General News
13 January, 2023
Agitation at the gate
SUMMER READINGBy KEN ARNOLDAS EARLY as October 1891 there were concerns that 10 fissures had appeared in the Laanecoorie Weir wall. Many held fears the fissures could give way and the low lands between Newstead and Eddington would be inundated. We...
SUMMER READING
By KEN ARNOLD
AS EARLY as October 1891 there were concerns that 10 fissures had appeared in the Laanecoorie Weir wall.
Many held fears the fissures could give way and the low lands between Newstead and Eddington would be inundated.
We complain of fake news today. Exaggerations and incorrect content is nothing new as the lowlands of Eddington mentioned could not get flooded as water simply cannot run up hill.
But still, crowds of people assembled at the weir in May 1892 to see if it could hold back the flood water.
The flood gates were wide open to allow the torrent of water to pass, however many of the residents of Newbridge and Bridgewater soon became quite agitated.
During December 1894 one William Williams, of Eddington, fell off the wall whilst fishing. He was quickly sucked towards the discharge value, however, Frank Heath, aged 23, the son of the caretaker, jumped in and caught Williams by the hair and dragged him towards the shore.
Heath was awarded a bronze medal for his act.
There were continual complaints about the damage done to the low lying land through silting and damage caused to McCoy Street, Eddington, this being evident in February 1896 when the weir was empty.
The flood of August 1909, which surpassed that of 1870, caused the McCallum creek railway bridge near Talbot to be swept away whilst a train was passing over.
Although several trucks fell around 40 feet, the two passenger cars were left hanging, they being held by the guardsvan.
This creek runs into the Tullaroop creek which in turn joins the Loddon River just upstream from the Bendigo-Maryborough road bridge at Eddington, the backwaters of the Laanecoorie weir.
The railway bridges over the Joyces Creek and Jim Crow creeks, on the Maryborough-Castlemaine railway line were damaged, the former being under six feet of water.
These two creeks also flow into the Loddon River.
Considering the fact that Cairn Curran had not be built there is no way that any flood water could have been that high over this bridge.
However, once that storage had been flooded the old railway would have indeed been under water hence the reason both the railway line and the road were realigned.
At the confluence of the Loddon River with the Bet Bet Creek, which enters west of Eddington, the water was 20 chains wide, whilst at Jones’s Creek, at what is now known as Ankers causeway, the water was around 30 chains wide.
The flood waters were described as being 30 feet over the embankment from end to end before four chains of the western embankment could stand no more thus gave way around midnight on August 19. The deafening roar of the water awoke the residents of Laanecoorie but all they could do was watch in horror as the water washed away part of the Janevale bridge whilst on the township side on the high bank the water lapped the window sill of Grissold’s Laanecoorie hotel whilst his nearby coach building works, the store of D. Anderson and another house suffered damage.
The farmhouse of a Mr Grylls became a casualty after two chains of the bank was washed out on the eastern side.
Repairs to the weir, which included raising the bank a further three feet, were completed by May 1910, the cost being somewhere between £600 and £1300, it then being capable of holding 760 million cubic feet of water
Reconstruction work was carried out in 1936 when the weir was emptied so a broken valve could be repaired whilst during 1948 work commenced on reconditioning the 24 floodgates.
However as work could only be done when the water level was low it took nine years to complete.
Ongoing maintenance work, including the strengthening the clay puddled wall, continues to this day.
If you drive down Weir road and turn left over the bridge then left into Eddington-Laanecoorie road proceeding up to the top of the hill you will find Brownbill reserve road.
But if you choose to continue on you will find Ankers causeway and still further on another reserve on the Bet Bet creek, there being picnic tables at both sites but no toilets.