That URL wasn't exactly right !!!! Visit http://home.iprimus.com.au/yarragon/ Click "Pioneer Database" in the menu bar Click "Please visit our new site by visiting here" Click "Enter Site" Choose "1939 bushfires" Sorry about that ....doesn't seem like there is a simpler way !! Cheers Lynne Visit our Website http://lynneandgrayeme.kinpendium.com/ ----- Original Message ----- From: "Lynne Bone" <[email protected]> To: "Maureen" <[email protected]>; <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, April 13, 2006 9:06 PM Subject: Re: Snippets from 1900 - From Daily Telegraph Supplement - Gippsland Bush Fires > Thanks for sharing this report Maureen. > It would have to be the most horrific report I have ever read. > It reminded me a bit of this site that I had bookmarked ; > http://home.iprimus.com.au/yarragon/ > > About 10 years ago there were fires on the mountains surrounding the > village where we lived......it was so hot that the very air felt like it > was going to explode.......and windy as.....!! > We knew we were safe, there being very few trees in and around the village > and lots of low grassy paddocks between us and the fires .....but still it > was one of the worst / fearful days I have spent. > Multiplying that fear out 1000 times would be somewhere near the horror > those poor beggars experienced in this report. > > Cheers Lynne > Visit our Website > http://lynneandgrayeme.kinpendium.com/ > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Maureen" <[email protected]> > To: <[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 4:36 PM > Subject: Snippets from 1900 - From Daily Telegraph Supplement - Gippsland > Bush Fires > > >> >> >> Windsor & Richmond Gazette, Saturday, March >> 3, 1900 >> >> Supplement from The Daily Telegraph, Thursday, >> March 1, 1900 >> >> Second edition, >> 2.30 a.m. >> >> BUSH FIRES IN >> GIPPSLAND. >> >> SCORES OF SETTLERS HOMELESS >> >> SOME SENSATIONAL INCIDENTS. >> >> DAMAGE OVER £100,000 >> >> Melbourne. Wednesday. - Bush fires are still raging through North >> Gippsland, and are spreading themselves in the ranges north of Maffra >> with amazing rapidity and great destructiveness. Last week a number of >> comfortable farms and homesteads spread over the landscape ; to-day it is >> a mass of smoking and charred ruins. Scores of settlers are homeless. >> Cultivation areas and grazing lands have been swept bare. Buildings, >> fences , stacks, and stock are things of the past. >> >> Over great and ever-increasing area, which is mildly reckoned to include >> hundreds of thousands of acres, the hillsides to-night afford a >> magnificent spectacle. It would be a grander one almost than a battle, >> were it a little less devastating; but it looks like a blaze of torches >> winding in and out like a marching army, with flaring banners, and every >> tree-top looks like a mammoth electric light, only a hundredfold >> stronger. Beating was of little use when the fires, fanned by the strong >> wind, reached the log fences and dried trees. To-night the desolation of >> despair has conquered the fire-fighters of yesterday. >> >> As stated last night, the Glenmaggie fire is known to have been >> responsible for three lives. Michael Curtain and his wife perished >> together while loading an old waggonette with their furniture. The horse >> was terror-stricken; neither whip nor kindness could move it. As a last >> resource the two old people themselves got between the shafts and started >> to haul the vehicle to the water. They had reached the edge of the creek >> when the old man, choking and suffocated, fell to the ground. His >> faithful wife, with an agonizing cry, fell upon him, dazed and stupefied. >> The flames passed over them and left them a heap of charred and >> unrecognizable remains. Little Sammy Trew's fate was equally pathetic. >> The Dawes family were escaping with wet blankets round their heads. >> "There are not enough for us all," said Sammy handing his over to his >> sister, "I will go back and get another." He rushed into the door of >> the flaming building, the roof feel [sic] in with a crash, and he was se! >> en no more. When his parents and brothers and sisters came out of the >> water tank in which they lay whilst the fire swept over and around them >> they collected all that remained of this devoted lad in an iron bucket. >> >> So suddenly did the fires spring up and rush forward and so black and >> dense was the smoke that people could hardly distinguish each other a few >> yards away. Horses and sheep and cattle were in a death trap. They >> stood wildly at bay and were roasted. The people made for the nearest >> creek or waterhole, and, then, up to their necks, , kept immersing their >> heads as the flying, flaming gum leaves singed their hair and rendered >> that operation absolutely essential. A Mr. Curtain came down from >> Glenmaggie with a two-horse team. He lashed them along a bush track at a >> fearful rate. It was a mad race with the flames, but the flames >> prevailed; therefore, when his buggy caught fire he promptly jumped out >> and flew for his life for the nearest creek. The horses, when found >> afterwards, were raw, and their legs had been burnt off. Numerous >> incidents of narrow escapes could be given. Cows are wandering about in >> agony with their tails burnt off; horses wandering aimlessly about >> withou! >> t lips, ears or tails. >> >> Miss Coleman, the State school teacher, of Upper Wadelock, saved her >> school. She got her younger pupils to a place of safety, and with the >> elder boys successfully burned a strip round the school. Just below the >> school was a splendid homestead, but it was swept away with remorseless >> speed. Mr. and Mrs. Missen stood in a creek for four hours, and Mrs. >> Missen is now seriously ill. Culverts and bridges have been swept away, >> and the damage must come well into six figures. Already relief meetings >> are being called, and the Government is likely to do something. >> >> Late to-night the fires were still burning, but they cannot do much >> further damage. From other parts of the colony come accounts of narrow >> escapes and of great losses in grass and fencing. Grave fears are >> entertained for the safety of the Hospital Creek. It is reported, but >> not confirmed, that the fires have swept the settlement out of existence. >> The worst of the fires is now said to be over. >> >