THE NEVERTIRE CYCLONE

Evening Post, Volume LIII, Issue 4, 6 January 1897, Page 2

THE NEVERTIRE CYCLONE

♦ Nevertiw, the town of New South Wales which was devastated by a cyclone on the 29th December, is situated ou the Western Railway line, 341 miles from Sydney. It is between Dubbo and Nyngan, and is to be the starting point for the railway to Warren. The last edition of the New South Wales Directory contains a list of about 20 places of business, including four hotels and several stores, blacksmiths' shops, wheelwrights, and other trades and callings usually represented in a Western town. As to the effects of the tornado, a Sydney paper says it struck the town of Nevertire about 5 o'clock in the evening, and all the dwellings, stores, and hotels were levelled to the ground, as were also the Roman Catholio Church and, the Church of England. Trucks loaded with wool awaiting despatch were blown a considerable distance from the line. Six horses were killed by the debris in the main street, and iron roofing material from dwellings was found eight miles away. The Government buildings and the railway barracks alsd suffered injury. The telegraph posts were bent into various shapes. The Ingar station, owned by Mr. Rutledge, was dompletely wrecked. Numerous residents were injured, but there were no fatal cases. Twenty-five points of rain fell in about five minutes, and the residents remark that it was the most severe storm ever experienced. The effeotg of the tornado could be noticed fully 10 miles distant from the town. The wind had swept along the railway line and uprooted ' the trees by hundreds. Coming closer to the township, it could be noticed that large pieces of shef t iron were strewn about. Some pieces were doubled up into most peculiar forms. As seen from the windows of the railway carriages they looked like pieces of sheet-lead such as is taken from tea chests rolled into balls. They had, in faot, rolled over the level country for six or seven miles. The signs of the dibrit increased the nearer one got to Nevertire. Nevertire is still in existence as a township, although there are vacant spaces where buildings ones stood, portions of other buildings have disappeared, a good many are roofless, and others if judged critically are the reverse of perpendicular. A liberal estimate of the total damage would be about £8000. This amount, too, is well distributed, the largest losers estimating their loss at not more than £1000 each. • ,