AUSTRALIAN BUST STORM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20362, 17 September 1929, Page 11

AUSTRALIAN BUST STORM.

INTERMIXED WITH RAIN.

RUINOUS EFFECT ON CLOTHES.

The at'mosphore over oouth-eastorn Australia was heavily charged .with brown dust during a recent week-end as the result of extensive duststorms in the interior of (iho continent rind in most parts of Now South Wales. •

Strong westerly winds carried , tho dust rapidly to the eastern districts. Late on the night of Saturday, August 31, there was a dust hazo over all coastal areas, and on Sunday morning it had grown in density to a point where passing clouds wero obscured, the sun assumed an indefinite shape, and there was a • lemoncoloured- mantle on every hand, with visibility down to a few hundred yards. The dust caused much concern to people in the metropolitan area, but tho maximum of annoyance came early on Sunday when a penetrating shower of rain, laden with dust to the maximum of absorptiofa, chanced the colour of every object upon which it splashed. The effect on clothes was ruinous. •

Motor-cars which wero taken out in tho early morning bright and shining were .returned'to their garages sorry spectacles. Windows wero smudged over so that it was impossible to see through them, and flower gardens lost practically tho whole of their glory. The only comforting result of the rain was that it freed the atmosphere of most of the dust.