THE HEAT WAVE. 14 Jan 1896. January 13 will be long remembered as New South Wales’ “Black Monday.” The following list shows how widespread was the area of high temperature within this colony :— Kiama 117 = 47.2 Celsius
THE HEAT WAVE. (1896, January 14). Barrier Miner (Broken Hill, NSW : 1888 – 1954), p. 2. Retrieved January 30, 2025, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article44132383
THE HEAT WAVE.
[BY TELEGRAPH.]
A Sydney-side ” Black Monday.”
” A Scorcher” Everywhere.
Death and Distress.
SYDNEY, Monday.
January 13 will be long remembered as New South Wales’ “Black Monday.” Here and there higher readings have been got from the thermometer ; but the people were already exhausted by a spell of terribly severe weather.
From one end of the colony to the other and from side to side the same story comes—scorching and dazzling or stewing and killing heat. The following list shows how widespread was the area of high temperature within this colony. :—
Kiama .. 117
Lawson – … 101
Mulgoa … 113
Moruya … 110
Molong … 102
Newcastle … 96
Nowra … 114
Nymagee .. 115
Oberon … 95
Parramatta … 111
Pambula … 101
Parkes … 106
Penrith … 112
Quirindi … 120
Robertson … 102
Rmd. Terrace 106
St. Mary’s … 109
Scone. 110
Singleton … 104
Springwood … 101
Tenterfield … 103
Tamworth … 109
Wagga … 112
Wollongong… 110
Windsor … 107
Young … 108
Araluen … 106
Armidale … 93
Albion Park… 114
Bellingen … 109
Bathurst … 104.8
Braidwood … 105
Bourke … 103
Bega … 110
Bowral … 98
Bulli. 103
Berrigan … 107
Broken Hill … 110
Crookwell … 101
Cooma … 105
Camden … 100
Condoblin … 116
Candelo … 106
Clifton … 109
Cobar. 115
Dapto… … 113
Deniliquin … 104
Dubbo … 103
Forbes … 111
Grafton … 104
Gosford … 105
Goulburn … 107
Hornsby … 104
At Ultimo, near the city, a thermometer set under a passion-tree vine
registered 123.
Business in the city was almost suspended. Many works were discontinued.
It is estimated that during the 24 hours between 19,000,000 and 20,000,000 gallons of water was drawn from the city service ; and the hotel saloons, cool-drink shops, and milk ” palaces ” were the favorite resorts.
Even the street urchins neglected the sale of their papers to improve their acquaintance with the ice cream man.
What would have happened if in the evening a southerly ” buster” had not sprung up it is not pleasant to contemplate. The ” buster ” increased to a gale, tearing along at the rate of 53
miles an hour ; and what would have been viewed with alarm generally was taken as a godsend in view of the rapidly falling thermometer.
It is not very often that the elements interfere with the working of the post office ; but yesterday they did. The delivery of letters was considerably delayed—not that most people cared,
because they had no hope of doing any business and pleasure was unthought of. Many cab horses were stricken and fell in the street, seriously interfering with traffic. The ‘bus company
changed the horses each trip. The deepest regret of the drivers was that they could not be changed also.
The bathing places were chock-a-block. Fifteen hundred people visited Cavill’s baths at Manly, to mention only one resort, and that not the handiest of the many of its kind.
Professor Anderson Stuart, medical adviser to the Government, says it is satisfactory to know that the sanitary arrangements of the city are excellent, so that the heat will not seriously
affect the public health. “I was prostrated,” he says, ” while a brother doctor remarked that the weather suited him immensely—he never felt better in his life.”
Mr. H. C. Russell, Government Astronomer, says that the primary cause of the heat is the heating of the interior plains on account of the sun shining on them through a clear
atmosphere. Under such circumstances, he adds, the temperature of the soil rises frequently to 140.