FLOOD DAMAGE

Southland Times, Issue 21263, 9 December 1930, Page 5

FLOOD DAMAGE

DOWNPOUR IN VICTORIA. WHEAT CROPS UNDER WATER. (United Press Assn.—By Telegraph—Copyright.) Melbourne, December 8. There has been extensive damage in Victoria owing to floods. Practically the entire State has been drenched. The wheat crops in the Mallee arc under water. I’loods arc feared along the Campaspc River at Orbost and other parts of Gippsland. Shops at Woodend were flooded out. Several of the suburbs were inundated. The most serious floods occurred at Heidelberg and Kew, where a very large area of land is under water. Several railway bridges and culverts have been destroyed, and the Sydney express has been delayed for hours. No serious loss of live stock is reported, though many cattle are marooned. Harvesting operations have received a severe setback, and the wheat losses arc certain to be heavy. Earlier in the month it was estimated that the yield would amount to 50,000,000 bushels. FURTHER HEAVY RAIX ONE DROWNING FATALITY. (Rec. 12.35 a.m.) Melbourne, December 8. More drenching rain fell to-day, mostly in the wheat belt of northern north-western Victoria, where the registrations arc from Sin. to Ilin, since Friday. Crops in some instances arc 3ft under water, and haystacks have been washed away. There has been one victim of drowning, Thomas O’Brien, aged 47, a stockman. He was trying to move cattle from the danger zone in the Seymour district, and was/swept off his horse. His body was discovered entangled on a barbed-wire fence