C H A P T E R XXXIII. BLACK THURSDAY,
SYNOPSIS:—The Eventful 6th of February, 1831. —Dandenong Race Meeting.—Burning of the Course.—Narrow Escape of Doctor Ronald and Family. — Death of Edward Doversdale. —Destruction of Messrs. Williamson and Blow's Station. — The Loddon Country Ablaze.—Darkness in Gippsland.-Mr. Thomas Earle's Wedding—" Dick" Ryan and the Magistrate.—Shocking Tragedy at the Plenty.—Mrs. M'Lelland and Five Children Burnt to Death.—Relief of the Sufferers.—Mai-Appropriation of Relief Funds.—Indignation Meetings,.—Insurance Companies; Formation of the " Fire and Marine Insurance Company."—Mr. James Smith, Manager. — The First Fire Brigade.
f p H E day folloyving the Easter Sunday of 1351 is commemorated in English History as "Black
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Monday," because, in the language of the quaint old Chronicler Stowe, it " happened to be full dark of mist and hail, and so cold that many m e n died on their horses' backs with the cold," and by an extraordinary providential contrast,fivehundred years after (6th February, 1851) there was a Black Thursday in Port Phillip, so called from the country being overwhelmed yvithfireand smoke, as if a destroying angel had yvinged its way through the air, scattering firebrands far and wide ; its yvake lit up with flaming forests, the fire and smoke, as if yvaging a yvar yvith each other, spreading consternation and dismay throughout the length and breadth of the Province. F r o m an early hour in the morning a hot yvind bleyv from the north-north-west, and as noon approached, vast gusts of dust enveloped the town to such an extent as to obscure the rays of the sun. T h e atmosphere became so dense as to render out-door life almost intolerable, for every mouthful of air was like flame puffing out of a furnace, yvhich, added to a strong stifling smell of smoke, reduced anything in the form of physical yvork or exercise to nearly an impossibility. Short, hot, blinding spurts of wind whizzed into the yvayfarer's face, so stunning in their effect as to m a k e him imagine himself ablaze, an illusion dispelled only when he felt and found his clothes unburned and his hair unsinged; and yvhen the dust got a chance it half-choked him. N o t only out-door, but mostly all in-door avocations yvere suspendedforthree or four hours in the mid-day, and the Supreme Court yvas compelled to strike yvork by adjourning the business, and giving lawyers and suitors a half-holiday. At 12 o'clock the thermometer of Fahrenheit yvas n o degrees in the shade and 129 degrees in the sun at the shop of Brentani, a jeweller in Collins Street. At 11 o'clock in another place it yvas 117 degrees in the shade; at 1 fell to 109 degrees; but at 4 p.m. yvent up to 113 degrees. In the evening a reviving southerly breeze began to blow, before which the pestilential exhalations of the day vanished, and a grateful feeling of relief yvas the result; whiist later on some shoyvers of deliciously refreshing rain fell like m a n n a from the heavens. There was then not only no electric telegraph communication, but scarcely any communication, unless a slow and scattered course of post, so that it was not possible for the townspeople to obtain any intelligence from even a few miles in the country until next day, and the citizens accordingly strayed forth in small groups to the Flagstaff and Batman's Hills to look about them, in the expectation of beholding some distant indications of anything that might have happened in the interior. All that was observable was a reflected glare from the south and south-east, and an occasional temporary illumination-a sudden flare of light like a house on fire a few miles from town, yvhich immediately disappeared. This was afterwards ascertained to be about Dandenong, where great preparations had been m a d e for a Race meet that day; but a bush-fire rushed the course, causing both sport and sportsmen to decamp without ceremony, and doing such general damage that the inn was about the only house left standing in the neighbourhood. Three newspapers were issued the next morning and, singular to record, only a tame six-line paragraph referring to the day before appeared in the Herald the Arous observed a solemn silence, whilst the Daily News exploded in the following hyperbolic
