Lord Howe Island Airstrip DPR/TV/1604 & 1629 (DPR/S/165)

At Lord Howe Island the tiny New South Wales tourist resort out in the Pacific Ocean Army Engineers are ploughing ahead with the building of an airstrip replacing the famous Ansett flying boat service. As if the Fflying boats themselves know how numbered their days are on of the lumbering Sandringhams broke its moorings this week and was washed up onto the beach like a dying whale. This first film back from Lord Howe Island since the accident shot by Army photographer WO Dick Garrett tells its own sad tale of a grand old lady. The gale force rain and winds still buffeting the area (as of 14 June) broke one of the plane's doors as well and partly submerged the interior. Soldiers later pumped it dry again. The Army engineers who went to the Island three months ago to build the airstrip were on hand to help put things right with their bulldozers and front end loaders. But no announcements have yet been made on the plane's future. So for now she sits in a sandy nest dug for her as a temporary measure on the edge of the island's lagoon. Further along the lagoon the Island's first conventional airstrip is rapidly taking shape. But the recent weather some of the worst for years at the island is frustrating the construction programme. Days lost due to weather mean longer ones on the job when the skies clear. The airstrip will take light twin engined planes and lies across the centre of the elongated island resort. Most of the land was cleared years ago as pasture but thousands of tons of soli had to be levelled. Sixty soldiers are on the job. They come from the 1st Field Engineer Regiment at Holsworthy near Sydney. Most have been enjoying their jobs 480 miles from home in the middle of the ocean but only when the rain lets up.