THE LATE FLOODS IN QUEENSLAND.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 658, 7 April 1870, Page 4

THE LATE FLOODS IN QUEENSLAND.

■♦ [SYDNEY TOWN ASD UOUIJTRY JOURNAL.] The news received lately from the North, by way of R)ckhampton, affords a most distressing illustration of the calamities that may occur in suqh places without much warning, •' It is believed," sayß the report, " that some extraordinary phenomena must have occurred at the Peak Range, to the north and east qf Clermont. Wolfang Creek, to use the words of an eye-witness, came down like a wall, and, just below its junction with Sandy Creek rushed ov.er the bank, thus suddenly inundating and devastating the town. Such a contingency as the creek overflowing its banks was never dreamt of, and the possibility of the water reaching a height of four or five feet on . the flat was never contemplated." It is explained that the flat ground qn which, the township of Clermont, or the greater part of it, is situated, is bounded on one side liy the creek and on the other by a lagoon, Into both of these receptacles the water must have flowed with gieat force andvolume, for, in little more than ten — ««ir> nl»«- t~-irm — tliu Hxuii—rrfttr-m^— fcliovUnqUr overspread the wh(.}e. of the level lands to the depth of two feet. Houses, resting upon wooden foundations, were carried away bodily ; fences, outhouses, furniture,, and other commodities were carried off by the flood, which still canib down, acconir pnni>d by- the continuous, downpour of yam. The writer says that ' ' yells of men, the screaming and wailing of. women, the crash of buildings and fences; tho fury of the torrent, the roaring of the wind, and the pelting of the rain, made the stoutest heart quail with terror." Some corrdspondents of newspapers are accused, perhaps justly, of indulging in too vivid representations of even's that pass undi rtheir notice ; but in this ci se whatever may be the power of the wi t rin indicting a ?cene like this, there are fswis which impress themselves on the mind with only too much certainty of their reality. ...We quote from the EQikJuxmptan Bulletin, premising that the writer and his companions hud been compelled tq t^k.e r«f uge to a tree : " As far as th,e.eye could reach, in every direction, there was water, flowing rapidly towards, the lagoon, in pome places at the rate of eight or nine miles an hour. Underneath our tree w:.s, a kitchen occupied by a labouring man named William Williams, his wife and child, two years, and a half old. At ten minutes past 12 our attention was drawn t j this dwelliug by a c:ash, Instantly it collapsed. The woman uttered one loud, hopeless shriek, and the dark mass parsed close by our ; treo. . The ma,n uttered no gonnd, being probably stunned by. the falling of the building, The child rose to the surface, and, a£ it was carried down by the current, uttered two or three p:'eo:is cries. That was tje }ast Jje^rd of these- unfortunate people." 'We have then a sketch of a building floated off its wooden supports, and carried dqwn, the stream, with a. kerosene hmp still .burning inside, A man plunged into the. stream to assist the gentleman and his family ■who had been compelled to desert this house,; and the adventurer in his desperate undertaking was drowned in the attempt. His body, and those of Mrs Williams find her , husband. n»d child, were subsequently recovered, Up to the 7fch inteULjence 'continued, to, be received of further loss of life. Two' inea encamped at Capella (Jrcek were wasliod away by the fluod and drowned, and two others, at the saute place, only escaped a similar fato by clinging to trees until the , ■iluod subsided, At Copperficld, Peak Downs, a man named -Phillips, formerly nn engine, driver, was swept, away, with his 'wife and child, aud far down the flood tho body of a woman, supposed, to ha Mrs Phillips, wa3 found in a state, of nudity. At Lilly vale four children were supposed to be drowne^j the whole oi the "humpies," or small huts within rea,ch of the Hood having been carried a.way> -An old woman named Elliott, of not very respectable character, it is said, had disappeared, in a similar way from her formei \il-ui-. of residence near Clermont, and the dead body of a man, partly recognU'el as that of a person who had called at an inn on his way to Clermont a day or two before, was seen floating down the creek. Tub 1033 of human life, in fact, it seemed impossible to estimate up to the latest dates, and further information was anxiously looked for, The deitruc! 0 1 of live slock aud othyc property was vtry

great, one station alone having sustained a losa of about five or six thousand sheep. The writer of the report says : — " The stench fro n putrid carcases is becoming unbearable, especially as the weather is again yery hot. Fever -and ague is preva- ! lent, and it is feared that exposnre and destitution will 1»»'T *n heavy demands upon the local ho.; ) 1" It'wilJ no doubt have been observed' that inoro than a hundred passengers arrived in Sydney from the North, by the steamer Blackbird last Saturday, and the misfortunes here narrated will sufficiently account for that fact,