STARK TRAGEDY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 25, 31 January 1933, Page 5

STARK TRAGEDY.

SYDNEY FLOODS.

STANWELL PARK HORROR.

FAMILY SWEPT AWAY,

(Prom Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, January 27,

Terrible damage was done by tlie violent storm that swept over New South Wales this last week. At places the rainfall was phenomenal, and at Waterfall, 20 miles south of Sydney, 24 inches fell, and set up a record for that part of the world. Low-lying parts of Sydney were flooded, much material damage was done, but the most terrible story comes from Stairwell Park, a reserve famous as a picnic resort and camping ground, o4 miles from Sydney of one of the most shocking tragedies recorded in recent years in the history of New South Wales. Family Trapped. Since January 15, Mr. Vincent Davis, jf Leichhardt, with his wife and four children, had been camping, in Stanwell Park reserve on a flat below a steep hill. Not far away the creek which runs by the park flows through a culvert, md when the stream was flooded the storm water thus compressed became a raging torrent. There were about 50 tampers in this part of the park, and in adjoining tents were Mrs. Miscliell md her six children, and two boys, Jack xnd Allen Phillis, aged 12 and 8 respectively. When the storm came on previously on Sunday night the Phillis boys, terrified, left their tent and sought refuse with the Davis family. Meantime Mrs.° Mischell's children had found refuse in the kiosk not far away, and most of the campers, now thoroughly ilarmed, had left their tents and found their way up the hill to safety. By 11 o'clock water began to come into the Davis tent, and Mr. Davis, going out to investigate, found that the overflow from the creek had cut in behind him and that his camp was isolated. He began to prepare, means of escape, and, taking ropes from the tent, he tied the members of his party together Alpine fashion in single file. He bound one of the younger children to his back. Laul el, the eldest child, a girl of 16, and the only member of the party who could swim, carried the baby and led the way: and the little party went out into the darkness. But the creek, forced through the culvert with tremendous pressure behind it, now burst its bounds. An onlooker, one of the caretakers who had struggled down to the flat to warn the campers, saw it tearing down "as if propelled by the force of a Niagara, carrying trees, boulders and tents before it like so much straw. The Davis party stepped off the edge of the flat into a mill-race 1.0 feet deep, and in an instant they were torn apart. , The father, the child he carried, and the younger members of the family were swept away down toward the sea. The mother and daughter, still bound together—though the baby had disappeared in the whirlpool—were caught by a projecting tree, in which their rope became entangled; the mother was quickly overwhelmed by the torrent, and the girl Laurel, suspended by one arm. was the only survivor. Her cries for help were heard. Mr. Davidson, asleep in the' kiosk, roused two other men, and, joined by Gordon Tonkin, a boy of 17, who was staying at Stanwell _ Park, they scrambled down the hillside toward the creek. A sudden flash of lightning showed them the girl almost submerged by the flood ana in imminent peril. Brave Boy. Young Tonkin tied round him the end of a rope he had brought from the kiosk and plunged into the His companions afterwards said that he risked almost certain death and that it was the bravest deed they ever saw. Four times he was swept back, and, almost exhausted, leaped in again from a spot 50 yards above so that the current might carry him down. He reached the girl, cut the rope that bound her to the tree, and guided her to land. But Laurel Davis was the only member of the little party to escape. The bodies of the father, the mother and the baby have been recovered, but the two Phillis boys and the other two eDavis children "have not yet been found, though their fate is certain. Mrs. Miscliell, who had come flown from the kiosk to save some of her possessions from the camp, was swept 100 yards down-stream by the water, but caught at some overhanging trees and eventually found her way to land; the children were already In safety. But of the little party encamped on the flat, seven were drowned, and Laurel, the girl of 16, is the only one of her family left. Pitiful. It is a piteous tale, and it is made even more pathetic by circumstances that have since come to light. The Davis family was almost destitute, anc the father had taken them to camp ouf at Stanwell Park in the desperate hope of making a little money by gathering and selling blackberries from the hills. Mrs.' Phillis depended for her support wholly on 17/ a week which she re ceived as State aid for the two boys— and now they have gone. Efforts arc being made to assist her and Laure Davis, and it is to be hoped that thej will not be left solely to the compas sion of friends and neighbours, who ir these hard times can spare but little from their own immediate needs.

This Stanwell Park tragedy was unfortunately not the only disaster that the storm brought in its train. At Helensburgh, a few miles north from Stanwell, a tent was overwhelmed in a landslip hurled from the hillside by the sudden pressure of a cloudburst, and a boy was crushed to death. On the Searborough Road, in the same locality, Geoffrey Walton, a well-known Thirwell resident, was driving home when he was overtaken by the storm, which had already cut deep channels in the highway. His battered ear has been found, but the man has disappeared. Another tragedy to be attributed to this terrible visitation is the death of a young man, struck dead by lightning at Young. But all these disasters are insignificant compared with the deplorable fale of the Davis family at Stanwell Park —a tragedy which one hopes may maintain its evil pre-eminence for many years to come.