INTERSTATE NEWS------------------------------

BUSHFIRE RAGING Cattlemen face

ruination

MELBOURNE. - The 11-day old bushfire north of Bal· ' ranald in south west NSW was burning completely out of control last night and racing at up to 30 knots through grass country·

Fire-fighters were thwarted by south-easterly winds which pushed the fire over the road on a 10-mile front.

Urgent radio messages went out over the ABC and local radio stations for people in the path of the fire to evacuate.

Fire-fighters on the road raced home to get their families out of their homes and moved to safety.

. .

CONTROL The organisation im- the chances of stopping loan equi~))nent free of

mediately directed t h e the blaze, he said: "All charge to any pastoralists Army to move another we can do is try to keep who ask for help. seven radio vehicles with the fire's spread to a Fire is burning out of crews from Watsonia Bar- minimum. control on several sta-racks in Melbourne to "At one stage today we tions but has been con-help in communications. would have had no more tained in some areas.

The Army had already than 150 firefighters try- The Boulder Shire despatched personnel ing to stop that road be- Clerk, Mr R. Peddie, said from Puckapunyal by ing jumped. that fires on Menangina road to Balranald, flown "The rest had to race and Gindalbie stations heavy plant operators home to move their fam- north of Kalgoorlie were from Sydney in RAAF ilies and stock. A wea- under control. Caribou aircrnft., and thei· change is the only The fires on Gindalbie fl A h I. t station threatened the own an rmy e JCOP er hope we can see of halt-into the fire area. ing the blaze now. Carr Boyd nickel mine on

Tuesday night.

MT ISA. - Due to dis­astrous fires, many West Queensland beef produc­ers who were hanging on in the face of ruinously. low catt,le market prices will now be forced to walk off their land.

Thousands of cattle in fire - ravaged western Queensland face death through starvation unless rains fall within a fort­night.

Queensland United Graziers Association gen­eral secretary Mr A. E. Stephenson said yesterday more than 30,000 square kilometres of grazing land around Boulia had been reported burnt out.

The Balranald Shire engineer, Mr Frank Gra­basch, said last night:

Balranald road by utilis­ing giant clay pans.

Further Army commun- "At least it's in open The blaze came within from its present 40 miles." ication vehicles were on country, which is a bit about 400 metres before

Spotter p,lanes were standby in Sydney to easier than in the bush- being stopped by natural

Fodder loss there would be disastrous Mr Stephen­son said and unless good general rains fell almost immediately cattle would starve.

"Only a change in t h e weather can stop this fire

"But the fire just rac­ed through," he said. ·'We couldnt do anything about it and already about 450,000 acres (about 190,000 hectare) burnt out. We are trying · fo -narrow the fire -front ·

hampered yesterday in move at a moment's not- land." firebreaks. tracking the exact path ice. Meanwhile, in Western Yesterday fire was

now." He said firefighters

had thought they had a chance of stopping t h e fire on the Ivanhoe •

of the exploding fire as The Army plant o.l').er- Australia pastoralists lost about 20 kilometres from thick smoke poured out ators were to relieve ex- more ground In the con- the Scotia nickel mine of the fire area. hausted bulldozer and tinuing battle against north of Kalgoorlie, but

The newly - formed tractor operators who had bush fires when new out- was not creating concern.

Even with 50 to 75 milli­metres (2-3 inches> of rain now it would take grass three weeks to pro­duce feed of . sufficient height for cattle to eat.

Federal Natural Disasters been carving fire breaks breaks flared east and Fires north of Laverton Organisation in Canberra non ·- stop since the fire north of Kalgoorlie yes- also appear to be under was called on for help by started, it is believed, terday. control. the NSW Government from a lightning strike The Minister for Tran-~---------;;;;----------~ IWHEELMANl .· .:r_f~ •. t.e~.~.a.~•u•s•fe•f~•e•r~.ioo•re•~•ig•h•i•~--~.t.~.~~.:.~.~-~.·s:•e•~•e•:•.:•:·;·_t:_e~.·~--~-~_l_1:.~.uM•th•1~.r~.i~.~.~.t:•th•~~.no•t~.n.ao•i~

I CYCLE STORE I I I 11 I McMINN ST. ONLY I S~?;Y:~~;.n I f High Court yesterday }I • · ruled that a decision al-l Christmas Trading Hours: i lowing builder's laborers lJI WED & THURS 7 t 6 · to intervene in an award 'it • • a.m. 0 p.m. dispute before the Aus-1 FRIDAY 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. trat!an .conciliation. 3:nd !' Arbitration Commission ~ SAT. & SUN ....... Open All Day I was valid. ! MONDAY 7 t 9 The decision was made i . ......... a.m. O p.m. in July by Justice Eliza-lf TUESDA y .......... .. 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. beth Evatt, a dep~ty

! Wheelman Cycle Store ~ri:·n~::~:· :::~:~ II Assoc1at1on of NSW chal-i For Your C:onvenience i lenged the validity of the

! 64 McMINN STREET - PHONE 81 6369 i de~l~~onjudges said there ~Jr~>i->t-~)fl4Jl~>l-)iJq>;~>i>t~)l)f-)';)l'>i);>.>.>l>'i>l->'1 were reasons why it

betlt inflation • • •

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14 - The NT News, Thursday, December 19, 1974

IN BRIEF might be thought desir­able that representatives of the builder's laborers should be heard in the proceedings.

Walker) claimed it would be "oppressive" to send Walker back (to Qm:ens­land). "We will endeavor to show that the State of Queensland has a par­ticular bias against the Aboriginal people," he said.

Mr Briese adjourned the hearing with Walker on bail to the present sit­tings of Central Court where he said that a long case could be more easily

"It seems to have been agreed on all sides that an award governing the conditions of tradesmen in the building industry might affect the condi­tions of builder's laborers and that the builder's laborers ought therefore to have an opportunity to be heard before such an award was made," the judges said.

h~ard if necessary. I

Not fair? SYDNEY. - About 50

people demonstrated in support of Aborig·inal activist Dennis Walker outside Redfern Court yesterday morning.

They demanded that charges being heard in the court against Walker be dropped and that ex­tradition proceedings to send him to Queensland for hearing be dismissed.

Walker, 29, field officer, of Redfern, appeared be­fore Mr C. R. Briese, SM, charged with demanding money with menaces in Brisbane on August 6 this year.

He is the son of Queens­land poet Kath Walker.

Mr Bruce Miles (for

Submission CANBERRA. - A sub­

mission to the Australian Government's Social Wel­fare Commission recom­mends big increases in social welfare spending.

The Brotherhood of St. Laurence says 1n a re­search paper released yeste1·day that the allow­ance for children of wel­fare beneficiaries should increase from $5.50 a week to $10.

Among other recom­mendations, it says that the seven day waiting period for unemployment and sickness benefits should be abolished, and that a pension, such as that for widows, should be introduced for men bringing up children on their own.

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Ii MERRY CHRISTMAS I ~ i1 ~ ~ I ~ ~ !

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