Hartley's Creek Refreshment Kiosk Cairns to Mossman, c 1935

News of the day

The Courier Mail, Saturday 2 March 1935

Sick Man All Night In Storm

- Ambulance Car Held Up By Rain -

Encountering blinding rain storms, an ambulance car from Mossman, taking a patient to the Cairns District Hospital, was forced to spend a miserable night on a gale-swept section of the Cook Highway, beyond White Cliffs, on Wednesday.

Superintendent Andersen, of the Mossman ambulance centre, left with a patient and his brother about 7 o'clock on Wednesday evening for Cairns. Torrential rain was experienced shortly after passing Yule Point, and at White Cliffs visibility was blotted out by rain squalls and raging storms, which burst in from the sea. A halt was made for the night but at dawn yesterday the drenched engine of the car would not function. For hours the ambulance officer waited for assistance.

A motor truck from Hartley's Creek eventually came on the scene and towed the disabled ambulance car to Hartley's Creek. The patient and his brother were then taken in a truck to a farm on Double Island Road about 10 miles from Cairns. Swollen creeks prevented the truck proceeding, and the sick man and his brother crossed the creek and began to walk towards the nearest farm.

By this time anxiety had been aroused in Cairns and Mossman at the absence of news of the party, and an ambulance car, which was despatched from Cairns to Buckham's Point, met the patient and took him to the Cairns District Hospital.

Superintendent Andersen and the ambulance car are now flood-bound at Hartley's Creek by creeks which rose overnight, and were still rising today.

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