Posted: 2024-05-18 08:20:52

The resort declined to comment on the situation, citing security reasons.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said in a post on social media platform X on Saturday that Canberra was “working with authorities in France and New Caledonia, and like-minded partners including New Zealand, to assess options for Australians to safely depart.”

She added that Noumea’s La Tontouta International Airport remained closed and urged Australians “to exercise a high degree of caution in New Caledonia.”

Brisbane woman Sophie Jones Bradshaw travelled to Noumea, the capital of the French-ruled Pacific island territory, for work on May 11.

She said her husband and three-year-old son were meant to come to meet her several days later, but the riots broke out.

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Supermarkets are bare and leaving home to get rations is a life-threatening endeavour amid periodic explosions and fires.

“There’s a few corner stores I’ve tried yesterday and today and they are empty - maybe a few shampoos and deodorants left but there’s no food,” Jones Bradshaw said.

“You have to go further and further out to find a shop that hasn’t been burned or is not closed.

“In the middle of all that, you can still hear explosions every now and then.”

Finding a loaf of bread is near impossible, Jones Bradshaw said, with supplies to grocers blocked by road barricades.

The New Caledonia government said on Friday the island had stocks of food for two months and the problem was distribution.

Operations to supply food and medicine to the public will begin with teams, including specialists in mine clearing, removing road barricades that were booby-trapped by activists, French officials have said.

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