FLOOD AT MELBOURNE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IV, Issue 187, 12 August 1864, Page 3

FLOOD AT MELBOURNE.

(From the correspondent of the N. Z. Herald.) Melbourne, Thursday, July 21st, 1864. Floods and felons have furnished the principal subjects of late here. On the afternoon of Saturday, the weather, which for some weeks had been unusually fine suddenly changed and during the night, the next day, and the greater part of Monday, the rain descended heavily. Fast and furious rolled the Yarra on the Sunday, and faster each hour rose the waters. The channel was totally inadequate to carry off the volume of swollen water poured into it; the banks were soon overflown, and on Monday another great inundation became an accomplished fact. From Bight’s Mills to the Bay, a course of 20 miles, the land lying in the vicinity of the stream was submerged. Houses—pleasant and happy homes—were lost sight of; only their chimneys projecting from the sea of clay-colored w r aters were visible. The new manufactories which have recently been established near the river, rope walks, chemical works, fellmongeries, &c., were in the same plight. The vessels in the river were with difficulty kept from floating on to the wharf itself. Boats plied in the lower streets of the city, and carts and drays were kept employed throughout all the hours of the day and night removing goods to more elevated situations. Emerald Hill and St. Kilda were again cut off from the city, though, fortunately for public convenience, the Railway Company was just able }o run trains over the line. Happily, too, the rain-fall did not last long after mid-day on Monday, and the flood attained its maximum height at midnight. It was then far above the water-marks of the great flood of 1849, but below that of 1863. It did not rise so high as on the last occasion, because, the Prince’s Bridge embankment, which formerly dammed in the stream, has been levelled a great deal, to permit ot a freer flow, and the water was not driven back by a violent southerly gale, as it was before. Though the rain has ceased now for a couple of days, the river has not fallen an inch. The body of water in the lagoons which have been formed will probably maintain the torrent in its present dimensions for a day or two longer yet. How it is that the river should now flow in this way has not yet been explained. We have had as heavy rain-falls on previous years, and no great rise took place; certainly, no great damage was done.