DROUGHTS AND FLOODS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3886, 4 September 1928, Page 12

DROUGHTS AND FLOODS.

HOW A SMALL FORTUNE WAS LOST. By Rufus. Here is a story told me bv W M 1 aterson of drought followed by'flood and the loss of almost everything. We were travelling the. drought-stricken pastoral country together, and over the fire one I took a shorthand note of the tollowing remarkable narrative:— father came out to the colony in 1839. 1 was then a piccaninny. My father went m for farming and sheep keeping and my brother and I grew up u e P leasa °t operations.' We had 10,000 sheep on the Bremer Ranges, and nannn eked together between £lB,OOO and £l9 000. We knew all about sheep, shepherding, lambmg-down ewes, and poisoning dogs. We grew up to be young men, and became ambitious. We wanted to be squatters and make a fortune? We thought a flock of 10,000 a tiddly-winking business. In 1862 we were offered Hei> gott Springs. I went and inspected the country. It was a grand season. The IhrirbS.” thlt r °“ “ UM lie “

t 13 there was a splendid lake, Lake Arthur, 60 or 70 miles east of Hert. I went and had a look at it. The water x was about a mile long three-quarters of a mile across at the widest part. It was encircled bv reeds and was black with wildfowl. I hV° te x do ?T t 0 a lan A a £ ent , instructing him to take up a block of 150 miles and to make the lake the centre. He did so, and I returned home confident that ?bnJfn U ”t S We \ e n 2 ade - Tt took us some time to get ready to go to this Arcadia. We spent a lot of money in purchasing teams and a splendid outfit. Eventually we took up 18,000 sheep. I had the pleasure of driving them up. After a lot of struggling I arrived with the sheep, but it had commenced to look awfully dry. You could see round stones everywhere on the plains, and the bush was shrivelled up. Then I thought of my splendid lake. We had given the country a gruelling, and we saw that x\e must get the sheep away. I got a horse and started for the lake. I took some damper and some mutton, but no water, as I thought I could get out in a day - i Yi? nt U P t h< ; head of tile Clayton, but the waterholes which 18 months before were 200 yards long were dry It grew dark, and I thought I ought to be close on Lake Arthur. But I rode on and on without finding it. At last I camped for the night. I tied the nX S A+ in rl tO i my i V’S- and dosed fitfully. At daybreak I discovered that I L a ®S a ? lp l d OI L- th£ ; ed 8 e of wha t appeared to be a big claypan. I got on my horse and rode round and round, and my heart sank within me, for this was a i e f -L. had been all the day and night without water, so I mounted the horse and rode back. For the- last 10 miles I had to walk, first leading and then pulling the horse. At last the old chap would go no further, so I took the saddle off an d hung it on a bush, and took the stars for my guide. I got in dead beat next morning when the camp were preparing to shift the headquarters to the lake. My father then went up and started boring, and I'returned to Adelaide to attend to the harvest. After this was gathered I got 12 good bullocks and drove up to Port Augusta, taking a ton of flour, some tea and sugar, and all that I thought we wanted on our very

much ‘ out back ’ station. I got the bullocks through from Port Augusta to Hergott, but all the beasts died soon afterwards. Ip to this time we had lost 5000 sheep. I came back to town after the shearing, the idea being that I should return again with further supplies. ' Ihe others hung on waiting for rain, and meantime the flock was reduced from 18,000 to 3000. Then came the final smash. My brother was in the Rut one night when it commenced to rain. The water soon rose in the floor of the hut. which was a mile away from the bed’ of the creek. They they thought of the sheep, and went out to find them swimming m their yard. Those in the hut collared a blanket and a piece of damper and made for the high land. In the morning they could just see the eaves of the hut, which primitive domicile carried away before night. The woolshed and wool had all gone too. Of the 3000 sheep 27 alone were saved. The rations had been swept down the Frame and everything left was abandoned. The e were starving, and flour was worth > a brother had a chest in ' vh J ckhe , llis clothes. The blacks had rifled this, and taken everything but a crumpled-up cheque for £25, of the value of which they had no notion. That was the only thing saved. Our dreams of fortunes were ended, the £lB,OOO had been swamped, and that is how I got my first experience of- the Australian