that some farmers had profited from disaster relief: ""I'd be very surprised if the allegations are true. They might be, I don't know. If they are, that would be wrong." Federal Finance Department officials, instructed by the Finance Minister, Senator Walsh, are expected to investigate claims that a group of farmers with National Party links in the Mulgrave electorate spent National Disaster Relief loans on new cars, overseas holidays and expanded property holdings. A Federal Government source said the allegations included: A farmer whose wife had real estate assets bought a business, putting his bank account into the red so he could get disaster relief; A family bought five new cars and another family took an overeas holiday after receiving disaster relief loans; A farmer secured disaster relief for his property by showing assessors damaged fruit which actually came from a property 30 km away _ when the claimant's trees were too immature to bear fruit; A farmer used his loan funds to buy a second farm to expand his existing smallholding where he was struggling to make a living. Mr Menzel said that if Senator Walsh was going to investigate farmers, he also should investigate the Labor-controlled Johnstone Shire Council (based at Innisfail) for alleged abuse of disaster relief. Mr Menzel alleged in State Parliament recently that the council had abused disaster money, that it had a $200,000 claim ""knocked back" and was forced to pay back other amounts. Senator John Black (Qld, ALP) said in Toowoomba yesterday that ""hot rorts" were being worked by National Party identities and their friends on the ""disaster relief gravy train". Senator Black said he would take his detailed allegations to Senator Walsh, but he did not link them to the cyclone or mention the Mulgrave electorate. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH September 26, 1986 Friday NEW FUND ROW SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: MILLER I LENGTH: 273 words New fund row From IAN MILLER in Canberra A new row has erupted over payments to National Party figures from the Natural Disaster Relief Fund. Senator John Black (ALP, Qld) asked the Finance Minister, Senator Walsh, whether Mr Ken Morris, a former employee of Mr Max Menzel, the National Party member for Mulgrave, bought a property at Babinda which had been advertised for $100,000, but after Cyclone Winifred earlier this year had claimed he had sustained $168,250 worth of damage to the property. Senator Black said Mr Morris was pictured in the local paper with what he claimed were his cyclone-damaged fruit, but in fact the fruit was from another grower's farm 40km away. Senator Black asked Senator Walsh to check whether the damage claim was reliable. Senator Walsh said he had not received a reply from the Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, to questions he had already raised about payments made from the National Disaster Relief Fund. ""I will write to the Premier again seeking either confirmation or correction of the statements made by Senator Black, but I am not optimistic about getting an answer. ""There is some circumstantial support for the facts being as Senator Black's inquiries have revealed _ that is, that Mr Morris was a former employee of Max Menzel, the National Party member for Mulgrave, and Mr Menzel has publicly boasted that he has had hundreds of Rural Reconstruction Board recommendations overturned. ""If I cannot get an answer from the Premier, I suppose I could try writing to Mr Menzel, but I would not be optimistic about getting a reply there either," Senator Walsh said. ================================================================ SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) September 28, 1986 Sunday POLICE CALL ON ALLEGATIONS SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: LANDERS D LENGTH: 388 words Walsh: Police must assess fraud case By DAVID LANDERS The Federal Finance Minister wants confirmation from the Queensland Premier that police will be called in if evidence of fraud is found in National Disaster Relief funds. Senator Walsh also said he would seek to provide Australian Federal Police help in the investigation if it was necessary. Questions were raised in federal Parliament about the alleged abuse of federal disaster relief funds in Queensland, with ALP allegations of National Party cronyism. Senator Walsh has announced an investigation into how the funds have been distributed in Queensland. He asked the Premier, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, last week by letter to provide details. Sir Joh already had rejected Senator Walsh's request. The latest letter would be treated similarly, said government sources. The letter came after Senator Walsh was asked in the Senate last week by Senator John Black (ALP, Qld) if there was any information about Mr Ken Morris, a former employee of Mr Max Menzel (NP, Mulgrave). He asked if Mr Morris had bought a 20.6 hectare property at Babinda. It had been on the market for $100,000, yet Mr Morris allegedly said after February's Cyclone Winifred that he had suffered $168,250 damage to the property. Mr Morris was pictured in the local press with fruit damaged by the cyclone, but Senator Black said he was advised the fruit was from another grower's property 40 km away. He asked if Senator Walsh could check whether the damage claim was as reliable as those about the fruit. In reply, Senator Walsh said he would seek confirmation or correction of the damage claims and that there appeared to be some circumstantial support for them. Senator Walsh said he was not optimistic about getting a response from either Sir Joh or Mr Menzel on the matter. Mr Menzel last week said the ALP claims were a payback after he raised allegations in state Parliament about ALP abuse of Cyclone Winifred disaster relief concerning the Labor-controlled Johnstone Shire Council. Mr Morris could not be contacted for comment. The investigation into National Disaster Relief stems from a $145,000 loan granted to the National Party northern director, Mr Micheal Behan, for his property. The loan contained a component of federal money, as does disaster relief. ================================================================ TELEGRAPH October 29, 1986 Wednesday BANANAS RETURN AFTER CYCLONE SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: WILLIAMS D LENGTH: 152 words BANANAS RETURN! The good news for banana gourmets is that Queensland bananas are back with a vengeance. When Cyclone Winifred hit north Queensland's primary banana growing area earlier this year, supplies became short and banana prices rocketed. Now Queensland bananas are back on the market, costing as little as $1.30 a kilo if you shop around. Australians eat an average of 70 bananas each a year, which totals almost 147million kg. The two main growing areas in Queensland, under normal circumstances, supply about 55 percent of Australia's total banana market. The one in north Queensland, which was hit by the cyclone, stretches from near Innisfail through Tully to Cardwell and the second, in the south-east, runs from Gympie to the New South Wales border. As well as being high in fibre, bananas contain vitamins B1, B2 and C and are also a good source of potassium and phosphorus. ================================================================ SUNDAY MAIL (QLD) November 30, 1986 Sunday DUNK ISLAND, A DIVERSITY OF TROPICAL ACTIVITIES SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: REISENDER W LENGTH: 1349 words Dunk Island, a diversity of tropical activities By WALTER REISENDER On February 1, 1986, Cyclone Winifred hit north Queensland with winds of 220km/h, wreaking havoc with farms, houses, forests and tourist facilities. Nearby Dunk Island was in the very centre of the cyclone and was almost devastated. But now it has been reborn and is better than ever, again filled with happy holidaymakers. Bookings are back to an enviable 97 percent, of which three-quarters are from Australia and the other quarter are American, Asian, Canadian and European visitors. Facilities have been restored and are now outstanding, a new wing of rooms has just been completed and guests are once more enjoying the vast selection of activity options that attract visitors to this resort year after year. Arriving at Dunk Island recently, I found it hard to imagine that the resort had been nearly destroyed by the cyclone. There was no sign of any damage; gardens had been beautifully replanted and the rainforest abutting the resort _ its pride and joy _ had regrown the leaves that had been stripped away. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL September 24, 1986 Wednesday SOURCE: QNP BYLINE: KENT J LENGTH: 83 words Crushing for season ALL sugar cane produced in the current season will be crushed, the Primary Industries Minister, Mr Turner, said yesterday. The excess amount of cane allowed to be crushed at mills would be set at 40 percent above individual peaks. He said this percentage took account of the good crop in the Mackay area, but was balanced by the effects of Cyclone Winifred in the north and drought in the south, which would hold overall production at about 101 percent of total mill peaks. ================================================================ COURIER-MAIL December 6, 1986 Saturday UPDATE FOR CYCLONE WARNINGS SOURCE: QNP LENGTH: 186 words Update for cyclone warnings TOWNSVILLE._ North Queensland's cyclone warning systems have been improved significantly since cyclone Winifred caused $200 million damage around Tully last February. The Federal Science Minister, Mr Jones, said the Federal Government had injected funds following criticism of the communications system after cyclone Winifred. ""I think you'll be much better off than last year," he said. The improvements included the replacement of 16 weather stations in Queensland, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, a new Cairns weather warning station and new computer systems for quicker processing of cyclone data. Two Gulf of Carpentaria vessels had been equipped with meteorological equipment. Also, Mr Jones defended the CSIRO's research into the artificial sweetener Aspartame. He said CSIRO scientists had stumbled on a way to synthesise Aspartame and this could form a multi-million-dollar industry. But the State Northern Development Minister, Mr Katter, said plans to farm out the manufacturing rights for the sweetener would put one in three sugar producers at risk.