EXPLORERS BURNED.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 July 1921, Page 11

EXPLORERS BURNED.

MOTOR-CAR ON FIRE. ACCIDENT IN AUSTRALIA. Sydney, June 7. The three members of the Public Works Committee of the Federal Parliament, who set out this week to spend three months in the centre of Australia looking for a suitable route fo’’ the North-South Railway, will, it is to be hoped have better luck than Francis Birtles, who left some months ago on the same task. Birtles is a well-known cycle rider, and, equipped only with a bicycle, a rifle and a small pack, has made some remarkable journeys over the empty portions of the Continent to the north and the north-west. Some months ago he managed to persuade Mr. Hughes that he could do some useful pathfinding for the railway, and Mr. Hughes provided him with funds and a motor-car worth £l2OO, and let him go. Whereupon he disappeared into the wilds and very little was heard of him until news came that disaster had overtaken him and his companion. This action of Mr. Hughes’, by the way, has been very sharply criticised lately. H g9i ri£li& thraqgfr

the central seini-desert from South tralift, and well into the Northern Territory. He had had a lot of trouble with the car, and in obtaining suppliers of benzine, but he had got going again. He was running with an open exhaust and an open bonnet, and had 87 gallons of benzine piled on behind.

The car was running rather quickly over open country, where the grass grew long. The driver did not see a low stump, hidden in the grass, and the car struck it heavily. The whole structure i was jarred, and the benzine tank under the cur was broken, and leaked. The petrol fumes came at once into contact with the open exhaust, cad there was n sharp explosion, and the ear was wrapped in flames. The collision had also set the stored benzine leaking and almost simultaneously this took fire, with a terrific explosion. This all happened in a second or two, and the car and its two occupants, Birtles and Fry, were wrapped in flames. Birtles put the car out of gear and both jumped. They were horribly burned, but they managed to walk miles to a station, where they collapsed. There was only a black there. He rode 18 miles to another station and reported, “Motorcar he catch fire; while man’s shirt all burnt; flesh all cooked'.” Help was promptly sent, and the men were taken to the Marranboy Hospital, where both are still. in a critical condition. A party went to look for the £l2OO mo-tor-ear, but found only a heap of melted metal.

The Public Works party, now starting, is travelling in three motor-cars, with officials and camp equipment. They propose to cover a great area of practically unmapped country. How they get on remains to be seen.