After the bushf ires raged across Victorian communities on Saturday February 7, the headlines were that such heat and wind was unprecedented and had never ever been seen before in southern Australia. Perhaps this is correct, but maybe only not in ourlifetime. The Perth Gazette, and Independent Journal of Politics and News (National Library of Australia, Canberra) on Friday February 24 1854 carried an article titled 'The Interior of Australia" in which Dr Norton Shaw read for A. Petermann a paper ofthe same name to a meeting of the British Association (for the Advancement of Science). The article says it was well known that the Australian Colonies were subject, in summer, to the occasional blasts of what was called the "hot wind", which was named so because of its extremely high temperature.
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