THE LATE FLOODS IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 696, 5 July 1870, Page 2

THE LATE FLOODS IN NEW SOUTH WALES.

A Gallant Rescue.

[BODALLA CORRESPONDENT OF, TOWN AND COtfNTBY JOUBNAi..] About daybreak,: Mr Michael' Bell, well known in Sydney as a floriculturist, who has. for some time: carried on a seed find ' at Bodalla, and who had been sitting u$ all night watching: the flood, perceived it suddenly rising, and bade his wife prepare the children to leave the house ; at the same time going down the flat; to see his^ horses. On returning in less- than five minutes, he found the water 'had risea fully three feet, and was running in a torrent behind! his house,' and at once perceived his retreat to. the range was cut off. Knowing thai the barn, which was dose to ..the housei- was much "more strongly built than the latter, he at once removed his /wife ajid .familyn-consisidng \ of Lydia, aged seventeen ; Michael, aged I nine ; Mary Jane, aged seven ; Robert George*, aged) five?; and/Ann Margaret, aged three years —to that place. Luckily it was full of wheat.- He managed also to take his gun, three blankets, a rope, and a batten. The house soon went, and shortly, after the barn and wheat began to move slowly down towards the river. Up to .this time, Bell had: fre-.r, quently fired hU'guni arid' his' departure ' was witnessed by many people , in 4he;;i > range, who, it will shortly be. seen, could Trender no assistance, the. current rushing in a frightful torrent between them and ..the hapless family. In. this .manner they floated slowly down, skirting the flat " until they passed into the river/ wherO the water was foaming and roaring down -*- an great waves, the sheaves of wheat con- / \ tinually slipping away one by one. Bell * steered as. well ,as he could with the 1^ batten, and contrived to keep his frail raft pretty well on the Bodalla side of the river, until they had proceeded about a mile or more from his. house, when a- 1 . sudden shock precipitated the' whole off them into the water, with the exception of the youngest boy, Robert. Bell seized , ,, hold of the branch of a tree, and .thus' ' became separated from his forlorn family.. The force of the current swept the rest towards the raft, and the brave little fellow Robert assisted them to clambey' up by throwing them the : rope. "When. "a\ little recovered, they missed the youngest. v child> Anii, .when Lydia, ' feeling, some-1, 5 thing warm in "the water at, her" feet,^* dragged it up with her toes, and there was.the poor child black in the face and nearly gpns. Lydia now took charge of ; the ark, steering with the batten, and ; paddling .w^thhei; hat, until it ran against iome trees on an island known as Wednesday Island, fully two miles from the; V starting . point. The brave girl then.* nloored the raft stem* and stem W two '' trees, shifting the line as. the water rose or fell. Their cat and dog cama to them here, as also a kangaroo rat, and they killed three snakes amopg. the sheaves, ':':' ''. :■, Here they remained all Friday, ''that".' ' night,, and . the. next morning, ; /until ?■? \ rescued in the daring and gallant manner '§ Continuation of News, see 4th Page).

hereafter related. They state they yrere I not very cold, and never quite despairing. During the night two bullocks tried to clamber up on the sheaves, but yrete driven back by Lydia with her batten^ Mr James M'Gregor, of the Bodalla inn, who was oh the range when the barn started on its perilous voyage, gallopetl at full speed to the inn, where there, was a small dingy, and was about to swim to it, when the rail to which it was tied gave . way,, and it wa? carried into the midst of -tWboiiing current^ and lodged, against a tree, where it would be madness to jattempt to reach it. He then galloped two miles further up the river, where there was another old boat, but after alm|ost' desperate efforts, failed in getting that,' and returned mournfully home, giving jup the unfortunate family as lost. Meanwhile, Mr Bell, who>had remained in the tree when separated from his family, } at what he supposes wad about 2 a.m. Jon Saturday, made a desperate leap, ajnd succeeded with difficulty in reaching another tree, and eventually, after incre- ■ dible danger and cliff^ct/lij', gained the bank, at that time about three feet under water. He then made Ms* way to the inn, more than two miles distant, which he reached utterly exliausted about daybreak, and aroused the almost scared inmates. Mr Macgregor mounted his l^rse in company with Mr Donald Maclean, impressed some volunteers on the road, succeeded in getting up the old * boat, carried it on their shoulders over two miles of a rugged road, by that means obtained the other boat at the inn, and i^ less than an hour Messrs Macgregor, ifemes Caldwell, and Donald Maclean (all praise to them), started down the river in search of the suffering family. Their speed is said to have been terrißo. They reached the island in safety, shot past it, pulled up under its lee, got them into the boat one by one, and thus, in a crazy dingy only fit to carry two, accomplished one of the most daring and gallant rescues on record in this Colony. I shall not attempt laudation of such conduct— r it is supererogatory. The poor suffering things were taken round a flat in quiet water, and conveyed in a spring cart to the inn, where eveiy kindness was shown them, and they are now all quite well. A subscription was at once raised for Bell and his family, and reached LlO. , His house and property are all gone, his pro-: duce swept away, and his farm ■ ruined. Where his house stood is a gaping chasm about eight feet deep by fifty feet wide.; His garden is a heap of sand, ten or twelve feet deep, hundreds,, nay thousands of tons in bulk. Mr Slawson, the lessee of ' the ferry, had a very narrow escape. At daybreak the water rose very rapidly, and he hurried his wife and three children into the boat, intending to return and take over his effects, leaving a Mr Roberts in charge. Finding the water rise faster than he expected, he put over his wife and children on a bank, and returned with James Southam for Roberts; and only just in time, for the water had risen over two feet. With very great danger and difficulty, after having the boat dashed against trees and fences, and being hurled hither and thither by the currents, he reached the high ground at Trunkatabella, where he was hospitably received by Mr Welsh, and where they now 1 ' remain. He, like Bell, has lost everything, even to his children's shoes and hats — he is homeless and penniless.