FLOODS IN AUSTRALIA.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLII, Issue 10115, 24 October 1917, Page 5

FLOODS IN AUSTRALIA.

WHEAT LANDS' INUNDATED. SERIOUS DAMAGE REPORTED. Australian-New Zealand Cable Association. (.By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) (Peb Press Association.) Received October 24, 9.40 a.m. SYDNEY, Oct. 24. The Murray river is still rising and is inundating - thousands of acres of wheat country. The Murrumhidgce is also flooded and the western side of Wagga is isolated. Enormous damage is reported. MELBOURNE, Oct. 24. All the rivers in the North and Northeastern districts of Victoria are flooded. The position is serious, and the railways arc disorganised. The date of the elections has boon altered to the 15th of November. [The flooding of the Murray river, coupled with the intelligence that the Murrainhidgeo is flooded and that, thousands of acres of wheat country are inundated, points to a very serious state of affairs, the areas affected both in New South Wales and Victoria comprising the very pick of the wheat lands of both States. 'l'll,, drops would, too, he coming well forward at lids time of the year, harvesting operations generally speaking being in full swing during December, so that the floods are likely to seriously diminish this season’s yield, and the enormous damage reported* probably consists of the crop and stock losses entailed. There must have been very heavy rains in the back country to cause such tremendous floods, and the Darling and Lachlan rivers, which feed the Murrumbidgee, the latter in turn feeding the Murray, must have been running bank high for some days. When Bourke Nvas inundated by the overflow of the Darling river some'years ago it, was known for some three, weeks beforehand that, the flood waters were coming- down and must inundate the town, the Darling acting as the channel through which the waters of the. Warrengo, the Barwon, the. Culgoa, and other Queensland rivers pass into the Murrumbulgee and Murray rivers. J