4 x 60 Watts = 240 Watts = 1 Amp.

A standard powerboard has an overload trip of 10 Amps, so there is no danger of overloading the circuit.

This is assuming they are 240 Volt lamps. Some parcans are 110 Volt and you need to run 2 in series to operate them on 240 Volt.
From what you are saying about the lamp blowing, and the circuit tripping, this may be the case.
However, the lamp may have been at the end of it's life, and sometimes a lamp blowing will trip the circuit it supplies.

www.meltheco.org.au

Most par 16 are 50 watt 12 volt lamps, are there transformers to drive them?

I'm with David. I have seen a 12V PAR 16 plugged into a 240volt circuit and the bright blue flash was interesting. The only 240V PAR 16's I know of are the GU10 bulb. Usually 50 watt.

Is that all there is? Well if that's all there is my friend, then let's keep dancing.
www.tonymoore.id.au

Sorry, I checked again! Logos you're right, they're 50 watts and use the GU10 bulb. They're definately 240v PAR16's. Thanks Jeff, you've cleared things up for me alot! =) It seems okay then ... just worried me with the nice little bang though, the powerboard fried and a pin on the plug melted ... maybe the powerboard was just bad to start with. Thanks guys!

Most of the circuit breakers on power boards "should" be either 8 or 10 amps... However after 12 months of testing and dealing with Chinese made electrical and electronic devices, I would be very reticent to trusting the ratings that are claimed by the circuit breakers. Trusting these devices with a continuous current in excess of 3 amps for hours on end results in a very warm circuit breaker; a very disconcerting situation.

Wow Adrian, that IS disconcerting ... thanks for telling me that. The powerboard I used was something fairly cheap and had been lying around for a while, so it may have just been a bad combination of such things. Thanks again to everyone who replied! =)

When you buy a powerboard with a plug and 4 sockets and a circuit breaker for $3 retail, it is hardly surprising that the quality may be lacking, to make one out of rated components would cost $50