BUSH FIRE REFUGEES

Greymouth Evening Star, 19 January 1939, Page 7

BUSH FIRE REFUGEES

MAKING FRESH START

EAGERNESS TO RESUME

[by cable —PRESS ASSN. —COPYRIGHT.]

MELBOURNE, January 18.

The courage and independence of tbn bush-fire refugees, who want to return to their destroyed homes ami make a. fresh start., are actually providing the relief organisations with a. new problem. While the fires were sweeping the countryside and homes were being devastated, refugees poured into the central points for safety. Relief organisations concentrated on getting supplies of food, bedding, and clothing to these points. If the refugees wander away the task of relief, which is already heavy, will he increased. Some of the refugees from Woods Point, who were provided with accommodation at the Seymour military camp, have already left. Many, chiefly gold prospectors, are walking back, saying that the fire will have cleared the undergrowth and made it easier to obtain gold. They do not want to waste any more time. So efficient has been the relief organisation that all pressing temporary needs have now been met, even to the extent of sending train-loads of fodder to starving stock in the burntout areas. Now measures of permanent rehabilitation are under consideration. These will be more difficult, as a policy must be determined. Some of the mill settlements are not likely to he re-established because of the forest destruction. The relief fund is still growing and at least £.70,000 is in sight, apart from possible Government, grants.

Tents have been supplied to many farmers, who have erected them on the sites of their former homes and are carrying on the usual milking of cows and general farming. The Premier (Mr A. A. Dunstan) intends to tour the bush-fire areas of south-eastern Victoria, where the total deaths were 68. An unofficial estimate of the claims against insurance companies is £300,000, involving upwards of 1000 dwellings, which were either destroyed or severely damaged.