General News
5 January, 2023
Torrents cut crossing
SUMMER READINGBy KEN ARNOLDAS THE area along the Loddon river, the second longest river in Victoria, was only sparsely settled in the early 1850s nothing is known about the floods until September 1855 when it was reported that the Muckleford Creek...
SUMMER READING
By KEN ARNOLD
AS THE area along the Loddon river, the second longest river in Victoria, was only sparsely settled in the early 1850s nothing is known about the floods until September 1855 when it was reported that the Muckleford Creek, which flows into the Loddon river at Newstead, was in flood.
A new brick flour mill was knocked down and swept away in the raging torrent. As there were no bridges over the river in that area, the mail was unable to be delivered to Simpson diggings, near Maryborough.
When the river flooded again in 1856 it caused the gold escorts from Bendigo and Castlemaine to South Australia to be suspended. These escorts generally passed through what is now Joyces creek, Tullaroop dam, Craigie and on towards Horsham.
Constant rain for two weeks in June 1859 resulted in water from around Fryers Creek causing untold damage to mining operations prior to reaching the Loddon River.
The Sandy Creek, now known as Bul-abul creek, was described as being three feet above the bridge, thus cutting off all communication with the washing place for the ore that was usually carted down from Inglewood to the river for crushing and washing, it was reported in April 1860.
Matters became considerably worse when further heavy showers rolled in accompanied by the voice of thunder.
George Dawson, a storekeeper at Glenlyon, was drowned in October 1860, the water being more than 200 yards wide on each side of the river, it almost reaching the Newstead hotel whilst downstream the flood swept away the footbridge at Pennyweight, Strathloddon.
As the floodwaters raged down the river it was further swollen by all number of creeks including water from the McCallum, Deep, Tullaroop and Bet Bet Creeks, untold damage was caused at Janevale, now Laanecoorie, where the river over flowed its banks ,it being reported as running like maddened steeds through the dwellings, gardens and paddocks.
It carried away or flattened with remorseless fury the fences whilst it surrounded 1700 sheep and lambs on the property of Captain White. All efforts by four men and two boys did little to save many of them, John Diamond in fact drowning for his effort. The water was described as being four feet over the bridge at Newbridge whilst the eastern end arch of the 120 foot long Beever’s bridge at Bridgewater was washed away, the local punt also being sunk. Luckily Mr Beever was on hand to repair the planking so the bridge could be reopened.
The flood of June 6, 1863, caused untold damage on both sides of the Loddon River from Eddington to Serpentine. The Eddington bridge in McCoy Street was almost destroyed whilst considerable damage was done at Newbridge to the Albion Brewery.
Alfred Day proprietor almost lost his brewery and home, but by the time flood had reached Bridgewater it had assumed such power that it caused considerable damage to the new bridge that was being constructed.
The Chinese market gardeners on the fertile flats downstream from the road bridge, whilst entertaining some of their friends from Burnt Creek (now Dunolly), must have been unaware how quick the water was rising, the result many men were carried away whilst others clung to the ridge pole of their tent.
Although a Mr Woolf, the boat keeper at the Loddon, succeeded in taking many of them off until the boat capsized with the result that three men were washed away, one managing to catch a bough of a tree where he clung overnight. It was not until January 5, 1866, that a little girl found a skeleton, in an almost dry water hole, it being one of the men lost in the flood. His watch had stopped at 12.40am.
It was reported that the bridge at Eddington had been swept away by flood water in October 1869 whilst in September 1870 the Bridgewater, Newbridge and Eddington bridges were all damaged, impassable for heavy loads, the mailman between Castlemaine and Dunolly nearly drowning in his attempt to get through.
The houses and shops on the east side of the river at Newbridge were flooded, the deck of the Newbridge bridge being under water.
A fatal accident happened at Newbridge on Monday, the Inglewood Advertiser reported on February 1, 1874, “to a young man named Vaughan, in the employ of Thomson and Comrie, of Tarnagulla. From what we can learn, in driving over the bridge he came into a rut at the east side, caused by the floods, was jerked out of the cart, and fell under the wheel, which passed over his chest, causing almost instantaneous death.”
A downpour lasted for 34 hours, without ceasing a moment, on March 15 and 16, 1878. It finally stopped raining about 3am, about an hour after the wind had risen.
At the Bulabul creek on the approaches to the shire road bridge the flood waters had torn the road to pieces, some parts looking as if the holes had been blasted out with powder. The fences on each side of the approaches have been thrown down bodily by the heavy pressure of water, and altogether the scene around was one of devastation.
The Sandhurst to Inglewood railway bridge approaches were damaged to such an extent that the morning train could not proceed, the passengers having to alight and cross the bridge on foot, the bridge being described as being like a raft. A train was sent out from Sandhurst, which came as far as the damaged approaches, so that repairs could be made in time for the five o’clock train to pass over. During the height of the flood Mr White’s Railway Hotel was flooded out, the water almost up to the window sills, Mrs White having to be carried out through the water. At this spot the creek was almost a quarter of mile wide.
Owing to the flood waters on the Salisbury Plains, the coach to Boort was stranded in the middle of a sheet of water, Edward’s Salisbury West hotel being surrounded by water, at that time the water was described as being up the jaw of his buggy horse, the Loddon River having risen 30 feet in just 90 minutes.
The Fernihurst area was described as being like the sea, no land being visible for ten miles.
The area around Lake Leaghur was reported as being flooded in July 1880, the Boort to Kerang road being submerged.