THE QUEENSLAND FIRE.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1090, 24 September 1883, Page 2

THE QUEENSLAND FIRE.

The following is a description of the premises at Lake’s Creek, Queensland, which by telegram recently were stated to have been destroyed by fire ; “ The Lake’s Creek works were situated alongside the Fitzroy River, at a place called the Devil’s Elbow, four miles nearer the sea ; than Rockhampton. The first company to start these works was formed in London, and they were built about twelve years ago. The shops at that time consisted' of one large store 100 ft. by about 40ft., for the storage of meat when preserved, and for chemicals and salt used in the process of tinnedmeats. The bath-room consisted of a building the same size as the store, in which was placed twenty-four baths, capable of turning out 150 bullocks per day. The building for hanging: the meat until cut up was about 320 ft by 40ft, into which the carcases were conveyed on a tramway. The trucks were the same weight as the bars on which the bullocks were hung, and they were able to slide them to any position they required by two men. Tips, as well as all the other floors, was laid down in cement concrete Sin thick. The

roof of the cooling room was close lined with boards and shingled, underneath which, with a space of 18in between, was another roof. The outer roof lapped the sides of the building 6ft. and it was perfectly cool when the thermometer stood at 160 deg. The slaughterhouses were situated just across Lake’s Creek ('named after Captain Lake, of the A.S.N. Company), into which the drainage and refuse was washed. Adjoining the slaughterhouse was a paddock of about sixty acres for running the cattle into, with large races to bring the wild cattle into the shed. The paddock for bolding the stock was situated lower down the river, and in extent about 800 acres, near Archer’s weaning station. The machinery sent out from England consisted of six loco-shaped boilers, for making steam, used for the baths, pumping, &c., but a large Cornish boiler had to be procured from P. N. Russell and Co., as the only fuel was wcod, of which about 150 cords per week were burnt. The water used was pumped from the river, ninety yards from the works. There were six boiling-down vats; a large coopers’ shop, also a large number of tinsmiths’, the whole of the building running parallel with the river. The wharf was fair in the centre of the buildings, to|which a tram ran and where the ships loaded with tallow, hides, skins, preserved meat, and bones.”