Extract from the Courier Newspaper ( Hobart, Tasmania.)
Friday 13 January 1854
DREADFUL BUSH FIRES on the BANKS
of the HUON, PORT CYGNET
It is our painful duty to record the occurrence of a
most frightful and tremendous conflagration on the
Banks of the Huon, at Ports Cygnet and Esperance,
and other localities in the southern parts of the island,
which has not only involved an awful sacrifice of
houses, timber, and valuable property, but,- we regret
to say, the loss of fourteen human beings, of various
ages, who are reported to have perished in the flames.
The first intelligence of this awful visitation was
conveyed to the Police authorities at five o'clock last
evening, when the Chief Clerk of Police despatched a
body of the police to aid in protecting the property
that might have escaped the ravages of the devouring
element, and the Chief Police Magistrate has also
despatched the Water Police Boats with a large additional body of the force to the assistance of the
inhabitants.
The stories of individual suffering which have
reached us are heartrending in the extreme, and in
the absence of any detailed report from the
Police authorities in that district we are only
enabled to glean such snatches of intelligence
as are contained in the following narrative.
Indeed, from our latest advices, we believe that Mr.
Kirwan had not gone down to the scene of the disaster,
but was awaiting returns from Mr. District Constable
Beresford, whom he had sent forth to " number the
dead and dying."
The fire, we believe, broke out at Port Cygnet on
Wednesday, and soon revelled in terrific grandeur.
The escapes in many instances have been truly
miraculous.
We have heard of a man who, with
two women, sought refuge in a saw pit, which was no
sooner entered than they were enveloped in a whirlwind of fire, by which they were severely scorched,
and from whence they only escaped, on the partial
subsidence of the flames, by the man dragging the
females out into the open air by the hair of their
heads.
It is also stated that another woman was
enveloped in flames, with an innocent little child in
her arms, which was scorched to death. We sincerely
hope that such a tale of anguish may not be authenticated.
The large house erected by Mr. P. S. Tomlin,
at the Snug, now occupied by Mr. Dunn, is completely burned down.
It would be impossible to estimate at this period
the probable loss which has been experienced. Many
of the poor people, who before the conflagration were
comfortable in their means, are now reduced to
beggary, their huts, tools, bedding, provisions, and
wearing apparel being totally destroyed.
AT LYMINGTON, Port Cygnet, familiarly known as
" Copper Alley," from the reported discovery of a piece
of copper ore in that locality, the damage has been
very extensive.
The whole of Mr. Murphy's Inn,
with (it is reported) six months' stock of porter, etc
has been burned to a shell, only the brick walls
remaining.
Throughout the whole of the district the casualties
are reported to be fourteen ; but, as the Police Boat
was entering the port when the Culloden was leaving,
authentic particulars may shortly be expected.
Mr. C. Watson had no time to save anything.
except his watch and bank book ; Mr. McMullen lost
a lot of valuable timber, and his trusty watch dog was
burned to death on the chain.
One of the sufferers, William Buchanan, lived at
Maggotty Gully, about 3 miles from Port Cygnet, and
was at Mr. Murphy's between nine and ten o'clock
on Wednesday morning.
Upon his return homewards and about 30 yards from the house he met the
fire advancing, and was obliged, after unsuccessfully
attempting to make his way forward, to give up the
undertaking.
From him we learn that, besides the
hut himself, another man, and a female dwelt in, a
pair of sawyers with the wife of one of whom resided
in another.
Both the huts were burned down, the
occupants of the former saving nothing beyond a few
articles of apparel in which they stood; the sawyers
managed to get some of their things into a creek, but
the articles, although saved from actual burning, were
many of them rendered valueless: no lives were,
however, lost.
The damage here is estimated at about
£250, for the tools were found this yesterday morning
to be all destroyed, pit saws being curled up and
reduced like iron hoops; two goats which were fastened together were roasted to death, as well as a
number of fowls.
The staves of a cask of salt beef
were entirely burnt away and the contents done to a
cinder ; a bag or two of potatoes were cooked fit for
eating, and several tubs of wet clothes were destroyed
in the same way as the beef.
One of the men had
two watches, one of gold and another of silver, which
were reduced to the condition of burnt leather, and a
quantity of silver money was run down into pieces of
molten metal.
In the same neighbourhood a poor woman had been
offered about breakfast time £150 for her crop of potatoes. In less than an hour and a half they could be
picked up by handful's cooked to perfection.
Another
female was burnt out of house and home, finding it
impossible to save even a blanket to put around her
four children.
All the property she saved from the
general ruin was three or four shirts, the property of
some splitters, entrusted to her to wash.
During the whole of the day the atmosphere was
clouded by a dense mass of smoke, the sun peering
forth in the heavens as if but the size and having the
appearance of a red-hot shot.
A hill in front of this gully, which in the morning
presented to the view a densely timbered, impervious
range of scrub, sufficient to deter any attempt at
exploration, was as level as a bowling green at night,
and such, we are informed, is the case over a very
large tract of country.
A couple of saw-mills in course of erection have
escaped the general conflagration.
A small detachment of Sappers and Miners employed
on survey duty were forced to abandon their tents,
their valuable instruments, diagrams, provisions, &c.
One of these a man, named Forbes, on making his
escape was nearly overtaken by the flames and rushed
to a water-hole for protection.
He found a large
number of snakes had resorted to the same spot, but
choosing rather to face them than the devouring
element he was providentially saved.
The awful grandeur of the scene was never surpassed in this colony, the heat was so great that
gigantic trees ignited like matchwood.
The top of
one large tree giving way was precipitated into the
Huon, clearing in its passage the masts and rigging
of a vessel which lay in the stream.
Mr. M'Connel's place, situated in the Huon district,
was ravaged by the flames ; 160 tons of blue gum,
stacked ready for transmission to market, has been
not merely charred, but entirely destroyed.
Mr. O'Callaghan lost 20,000 palings and a large
quantity of valuable timber.
A man named Mack, who will be recollected as
having only one arm, formerly employed measuring
timber for Mr. Marsh on the New Wharf, was completely burned out.
The house of Mr. Young, of
Peppermint Bay, fell a prey to the flames, and besides a valuable horse, all his furniture and a large stock of timber is lost.
At Port Esperance we have heard considerable
damage has been done.
At Flight's Bay, the whole of Mr. Andrewartha's
timber has been destroyed, as well as the extensive
saw-mills which have now been in operation for some
length of time.
Considerable apprehension was felt
during the week for his personal safety, it having been
reported that he had gone out in a boat and not been
heard of since Sunday. The probability of himself
and crew having met a watery grave during the
violent winds which have lately prevailed had been
made the subject of surmise and doubtful speculation.
We are happy to state, however, that such an apprehension was without foundation, as he was on board
the Grecian on Wednesday night. The loss of Mr.
Andrewartha's property involves a sacrifice of several thousand pounds.
It was about one o'clock yesterday morning before
the fire went down, a smart shower falling at the
time. The houseless inhabitants then proceeded in
search of their former habitations, but in almost every
instance, we are told, that scarce a vestige remained.
All was desolation, the blackened earth being strewed
here and there with the charred remains of animals
who had perished in the flames, while the falling of
numberless trees rendered it extremely dangerous to
move among the ruins.
About 60 passengers came up in the Culloden,
including a large portion of the sufferers. It is
believed that 600 persons would gladly have left if
they had had the wherewithal to pay their passage,
but all their worldly means were vanished.
It is but
due, however, to state that several of those who did
come up had no money, and Captain Gourlay made
no demur.
One of the passengers, a female, was dreadfully
burned, and upon the arrival of the steamer in
harbour was forwarded in a cab to the Colonial
Hospital, with but slight hopes of recovery.
From the confusion which prevailed at the time
of the steamer leaving it was impossible to conjecture
how many were missing. But it is. to be hoped that
the casualties are not so many as at first apprehended.
It is stated that Mr. Lovett, of the Franklin Wharf,
has also lost a large quantity of timber.
We believe that the Assistant Police Magistrate of
the South Huon was upon the spot, and was active in
rendering assistance.
Further accounts are hourly expected ; meantime,
we hope that the citizens, ever ready to render
assistance, will get up a subscription for the relief of
those who are thus thrown destitute upon the world.
Source: Courier (Hobart, Tas.) Friday 13 January 1854
 Read : Chronology of Catastrophic events. |
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