332 A HISTORY OF THE COLONY OF VICTORIA 



this may be ascribed to its being comparatively thickly settled ; to 

 scores of well-tilled farms and cheerful homesteads being changed 

 in one short day into an area of charred desolation. But the raging 

 flames almost simultaneously covered the country around Western- 

 port Bay ; through the giant forests of the Dandenongs, across the 

 intervening hills round to Mount Macedon, over the baked plains 

 of the Wimmera, and on to the farm homesteads that studded the 

 Barrabool Hills, a roaring, tossing sea of fire licked up all before 

 it. From the dense timber of the Black Forest the flames swept 

 the Loddon district, crossed the Pyrenees and raged for six days 

 through the Western district, carrying destruction and dismay 

 right over the South Australian border to Mount Gambier. With 

 the exception of one terrible holocaust, in which a settler on the 

 Diamond Creek lost his wife and five children in addition to all his 

 worldly possessions, the destruction of human life was far less than 

 might 'have been expected. Only three or four deaths were re- 

 ported at the time besides those above referred to, but some 

 occurred from the after-effects of the shock, and a large number of 

 people were maimed and injured by fire and exposure in a manner 

 that affected them for life. When men saw the flames threatening 

 to consume the produce of their long toil, many gallant efforts were 

 made to beat them back, but it was soon apparent that before the 

 roaring blast such attempts only tended to reduce the prospect of 

 individual escape. Flight was the only chance, and even that on 

 foot was a doubtful resource, for where the fuel was abundant the 

 flames travelled at a rate that overtook and consumed the flying 

 stock in their maddest gallop. Every horse that could be secured 

 and mounted under such conditions of panic carried some distracted 

 settler or his family at topmost speed towards some bald hill or 

 other fancied point of refuge. Those who could not command 

 such aid fled to the nearest creek or water hole, and plunging in 

 passed long hours of agonised suspense while the fiery tide rolled 

 over them. When at length it was safe to crawl forth from their 

 sanctuary, it was to find homes, furniture, farm equipment, crops, 

 barns and fences all disappeared, their live stock roasted or dis- 

 persed, and the hard battle of life to begin all over again. For 

 practically there was no insurance in those days, and the dread 



