GREAT EXPLOSION IN SYDNEY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 205, 31 March 1866, Page 3

GREAT EXPLOSION IN SYDNEY.

. [eROH THE MELBOURNE "ARGUS."] At half-past six o'clock on Sunday evening the most alarming and destructive explosion ever known in this colony occurred in the midst of the business portion of the city, which, if it had happened on any other day than Sunday must have resulted in a fearful destruction ot human life, not only on account of the thoroughfares iu the immediate neighborhood being thronged on business days, but also of the large number of persons employed in the various buildings affected by the catastrophe.

The explosion occurred in the establishment of Messrs Mollison and Black, shipping agents, at the lower part of Bridge street, near its junction with Pittstreet. So violent was the force of the explosive matter that the entire building lias disappeared, and scarcely a vestige of the store remains.

The shop fronts of the buildings in that part of Bridge-street i're all blown out : and the walls of new and handsome buildings, recently erected, as well as of some others of the adjacent shops and private houses, are thrown out of the perpendicular.

The Exchange, and nil the buildings at the exchange comer in Pitt-street, are move or less injured; so also are the offices of the Sugar Company opposite, and of the Sovereign and Southern Insurance Companies. The front of Messrs. Greville and Co.'s offices, which are some distance higher on the opposite side of Bridge-street, and of several others still further removed from the scene of the explosion, are completely driven in. Several houses in Bridge-street are so seriously shaken that rents or fissures are visible in the front walls. The effects of it are also seen in George-street, extending some distance from its junction with Bridg-street, in both directions, where most of the glass in the windows is broken. The London Chartered Bank appears to have suffered considerably. Along Pittstreet, the mischief done is considerable: several large blocks of buildings in lhat quarter are affected, besides a great many shops.

Amongst the more important buildings are—the Australasian Insurance Company, the magnificent new offices of the Australian Mutual Provident Society, the Oriental Bank, the United Insurance, the Australian General Insurance, the London and Lancashire, the Australian Alliance, the Universal, and the Pacific Insurance Companies' offices ; the " Herald" and "Empire" printing-offices, Messrs. W. Dean <fc Co.'s, the well-known auctioneers ; Messrs. Hyam & Co.'s, and several piles of offices.

The cause of explosion is not definitely known, but it is supposed to have .arisen from the spontaneous combustion of a shipment of nitro-glycerine, which, it is reported, was stored on the premises. The absence of serious accident to life and limb seems almost miraculous, notwithstanding the quietude of this neighborhood on a Sunday evening. As far as at present known, the only casualties are one man injured in flic hand, and another in the face—neither of them aeriously.