The Australian Floods.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 464, 19 April 1890, Page 5

The Australian Floods.

CRISIS AT BOURKIiSydney, April 16. The topic of the hour is the situation of the Bourke township, which is surrounded for twenty miles by an immense sheet of water. Latest news to hand slates that the river is still rising.

The crisis is expected to-night or tomorrow, and meanwhile the leeling in Sydney is one of the most intense anxiety. Lord Carrington, Governor of the colony, has lelt for Bourke.

It is believed that if the earthwork embankment which has been raised holds, the town will be saved irom destruction.

Unceasing watchfulness is entailed, the embankment being three miles long.

The protective earthworks cost nearly ;£7,° o°- 0 °- The weather is now beautifully fine. Women and children, laden with their worldly goods, are leaving by every train. Enormous losses of stock have taken place, and on many stations not a single animal remains alive. The town of Bourke lies on the southern bank of the Darling River, 503 miles north-west of Sydney, in the county of Cowper. It has a population of about four thousand people, with a number of public buildings, churches, banks, etc. Bourke, being the centre of an extensive and wealthy pastoral and copper-mining district, is becoming a place of importance. When the Darling is navigable, steamers ply from Adelaide and from as far up the river as Walgett. Bourke is connected commercially with Sydney, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. The district is mainly occupied by sheep and cattle stations, the former predominating. The Bourke district embraces a total area of nearly a million acres. Within the last few years the district has been discovered to be rich in various minerals, copper, gold, etc. The want of rain in past years was often felt severely. West Bourke is a township on the west side of the Darling, three miles distant, having several stores and hotels. A bridge connects the two towns. In the Bourke district the value of rateable property is about half-a-million. Two newspapers are published, the “ Central Australian and Bourke Telegraph ” and the “ Western Herald.”