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Police have serious fears for a group of seven people, including four children, who are missing in the flooded fringes of the state.
Three elderly people and four children aged between 12 and 17 left Kalgoorlie-Boulder on Sunday for the remote Aboriginal community of Tjuntjuntjara but have not been seen since.
The group is from Tjuntjuntjara, 600 km northeast of where they drove from, and the police were contacted on Monday when they did not make it home.
Hundreds of millimeters of rain have fallen over the area in the past 48 hours and the unseasonal weather conditions have affected the search.
“There are concerns due to the fact that we have had severe weather and rain and more has been forecast over the next 24 hours and we have not been able to get in touch with residents,” Police Insp. Mick Kelly. ABC.
Police in Western Australia have serious fears for a group of seven people, including four children, who are missing in the flooded fringes of the state. One of the missing vehicles, a Mitsubishi Triton, is pictured
The second missing vehicle, a 1986 Toyota Landcruiser with number plates A683 is pictured
‘Our air asset was up this morning and it flew for an hour. The plane simply cannot see through the clouds, so we were unable to locate them.
‘It will be too dangerous for the pilot.’
The group was believed to have only minimal supplies, with one of the vehicles carrying water and camping equipment.
“We hope they have stayed with the vehicle,” Inspector Kelly said.
The vehicles being sought are a 1986 Toyota Landcruiser with plates A683 and a white Mitsubishi Triton utility with plates KBC8881.
Jon Lark, chief executive of the Paupiyala Tjarutja Aboriginal Corporation, said the community is concerned.
“Unfortunately we’ve lost touch with them and with this extreme event, a one in a 25-year event, we know they’re somewhere in the middle,” he said.
“The police have been out to a place called Zanthus and they had to return.
‘We’ve had a car drive 120 kilometers from our end and had to turn back.’
Heavy rain has also forced the evacuation of a pastoral station on the Nullarbor.
A Bureau of Meteorology satellite image shows massive cloud cover over central and southern Western Australia
Superintendent Damien Pumphrey from the Goldfields region Department of Fire and Emergency Services said parts of the Eyre Highway – which links WA to South Australia – were lashed by more than 180 millimeters of rain on Monday.
“While the rain is still falling, the water level along the highway has dropped a little bit to allow us to reopen the highway,” he said.
‘The plan is to leave the motorway open during the day until around five o’clock (WA time on Tuesday) and the current intention, unless the water recedes a little further, then we will close the motorway overnight for the sake of traffic and road user safety.
‘We will monitor the water level in the area … if we are not sure it is safe overnight then we will close it again.’