GREAT FLOODS IN N.S.W

Hokitika Guardian, 21 July 1920, Page 3

GREAT FLOODS IN N.S.W

MANY KJiMAIIKAHLE EfcSUApEM

j SYDNEY, July (i. Tlic damage which marked the lina breaking of the great drought was dr immediate fore-runner of great floods which have affected most of the nortiiwest and west of Now Wales. Enormous damage has been done to stocK, young crops, fences, roads, rail ways, and bridges—but no one cares much, not even the men most affecled. The floods will soon pass away the damage can mostly be repaired—and the drought is past. The parched earth has received'a soaking that will last far into next summer, ft is going

to he a bounteous season. -Already the prevailing mildness, combined with the rain, has brought- a vivid green out over the wide areas that, for two years past, wore, as innocent of herbage as Hamilton Quay, or Cathedral . square. This is truly a. Land of Quick Recovery. The floods are subsiding rapidly now. but for some days last week the residents of many districts 'had a particularly exciting time of it. They are always ready, more or less for floods, but they expect the floods to run according

to precedent. When they don’t, and get over the levels set by former, wePbebaved floods, there is trouble. That is wkat happened in a number of places last week. Alex. Potts, a farmer, arrived in Coonamble last Wednesday on his way to bis home, 12 miles out. He found bis road barred by a mass of waters." He knew his own people were safe, but he could gain no information about certain of his neighbours whose position lie knew must be precarious. On Thursday lie borrowed a horse and, after struggling all day, up to his waist in water, lie reached his home. On Friday, he waded four miles, up to his chest in' water, to an old man’s farm. He found the old mail camped eom-

fortybly enough in his stable loft, but noxious about a mare and foul. Potts went out and got the animals into a safe place. Potts waded on, l'or another ten miles, looking up other neighbours. He found most of them philosophically lodging m lofts and .upper storeys, hut safe. On Saturday, this indefatigable farmer pushed his way through several more miles of flood, to a lonely farmhouse which was right in j the track of the wild waters. He got within a quarter of a mile of the place, and could see people on the roof making signals of distress. He went to a high paddock, a mile away, caught a horse and bridled it with rope, and fought' his way through the yellow flood to the house. Here were four men and a woman—the wife of one of them—in a truly desperate plight. The flood had surprised them, and they had been forced up into the loft of the house, above the rafters, and had made a hole through the iron, so that they could

put on top, Tin y hurl been there for throe clays a,ml three nfglits, subsisting on a little Hour, which they had mixed with the abundant water. With the aid of Potts and the horse they got away from the hptijio., and Potts took the whole party to his home. There is little doubt that he saved their lives. Arthur Power tried to drive a waggon and two horses across a Hooded river near Bathurst. The swift current lifted the horses off their feet, and the whole outfit was swept down the livir. Bower f plight gamely, and eventually got nsiiore ill an exhausted condition. The horses and cart wore j lon. The authorities knew, early Inst week, that floods were coming in certain directions, and members of the Sydney and Newcastle water police, with boats (they don’t keep boats in the inland towns), were despatched to various handy centres, They did excellent work, but also had their share of adventure. A constable with three civilians set oh down a river from Conamble to rescue three persons reported in distress. Some hours later a man

arrived in the town to report that the constable was lmuooned iir a tree some miles out and his companions were drowned. A water-policeman had just arrived with a Sydney boat, and be went to the rescue. Hi l found the constable, exhausted, in a tree, elad only in his trousers. They went to look for the others, and discovered them not drowned, but in a very precarious position,, clinging to tneir overturned boat. All returned safely. The aeroplane is proving useful. There is a big slice of country around Narromine completely cut off from the rest of the State by floods, and the wires are down. But Captain King, ill !> biplane, flew over and around and landed in Narromino, where tbe townsfolk greeted him delightedly as a messenger from the outside world. Hoturniiijr to Narrabri, he described file country over which lie had flown as "an inland Pacific,” There was nothing to !>,» seen except miles ol water. Pheie has been heavy losses ol stock hereabouts. One station, Glioolendaddi, lias lust 10,000 sheep, another 1500. two have lost 3000 each, another 2000, and there have been nnmf losses estimated at under 1000. Travellers everywhere luid a miserable time. Trains, pushing on to their destination, were (flit; off by wash-outs, before and behind, and had to stay in inhospitable places for two or three days at a time. In many cases the passengers had t<> sleep in the trains and forage for themselves. Sonte 300 who had been collected from various affected lines, arrived in Kydnev this morning by special train, at 3 o’clock. They vrre a wretched and disconsolate crew, who' refused to be cheered up, even by the. news that the Railway Department bad put on special trams and motors to run them out to their homes. They appeared to feel that they had to blame somebody for the acute discomfort .of the Hoods—hot they did not know who.