The credit crunch has hit Australia, and firms are reported to have taken the lead from their US and European equivalent by doing a Rolls Royce job of cocking up their redundancy programmes.

Blake Dawson apparently axed some 86 staff on Tuesday. One associate says he was told to keep his departure quiet, and that if anyone asked what he was doing to say that he was going home sick. "Begs the question, when was I to get better? Sounds terminal to me" he told RollOnFriday.

Another insider says that morale is at rock bottom, and that associates are living in constant fear of further sackings - although so far there has been no sign of any partners being given the push. "How can anyone on $900k a year sack someone on $50k and a mortgage?" asked one employee, "shame on you Blakes management."

		Blake Dawson yesterday

Rumours also abound that HWL Ebsworth is getting rid of staff "very quietly and exceedingly quickly". There have been so many departures that the writers of the HR department's internal news bulletin cannot keep up and people aren't mentioned until after they have left.

If readers with any more information click on the button below we'll do a round-up of developments at Australian firms next week.