West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 - 1954), Tuesday 26 April 1949, page 9


HOLIDAY CROWDS ENJOY FINE WEATHER After attending the impressive Anzac Day services thousands of persons took advantage of the fine weather yesterday to visit the hills;, nearbyr beaches and seaside resorts.

Many of those who had attended the dawn service made an early start to their day and queued at the Perth railway station for trains to National Park, Chidlow, Darlington, Mundaring Weir and Armadale districts. At the peak, about 9 a.m., the stream of people waiting for tickets was about 40 yards long and stretched across the station forecourt. Others crowded buses for the beaches which were reported, in the metropolitan area, to have been fairly crowded most of the day. During the afternoon numbers went swimming, a pleasure that was denied them during the Easter period. The water was particularly warm for the time of year. At the South Perth Zoo, the largest crowd of the year was experienced, with between 3,000 and 4,000 persons, including a battalion picnic party. THEATRES CR9WDED. City theatres had a heavy day and queues waited for each of the sessions. At one theatre, the first members of the queue arrived tI hours before the performance was due to begin. Those who wanted to stay in the city after the Esplanade service but thought that the weather was too fmne to settle down in a theatre thronged the streets in window-shopping expeditions. Numbers experienced some difficulty in obtaining meals, for few restaurants were open. The busiest time was probably experienced at the King's Park tearooms, where a constant stream of people almost cleaned out the kiosk of food and drinks. As new scones were baked, they were taken straight from the ovens and sold to waiting cistomers. Reports from nearby resorts indicated that they also had a busy

day although few peoplr ?d to the two islands. One ad of about 200 went to Rottnest but none landed on Garden Island. More than 2,500 persons converged on Rockingham, among them keen fishermen, who had considerable luck from both jet. ties. At Mandurah, the crowd was estimated at 2,000. Most of them travelled in oars although several buses came in fully loaded. The river and estuary were studded with boats and the fishing was good, ally for those anxious to whiting. "Rain Within 48 Hours" After the pleasant weather of the last few days, the Weather Bureau last night predicted rain '"within the next 48 hours." A depression which was centred about 900 miles west of Perth is now moving south-east and bring ing with it the unsettled concdi tions. The dense fog which covered much of the south-western part of the .State yesterday was the result of a weak front, the demarcation line between air masses, which passed across the area. Slight fog and heavy .dew was experienced in the metropolitan area. The dew was particularly heavy and recorded trace rain on the bureau's rainfall instruments. Although yesterday's maximum temperature of 75.2deg. was one degree below the April average of 76.2deg. the average for the aurent month to date is still well above normal, by 6.7deg. The minimum temperature was 52deg. at 6.53 a.m., 5.3deg. below normal. No rain fell in the State yesterday. Plane Damgd: A student pilot, K. lllingsworth, flew a Tiger Moth through a 15ft. scrub tree while landing at Bankstown aerodrome on Sunday. He escaped injury but the machine's wings ware damaged.