The Queensland Floods

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 100, 11 February 1893, Page 2

The Queensland Floods

(PER PRESS ASSOCIATION. Sydney, February 9. A number of merchants have subscribed £ 700, which was forwarded today i to Brisbane, to assist the sufferers by the flood. A large public meeting has been called to raise a relief fund, and it is expected that the other colonies will copy the example of the Sydney residents, and take steps to alleviate the distress which is bound to follow the disaster. Brisbane, February 9. Train communication from South Brisbane was resumed to-day, but a gap of about 150 yards in length at Goodna has to be traversed by the passengers on foot in order to join the tram on the Ipswich side. The Telegraph line has been temporarily repaired. The Antigua bridge across the Mary River, which was swept away, cost £80,000. Many small vessels lying in the river have disappeared. There is very little food in the city, and JJIS is asked lor a bag of flonr. The newspapers are being printed at the Government Printing Office. It is still raining intermittently, and more rain is predicted. It will probably be many weeks before a true estimate of the damage can be arrived at. The gunboat Palumah and the steamer Elamang are now lying in the pathway in the Botanical Gardens, where they were deposited by the flood. The steamer Derwent and tug Boko are ashore near the mouth of the river, The lives were lost in the city through a boat capsizing, and a boy named Walters and a man named Florence were also drowned by the upsetting of a punt. Two children were drowned in the State i school ground. February 10. From HiUend to Stanley street whole terraces of streets and houses were demolished. The South Brisbane gasometer was capsized, and the street* are covered several inches deep with foul smelling mud. People are almost heartbroken by the ruin in which the city is involved.* The misery and suffering of the homeless is heartrending. Women besmeared with dirt, and almost naked, trooped into the Municipal Building? as soon as tho round were set apart for the supply of provisions. A man was standing on tho river bank when it gave way. and be was drowned before the eyes of the crowd, who had to look helplessly on. 1 At Kangaroo Point, ou the south side of the river, nothing is left but piles of brick and iron. Sutton's foundar; and shipbuilding yards and Peacock's jam factory have been entirely destroyed. A large amomnt of looting is going on among the wrecked uud abandoned houses. Some anxiety is felt about a large quantity of dynamite in the river which is in a dangerous condition owing to wet. A detachment of military is being despatched to destroy the damaged portion. It is roughly estimated that the damage to public and private property will amount to two millions. The relief fund, collected locally, amounts to £3,000, £1.500 has been subscribed at Rockhamption, Funds are being started in Sydney, Melbourne, and Adelaide. Stxty-seren inches of nin fell in three days. A man named Hogan wax washed six t miles down the river. Eventually he managed to climb a tree, but he was so severely bitten by scorpi* ns and centU pedes, which had taken refuge in it, that he died after reaching the shore. Tremendous explosions were caused by compressed air in the mines at Gympie, , in many cases wrecking the buildings at . the mouths of the shafts. The whole of the coastal districts in the south are being devastated by floods. . The country between Rockhampton and J Barealdine, in the interior, is in a senous condition owing to drought. , This Day. Two boys named Robertson were play ing on the banks of the river, when the ground gave way, and earned them into the stream, where they perished.