Australia approves aid payments for cyclone-affected residents, businesses and farmers

Extra financial payments have been approved on Friday for residents, businesses and farmers affected by Cyclone Marcia which tore a swathe through an 80 kilometer section of Queensland a week ago.

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced the broadening of disaster payments while touring the disaster zone clean-up sites in Rockhampton, the largest city hit by Marcia.

"Today I can announce that the Australian disaster recovery payments will be extended," he told reporters.

"These go to people who have suffered significant damage to property."

"I can also announce that the disaster recovery allowance will be made available to people who are unable to work as a result of this disaster in both the Fitzroy and the Wide Bay Burnett district."

"The people of Rockhampton, Yeppoon, Byfield, Biloela, all the other towns and villages that have been hit by this dreadful cyclone and the associated floods need to know that the entire Australian nation feels for them at this very difficult time."

"We don't just feel for them, we want to do everything we humanly can to help them, not just today, not just this week and this month, but in the long and inevitably difficult recovery period," Abbott said.

The disaster recovery allowance gives access to payments of around 270 Australian dollars a week for up to 13 weeks.

There will also be one-off 1,000 Australian dollar payments for adults, and 400 Australian dollars per child.

Meanwhile, volunteer emergency services workers, staff from local government bodies and the Australian army continue recovery work.

Personnel are cutting up and disposing of thousands of trees brought down by the category 5 cyclone, as well as clearing debris such as roofs and metal from streets and damaged properties.

They are also placing temporary protection on homes which lost their roofs and windows in winds up to 290 kilometers per hour.

Dozens of insurance assessors have also begun inspecting damaged properties.

Local farms growing tropical fruits and vegetables have also been decimated, with an estimated 100,000 pineapples rotting in fields.

According to local media reports some pineapple farmers lost up to 90 percent of their crops which take two years to grow, and will have to plough them back into the fields.

One local farmer told the Australian Broadcasting Authority that the region had already experienced heavy rainfall before Cyclone Marcia dumped around 500 millimeters in 24 hours.

He said the pineapples had absorbed so much water that the fruits boiled in their skins in the heatwave which followed the cyclone. Endi