Tents, shanties, houses of hessian, shops of
corrugated iron and wood, offices, hotels, and banks, consumed in one
sheet of flame in a matter of half an hour or so, the blaze accompanied by
explosions of dynamite caps, kerosene, and cartridges.
Nothing could be
done to stay its fury. To save the town, houses were demolished, to form
wide gaps across which the flames could not reach. It was the general
impression that corrugated iron was more or less fireproof. However, it
burnt like cardboard. Ruinous to some as the early fires were, they
benefited the general community, as more substantial buildings were
erected, and hessian shanties forbidden.
After a good deal of unpleasant business over the mine at Lake Darlot,
which the syndicate wished to abandon, for reasons best known to
themselves, I was at length on the road for that district, with the
agreeable news that our mine was for sale, and would soon be off our
hands.
I had a rather more enjoyable journey than my previous one, for not only
was I free from fever, and the mine in a fair way to being sold, but
winter had changed the face of the bush from dull dead yellow to bright
smiling green, dotted here and there with patches of white and pink
everlastings. One could hardly believe it was the same country. Instead of
the intense heat a bright warm sun dissipated the keen and frosty air of
early morning, while the hoar-frost at night made one glad of a good
possum rug to coil oneself up in.
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