AUSTRALIAN FLOODS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 465, 23 April 1890, Page 5

AUSTRALIAN FLOODS.

THE BOURKE DISASTER. ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS. (Per R.M.e. Zealandia.) Auckland. April 21. The R.M.b. Zealandia, which left Sydney on Wednesday afternoon, when the excitement at Bourke was intense, brings the following additional information concerning the damage caused by the floods there and elsewhere. On the previous Monday, the “ Sydney Morning Herald ” published the following from their Bourke correspondent:— Matters have now settled down to hard fight with the rapidly-rising waters. Every available man, even to a gang of Chinamen and some blackfellows, are at work. A gap exists 10 chains in the western embankment, and it must be closed ere night or all the western suburbs will be submerged by morning. Aldermen McFarlane and Bloxham are in charge of that portion of the work, and they are working with great determination. If human efforts are of avail the town will not be submerged, but the issue is very doubtful. Reports from outside state that an immense area of land is under water. There are rumours of tremendous losses of stock up the river, but they require confirmation. The railway station was crowded this morning with hundreds who left, some at reduced rates,

and many with free passes. A MAIL COACH SWEPT AWAY. Cobb and Co.’s mail coach to Barringun endeavoured to cross the North Bourke bridge this morning. The horses were swept off' their feet. The coach and horses disappeared in a moment under the rapidlyrunning stream. The horses were drowned and the mails lost, and the driver escaped with difficulty. Constable Turnbull, in the police boat, had a narrow escape. The current washed the boat against the Western Billabong bridge, and it immediately capsized. The constable was saved by clinging to the bridge. BREWARRINA INUNDATED. A late wire from Brewarrina states that the water is rising fast. The dam has broken, and the town is inundated. All are working day and night to endeavour to save property. The water is now over the rails of the south approach, where the post shows that it is 4ft 6in high, and within 6ft of the deck of the bridge. A young man and a woman who had been rowing in a flat-bottomed boat, were capsized by the current. The occupants managed to gain a tree and hang on till they were rescued. There are grave doubts whether the earth-work can be proceeded with quickly enough. Some serious eases of distress have been already reported, bub the employment given by the dam works is assisting greatly in keeping the people above absolute want. THE CRISIS AT HAND.

A wire received from Bourke on Tuesday night stated :—The situation in Bourke tonight is still critical. It can be summed up in one sentence. So long as the dams hold, the town is safe. The river is still rising, the increase in the volume of water being slow, but it is steady. The water is now 47ft lin from the bottom of the river, or 41fb lin above summer level. The stream is usually fift in depth, moving slowly along through steep embankments, bub now it is rushing swiftly along on its road to the ocean at the rate of five mile 3 an hour, and flooding the country for distances of from 10 to 20 miles wide. Water surrounds the whole place ; the town is an island, level almost as a billiard-table, there being an entire absence of hills. It is held up by embankments in some places 10ft. high and 30ft. wide. The river is running at an average of a foot above the level of the town. There are miles of water at the back, and should an inlet be made it would rush in with a force that could not be stopped. The river in many places is within a few inches of the top of the embankments. Work is going on ac these day and night. Every now and again leakages are discovered, and all the available labour is concentrated at the spot. At the most important places the embankment is 30fb. wide, and tipcarta are run up and emptied on top. The work is gigantic, and a cartload of earth goes bub a smallwayinhelpingto raise the mud height. Strict watch having to be kept on a mudwall three miles long entails constant attention on the part of the Mayor, aldermen, and volunteers, who are riding about all day on horseback, directing the operations. The expense is not being thought of. A sum of £1,750 has already been allowed by bhe C4overnment, bub the cost up to the present will be nearer £3,000, and much more work remains bo be done. PLOUGHING THE STREETS FOR EARTH.

The ingenuity of the people has been taxed to tbe utmost to get sufficient earth. It has mostly been carted from spare land adjoining, but in the business portions of the town ploughs have been used, and the main road has been cut up and tbe soil utilised. The town is a mass of small barricades and entrenchments, and looks as though preparations were being made for a war. A capital bird’s eye view of the country can be obtained from tho roof of tbe Central Australian Hotel, near the railway station. Looking south, the waters stretch for about four miles, the only spot above water being a little patch enclosed in the cemetery dam. To the south-west as far as the eye can reach there is a sheet of water, A'ery few and very small isolated patches of land showing up here and there. To the east and north the view is intercepted by the foliage of the coolabah, but the water is there just the same. The water on the south side stretches from the railway line to rising ground at the back of the common. It looks like a lake with trees growing out of it covering miles and miles of country as far as one can see.

The river, usually a quiet, placid stream running through an equally quiet township, i 3 now a raging torrent, and is with difficulty being kepb from or-erflowing the place. Had it nob been for the exertions of the Alayor and the Town Council the town would now have been under water. FIGHTING THE FLOODS.

A public meeting was held five weeks ago, at which it was agreed that the town should be embanked. The Government was applied to for money, and at first allowed a grant of £750, but this being found altogether insufficient the sum was afterwards increased by £I,OOO. Tenders were called for for a complete line of embankmentaround the town, and 12 contracts were entered into. The first difficulty found was in getting right levels, but Mr Coleman, the road surveyor, spent three days in taking these. It was raining all the time, but he stuck to the work, and was laid up for several days afterwards. There was a good deal of difficulty 'in the way of obtaining labour. Borne 250 men were put on to do the work, and the pay which was guaranteed to them was Is per hour or 8s per day, seeing that the work was urgent and must of necessity be done. A good deal of grumbling and something like strikes have ensued. The embankments are, however,

necessary to the safety of the totvti, and on the invitation of the Mayor and aldermen the citizens generally turned out. It thus happened that to-day, which was regarded as a critical time, some of the most well-to-do merchants, clerks, and bank assistants were to be found taking the place of the ordinary navvy in building up entrenchments which were to save the township. The only difference was that the navvy received a shilling per hour for his work and the volunteer did not. The town, which lies between the river Darling on the side and the railway on the other, is about 720 acres in extent. It is simply a flat. The mudwall which surrounds it and which holds in the waters of the river varies from lfb in height to 10ft. The lowest point is at the extreme east of the township, and the highest at the extreme west, opposite Worbumurtie-streeb, where the embankment is 10ft high, and, as showing the danger that the town is in, the water is in some instances

within 6in of the top of that embankment, and at the time of writing it is reported as still rising. It thus becomes a matter of fighting the floods, this being done inch by inch. Around the town, the EMBANKMENTS STRETCH FOR MILES, and men are at work guarding the same. The earth works are of various kinds; in many instances simple mould is used, in others fascines are employed. These consist of the boughs of trees pegged down to the embankments in order to prevent the wash of the tide. In other cases sack bags are used, being pinned down to the soil by wooden pegs. These are found to answer admirably. The making of the embankment is a matter of considerable importance. The difficulty is to get sufficient mould for the work. The plough and the scoop is used, and the tumbling tommy, which is the most improved sort of scoop, is freely called into use. Again the tipcart carries earth to the embankment, and tips it on to it, and hundreds of men with pick and shovel make the earthen walls intact. The area

of country that drains into the Darling and flows towards Bourke is immense. From the south the water comes from Bathurst, or a point which is 358 miles away, from the north ; the country is drained from Surat, in Queensland, which, in a straight line, is 250 miles distant. On the east side the water comes from the coast ranges, or about 220 miles away ; bub, luckily, from the west there is no water ordinarily. The river runs through steep embankments, and has to be looked down upon, but now it has overflown it banks, and is simply all over the country. In some places the water is from 12 to 13 miles wide and from 3fb to 10ft deep, and it is simply kept from flowing all over the town by the erection of the wall'which has been built around it. A large number of the people of Bourke have left for Sydney or intermediate places, where there isabsolute safety. These mostly comprise women and children. Those who could not afford to go further afield have fixed their quarters at North Bourke. This is a suburb three miles from the town proper, and it is reached by steamer. All THE HOTELS ARE FULL, And people are camped there in all directions. Many have arrived with miners’ tents or other equipments, and are in anything but a happy condition; bub the weather is fine, and they are contented to think that they are safe. The north-east Billabong Bridge and the North Bourke Bridge, which commands the main traffic to Queensland, are still safe. The approaches to these are by a road about a mile long, and the road is completely under water. All traffic is entirely suspended, stray passengers having to be taken over by boat. The great danger to Bourke is that there are 10 miles of water bearing upon the embankments on the north side of the river, and there is no knowing from one minute to another but that these might give way and the place be submerged. The excitement and suspense the townspeople are experiencing has practically put an end to all business. There is of course no knowing for certainty when the great body of water will reach the town. The earthworks, however, cannot bear much more strain than is now being placed upon them. If the river keeps level or subsides, the town is safe. If it rises there is imminent danger. The Mayor has been advised that an electric-light plant starts to-night from Sydney to give light to those working on the embankments. It has been arranged that patrols shall be kept walking all night, and in case of any enbankment giving way the firebell will be rung and all labour be concentrated at that particular spot. •