HEAT WAVE IN AUSTRALIA.

Bush Advocate, Volume XVII, Issue 3, 5 January 1905, Page 5

HEAT WAVE IN AUSTRALIA.

Bush Fires. UNITED PRESS ASBOCIATIOM (By Electric Telegraph— Copyright.) Sydney, January 4. The Bellatbng station was swept " - : clean of grass. The iwheat crops, hay stacks ..and other property of small, settlers have been destroyed. Ah unknown" man was burned to deatfi on Ellerslie station and another .so badly injured thit there is small iope of his recovery. „■..■■■ Many are suffering from burns received while fighting the ; flames. The roads are Uttered with dead and dying stock. Prom Albury it is reported that the fire is practically in hand; It swept an «rea of seventy miles in length by ten to thirty in breadth. Amongst the many sufferers are Banks Bros., who have lost £2000 worth of wheat; Mrs Weslendorf, 300 tons of hay ; Hall 1000 breeding ewes; the Mitchell estate, Table Top, 8000 acres of grass and 2000 sheep. ■,„',. , At Germanton Mss Mitchell died *otn shock at seeing her house ljurned. 1 .. Singleton reports that the whole district round has been devastated. Scores *»f families are ruined, being supplied -with food from Carcoar. The tires are still raging over hundreds of miles of splendid grazing and - agricultural country, all crops being destroyed. '■-,"-»■ " . . ■ Yaes reports, that the fires are. not yet thoroughly under control, and.it is impossible to estimate the immense damage. Fords had 1100 sheep burned. "Wright lost thirty acres of wheat. At Wyndham a child was caught in ihe flames and burned to death. There Jiave been many miraculous escapes.^ A ady and gentleman were driving in a buggy when surrounded. The buggy -was burnt, the lady's dress caught fire, and she barely managed to escape. The stock in the devastated districts are starving for want of. feed. News from the .country to-day is to 4he effect that the bush fires were practically extinguished. In some instances they burned themselves out, but in the majority of cases the rain assisted the sufferers to extinguish them. At an influential meeting in the citizens' Town Hall, the Lord Mayor .^residing, sympathy was expressed with the sufferers, and it was decided, on the anotion of the Hon Carruthers {Premier) to invite subscriptions; throughout the State. Over £1400 was subscribed in the room. Reports from the Delegate district state that the fire swept an area of 150 .; square miles. Scores of Settlers who -managed to save their homes lost everytbing else. Collins lost a wool clip, over 500 sheep, and 1000 acres of grass. . Stewart lost a -wool shed, twenty miles of fencing, and 5000 acres.of grass. Richmond, who lost .aliouse, a wool clip and crops, was surxounded by fire, and his clothes caught, several time. He was saved by riding jnxto a waterhole. Ingram lost a house, fencing, and stock, and barely saved his family by placing them in a waterhole. On the Corrowong estate 15,000 acres •f grass, 1600 sheep and miles of fencing urere destroyed. On the Wallehbiddy estate, two large woolsheds with the contents and a thousand acres of grass were burned. Losses outside the district are unImown, but it is believed that much stock has perished. fiain, though mostly of a light characiter, s.pi&*d-over the whole State,, excepting the north-east, right to the Qiueenslaad border. ■• . : The district inspector reports that the -wheat losses in the Gorowa district are estimated at a . quarter of : a million Srashels. .-. .- Several more deaths from heat apoplexy are reported. ■