UNCANNY JUMBLE

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 101, 23 January 1933, Page 9

UNCANNY JUMBLE

Rain, Hail and Bush Fires

in Australia

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE Sydney, Jan. 21. Described as the worst in twenty years, a storm lashed, the Riverina and parts of Victoria. Flood waters entered shops at Rupanyup. Many fishing boats foundered in a forty-mlle an hour gale at Queenscliff. Rain and ‘bush fires were experienced in an uncanny jumble. While weary men fought blazing acres around Balranald, Rochester lay under a mantle of an inch of hailstones. About 4000 acres of grass and crop and miles of fencing were destroyed in the Rheola district. One of the severest and most devastating hailstorms in recent years swept the Inverell district in north-west New South Wales, killing calves, sheep, rabbits, and birds, and causing heavy damage to maize and fruit crops. Jagged hail, the size of golf balls, left cattle bruised and bleeding. A violent thunderstorm at Gympie, Queensland, unroofed houses and sheds and uprooted trees. Flocks of sheep, trapped by storm waters, were drowned. Seven head of cattle were killed by lightning. All low lands are now under water, and the Condamine River is running a “banker.” Several bridges are submerged. Torrential rain was also experienced in many other centres. At Gatton hotels. business premises, and residences were flooded. A wash-away occurred on the line near Toowoomba. Traffic was h'eld up. It is forty years since flood waters reached the level they did at Laidley, where water swirled through shops and homes, while cattle and miles of fencing were swept away. The water was five feet deep in. the streets of the town of Roma, which suffered severely, houses being unroofed, hundreds of sheep drowned, and the railway line submerged in several places.