BIG BUSH FIRES IN AUSTRALIA

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21087, 12 February 1934, Page 9

BIG BUSH FIRES IN AUSTRALIA

*— THREE CHILDREN MISSING DAMAGE IN VICTORIA AND TASMANIA (UNITED TBES3 ASSOCIATION—UY ELECTBIC TELEGBAPH—COrYIUGHT.) (Received February 11, 8.14 p.m.) MELBOURNE, February 11. Bush fires are still burning fiercely 'in parts of Victoria. At Lunlong, in the Princeton district, where a number of settlers' homes were burned yesterday, three children are missing. The postmistress is giving shelter to a number of refugees. A Mr Clarke's house at Fern Tree Gully was surrounded by fire, but Mrs Clarke and her two children escaped by taking refuge in a pond, with only their faces showing. A maid, who was sent to bring Mr Clarke's son from school, was trapped for a but both escaped uninjured. The house escaped damage, though the stables nearby were destroyed. The township of Timboon is in danger of being wiped out. Government plantations in the Grampians were destroyed. They covered several hundred acres and cost thousands of pounds. Factories Destroyed A Hobart message says that reports from all districts in Tasmania reveal extensive damage. The east coast is the only part to escape. It is feared that several hundred sheep on the Wellwood property, owned by Mr W. Madden, of Hamilton, may have been killed. Members of a survey party saved themselves and their instruments in the Styx river. The temperature in Hobart on Friday was 99.1 degrees, the highest since 1928. Fires in the Upper Derwent Valley wiped out three factories. Two large fruit-pulping establishments were also set on fire, several private houses burned, and the electric light supply interrupted. A farmer near New Norfolk, with his wife and six children, was rescued with difficulty. Several houses in this district were burned. Hundreds of men are engaged in firefighting, and all of them are suffering from heat and smoke.