Australia Weather News

A man and woman who had been lost for three days and walked 58 kilometres through a remote flooded part of the south-western Northern Territory have been found dehydrated, but otherwise unharmed.

The pair, aged 30 and 27, headed towards the flooded community of Kintore after their vehicle became stranded on Christmas Day.

They were part of a group of six people travelling in two cars from the remote West Australian community of Kiwirrkurra to Kintore, about 180 kilometres away over the NT border.

"They'd managed to walk 58km; quite extraordinary in two days that they walked that distance," Acting Superintendent Brendan Muldoon said.

"They walked along a small access track off the main road, which made our efforts a lot more difficult in locating them in that they were continuing to move ... we were very grateful they were located and they were located only five kilometres from Kintore."

He said they were "relatively uninjured" but their dehydration was being treated.

Their other four companions were rescued by helicopter on Tuesday afternoon, after a ground search yesterday proved difficult due to flooded roads.

Search parties from both the NT and WA sides of the border got bogged and had to abort the search, police said.

Tourists in shock after flood ordeal

Meanwhile, a tourist couple have been found safe after floodwaters swept their car down the Hugh River, 40km out of Alice Springs, yesterday afternoon.

"A remarkable situation where these two people survived this incident, it's a very dangerous road they've tried to cross in floodwaters," Acting Superintendent Muldoon said.

The man, a Taiwanese national, was driving the car when it stalled in water on the causeway on Larapinta Drive.

"He managed to get a door open when the vehicle was being washed off the causeway and was washed out of the vehicle," Acting Superintendent Muldoon said.

"He clung to a tree some 200 metres downstream where he was later rescued by some very brave police and a local person.

"They saved that man's life by giving him that rope and pulled him to safety in fast-flowing waters."

He was found clinging to a tree in the middle of the river.

The man was very frightened as he could not swim, and also didn't speak English, police said.

The man's partner, a woman from Hong Kong, was found by police about five kilometres away lying on the opposite riverbank downstream.

She injured her hand trying to smash out the glass of the car window, and is undergoing surgery at Alice Springs Hospital.

"She was noticed lying on the bank unresponsive, efforts to call out to her remained unanswered and we did have grave fears at that stage that she was deceased but police managed to get to the outside of that bank and rescue her and we're very, very grateful she's alive," Acting Superintendent Muldoon said.

Two Alice Springs police officers and a member of the public stripped down to their underwear and swam through the raging torrents to rescue the tourists.

"He swam across the rest of the river to the bank that no one else could get to and he walked about five kilometres probably down that river bank to search for the woman, dressed only in his underpants," she said.

Officer Zachary Rolfe swam across the river and walked south in search of the woman.

Acting Superintendent Muldoon said the group entered the water "on the belief that if they didn't go in there they [the tourists] would have died".

The couple were understood to be in Australia on a working holiday, living in Katherine and visiting Alice Springs on vacation.

Police originally believed three tourists had been swept away and one was trapped in the car, which sank.

Dozens still in emergency shelter

In the remote community of Kintore, about a quarter of the town's population of 400 had to shelter in the school after floodwaters up to a metre in height swept through the community on Christmas Day.

Fifty-three people are still unable to return to their homes and remain at the school.

"It will be several days before they're able to return," Acting Superintendent Muldoon said.

He said other remote communities believed to be flooded in such as Papunya and Haast's Bluff had independent power supplies and food stocks to help them get through emergency situations, but that police were keeping an eye on things.