Floods in Queensland.

Manawatu Herald, 9 February 1893, Page 2

Floods in Queensland.

It is believed that 22 lives have been lost, bnfc nothing definite can be ascertained till the floods subside. The Governor, who is visiting at Toowoomba, has left on a pilot engine to try and reach Ipswich. Communication between Toowoomba and Brisbane is still interrupted By means of another line communication has been opened with Rockhavnpton. Hundred.? of people are homeless at Bundaberg, and are sheltering in the churches and public bui.dings. There is appalling devastation in Maryborough. The town is in darkness, the gasworks being submerged, and hundreds of houses have been washed away. Granville is inundated. In Gympie, the main street is 80 feet under water. The passengers by the Sydney train have been camped at Redbank since Friday, and provisions are being despatched to them by boat. The water has reached the top of the Catholic Church in Goodna, and houses are floating about in all directions. It is surmised that the whole country between Wolston and Bris. bane is one sheet of water. A reporter on an Ipswich paper succeeded at great personal risk in making his way by boat through the flooded country to Brisbane ani back He says there are eight to ten feet in Queen street, the principal thoroughfare in Brisbane, and 85 feet iv Stanley street. The Victoria Bridge and the Indooroopilly railway bridge are destroyed, and from this cause the loss is a quarter oi a million sterling alone. Over five hundred houses have been washed away, and the Botanical Gardens are under water. As far as is known at present, only four persons have been drowned, In many of the warehouses in the city the water is 20ft deep. The disa?ter is the most appalling in the history of Australia.