New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1860-07-11
TERRIBLE FLOOD IN AUSTRALIA.
a private letter communicated to the TIibunc.l
Z .rr ID n1erp1cr & Wnlnn Mnroh 2I IQEn

\ private letter communicated to the Tribune.
ILLAwARA DISTRICT, N. s. Wales, March 81, 1860.
You may feel Interested in knowing what a calanl-
ity has befaen the people of this part of the globe.
We have recently bad tropical of rain, that
were really fearful. But in February the food gates
OF heaven seemed TO be open and all the fountain
heads Of the rivers seemed TO have burst their bonds
overflow us. These districts have been devasted Icy
one of the most fearful floods ever known in Australia
Life and property have been sacrificed to an extent
truly appalling. The damage done cannot be estima-
ted. Whole families with every living thing their
homesteads, crops and all, were swept into the sea of
the resisess flood, and no left 10 tell what they
have lost.
At Bells Creek dggings the claims have all been
filed. The poor miners were whired away clear
fall Of thousand feet deep, at the bottom of which
the remains Of many were found. No one az the dig
gings escaped to tell how suddenly the waters
down upon them, or of the gold that was lost One
little girl found alive in the region of Bells Creek
who lad lost father, mother five brothers and sisters
and home. All that she possessed and loved in the
world were swept away. In one night this poor uu-
fortunate dashed down 10 poverty and orphanage.
The face of the country is changed that she cannot
point out the place where their house stood.
Near the source Of the Shoal Haven River at one
point, the seen IN rushing do ~n upon
the plains, like a vast pyramid The river rose III
few bouTs one hundred feet. The upland Hats were
like great lakes. On and on swept the avalanche of
wa'ers in its desolatiDg path. An immense belt Of
shlycultyated lands smiling with plenty, has been
left like ruined desert, filed covered with sand
and rocks. Houses gardens, crops cattle, horses,
fcDc's, trees, soil, men, women, and children, Were
swept over precipices, down through valleys and
into the surgng sea- aud thrown back upon the co lst
in indescritable confusion. For many miles the shore
was covered it'll the awful wreck. Boats rowed
and steamed over where town had stood, in en-
deavOrr 70 save some Of the drowning people who
had gone up TO the tops Of the highest buildings In
this way some rescued ust before their houses
wee swept away. Some of these boats now stand
high and dry i'll the midst Of where the town stood
The Shoal Haven Tiver.bed has been filled Up. The
waters have found another channel
An island at the mouth of the ShOal Haven was lu-
habited by about 80 families, probably nearly 400
persons The people, seeing the waters rising up
suddenly all around them fed 10 the highest hills Soon
all they had was gone, and the waters kept creeping
up after them. The people were wonderfully pre-
relief. They were saved just before the island was
submerged.
great many individual cases of thrilling interest
are related Many poor mother sacrificed her life IN
wild efforts to save her poor children. One young
man. in his efforts 10 bis mother, with her
through the food and carried Der overlooked
field. He struggled hard 10 reach place OF safety
he succeeded and laid his reasurehis feeble mother
down but only TO see her die. Ten minutes after
he had brought her 10 q sae place. she closed her eyes
In death. haystaek hoated down in sight with men
hanging 10 il. They were, indeed drowning men
catching at sraws Huge trees with drowning families