Telstra Outage: Elderly Woman Frightened After Fall, Senator's Death Claim Questioned

An elderly woman who suffered a fall during Wednesday's Telstra outage was left "frightened" by the experience, her daughter says.

Michelle Johnson, form Bordertown in SA's South-East, said her 89-year-old mother, who lives in a town in western Victoria, had a fall in public but would not let anyone help her.

The elderly woman, who has dementia, managed to get herself home.

Ms Johnson told 891 ABC Adelaide that a witness saw what happened and contacted the local community health centre.

She said nurses from the centre visited her mother, but yesterday's Telstra outage meant no-one was able to contact about her mother's situation.

"She wouldn't really allow them to help her either because she was frightened," Ms Johnson said.

"So it was actually a few hours later — it was probably about three hours later — before any message could get through."

Ms Johnson said her mother had services set up so she could continue to live at home, but felt the system let her down on Wednesday.

"We can set up all we like to support an older person … at home, but with this glitch, or whatever you want to call it, that happened yesterday, it let the whole show down," she said.

She said her mother was "fine" now.

Police 'not aware' of any deaths in SA

Meanwhile, SA Police told the 891 ABC Adelaide this morning they were not aware of any deaths in relation to the Telstra outage, after federal Liberal Senator Kerrynne Liddle last night claimed her office had received "a report of a tragic death following an apparent failure to connect to Triple Zero".

"This death of an elderly South Australian represents a devastating failure for their family. Our thoughts are with them. No Australian should ever be unable to connect to Triple Zero when their life depends on it," the senator posted on social media last night.

SA Police responded to Senator Liddle's post on Wednesday night.

"We are not aware of any death in South Australia today as a result of the Telstra nationwide outage," SA Police's Facebook account replied in the comments section.

Neither Senator Liddle nor her staff responded to calls from the ABC on Thursday.

Acting Premier Kyam Maher also told 891 ABC Adelaide the SA Ambulance Service had also looked through its records and could not find any death related to the outage.

"From reporting today it appears that they had some communication yesterday morning.

"The senator waited until 7 o'clock last night to post something."

Mr Maher also questioned why she had not passed the information on to authorities.

A spokesperson for Senator Liddle last night said the family involved were advised to contact SA Police "when they're ready to talk about their experience".

Police Minister Michael Brown said he was "surprised and shocked" when he saw Senator Liddle's social media post.

He said police were investigating Senator Liddle's claims, but she had not yet provided any information to them.

"When we're talking about the Triple Zero outage, people are right to be concerned and angry about what happened yesterday, but to have it blown out of proportion and all sorts of wild, speculative information put out publicly I think is downright dangerous," Mr Brown said.

Telstra said it had conducted more than 300 welfare checks on people across the country who failed to reach emergency services.

"My advice is there are no outstanding welfare checks," Mr Brown said.

SA Police said it remained "in regular contact with Telstra and will respond swiftly should any information or requests be received".

Transcontinental train leaves after delay

The iconic transcontinental train, The Ghan, left Adelaide for Darwin about 9:30am on Thursday after being stuck on the platform overnight on Wednesday because of the Telstra outage.

Several passengers disembarked early for fear of missing their itinerary, including British travellers James and John who had tours booked at Alice Springs on Friday.

The pair decided to fly instead, forking out roughly an extra $800 per person.

They said the mood on board the train was "reasonably okay" but were "a bit disappointed [they] wouldn't get to experience the train ride".

A spokesperson for Journey Beyond, which runs The Ghan, said passengers who experienced delays enjoyed a special event at the Adelaide terminal on Wednesday night.

It said it has been informed by the Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) network that it is now safe for The Ghan to depart.

The Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) had halted all train traffic on its rail lines on Wednesday morning because of safety concerns related to the outage.

The ARTC said it expects network operations would progressively return to normal throughout this morning.