The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 - 1956)(about) |
Previous issue
Saturday 25 February 1928
Next issue
Send to:
|
9 corrections, most recently by jhempenstall - Show corrections
OLD STORY RETOLD.
THE FLOOD OF 1863.
By A. W. GREIG.
Two generations ago the tortuous wind- ings of the Yarra, from Studley Park round to the Botanic Gardens, made the submergence of low-lying portions of its banks inevitable after excessive rainfall; and the old Prince's Bridge, with its banked up approaches, offered a direct ob- struction to the swollen stream, round which it swirled in a spreading flood which soon covered the wide flats of South and Port Melbourne, known in those days as Emerald Hill and Sandridge.
On perhaps a dozen different oc-
casions during the first 50 years of Mel- bourne's existence its inhabitants suf- fered inconvenience and loss from the angry moods of the river. Perhaps the greatest of these disasters, and certainly the best- remembered, was the flood of December,
1863, which, like the recent overflow of the Thames, was largely due to the in- fluence of a persistent south westerly gale, which banked up the tide and hindered the outflow of water from the estuary. The storm commenced on the evening of Sun- day, December 13, and during the succeed-
ing two or three days more than 5in. of rain were recorded. Early on Monday the Richmond flat was flooded, and by the afternoon the river was flowing across St. Kilda road, and "a wide sea of fresh water" spread out over Port Melbourne and the West Melbourne swamp. On Tuesday conditions were worse. "A more melancholy day, as regards weather," says the contemporary account, "has never dawned upon Melbourne. All night and all day long, with scarcely a moment's intermission, the rain poured down. The heavy wind blew fiercely. . . . Business was all but suspended. . . . The roads to St. Kilda and Sandridge were altogether impassible." The stream across St. Kilda road had now become a roaring torrent, and two venturesome drivers who at- tempted to cross it lost their horses and vehicles, and narrowly escaped with their lives. Railway traffic to St. Kilda and Port Melbourne was suspended and boats commenced to ply across the flooded flats. Collingwood and Richmond were suffering severely. "Before sunset the remains of several wooden houses . . . were seen passing under the bridge as they were
carried down seawards."
WHALEBOAT IN AN OFFICE.
An embankment or levee which had been erected on the south side of the river, below Prince's Bridge, some time before, to prevent the fairly frequent flooding of the low-lying part of South Melbourne, was broken through by the water, and on the north side Flinders street, from Market street westward, was only passable in boats, which plied up King street as far as Flinders lane. It is recorded that one "seafaring visitor" actually took a whale- boat into the office of Messrs. McMeckan, Blackwood, and Co., in this locality. The entrances to many warehouses were blocked with green hides to keep out the water, but the damage to goods both on the wharves and in the stores cost many thou- sands of pounds. Below Spencer street, in the neighbourhood of Batman's Swamp, there were at this time several timber yards, and here "planks and logs" were "floating about in all directions, while men in boats endeavoured to recapture and rearrange the waifs." The tall chim- ney of the gas works was still smoking, al- though the buildings were surrounded by water; but before nightfall it was found necessary to suspend operations, and a huge part of Melbourne was plunged in darkness. The scene from Batman's Hill, the site of the present Railway's offices, at 4 o'clock on that memorable afternoon, is thus described: - "The whole land to the west and south was a mass of water, over which rose the black forest of scrub which fringes the Yarra, and in the har- bour the masts of the shipping. The white houses of Emerald Hill seemed to crown a green island, and the buildings and ship-
ping of Sandridge could scarcely be dis- tinguished in the mist."
Wednesday saw the flood almost at its height, but it also brought with it some moderation of the weather and gleams of sunshine which gave hope that the end of this time of trial was in sight. The river continued to rise, and the part of Richmond adjacent to what were then the
Cremorne Gardens, was submerged. Its inhabitants congregated on the railway em-
bankment "sadly watching their water- wasted dwellings, their ruined gardens, and their broken fences; while men in boats plied about the houses, rowing over gardens and garden walls picking up such waifs as could be got out from the upper windows, or which were floating about in the muddy sea." The lowest part of Toorak road, South Yarra, was 9ft. or 10ft. under water, the gardens of the Horticultural Society, which had just been laid out at Burnley, were completely covered, and further dam- age was done in that part of Collingwood which we now know as Abbotsford. "Tim- ber, boxes, fencing, chairs, tables, sofas, and other articles of household furniture floated down the current alomst uninter- ruptedly from morning to evening," and pathetic evidences of the destruction of homes were strewn along the Hawthorn railway line near Jolimont, where the flood formed a sort of breakwater.
THE HEIGHT OF THE FLOOD.
The great body of water which spread out below Prince's Bridge was bound to take the shortest way to the sea, and this it did by way of the "old lagoon," which it "entered . . . . and pouring down thence to the bay, crossed the sands by a mouth something like a quarter of a mile broad, and creating a heavy surf by its meeting with the tide." This "old lagoon" has long ago been filled up, but its farthest extension inland is still marked by the Floodgate Hotel in Crockford street, Port Melbourne. Its existence, in fact, was the main reason why City road and Bay street were not laid out as a continuous straight thoroughfare from Prince's Bridge to the beach. Notwithstanding this outlet, Port Melbourne had a number of houses washed away. One time as many as 80 children were being sheltered in a flour mill in Bay street, and at another 50 persons were marooned in the Fountain Inn, and were with difficulty supplied with provisions. The morning of Thursday, December 17, saw the flood at its height. The waters had now reached the girders of the rail-
way bridge near the falls, and all night long a gang of men had been employed in preventing wreckage from accumulating against it, a string of trucks loaded with pigiron having been run on to it to increase its stability. About 7 o'clock in the morn- ing a six or eight roomed house swept down the river, and was dashed against it. The bridge withstood the shock, but the house was broken up, and the furniture it contained came floating to the surface. More tenements were swept away in the vicinity of Punt road, Richmond. A lagoon 10ft. or 12ft. deep lay between South Yarra and Toorak, and it was estimated that at some points the river was 50ft. above sum- mer level. But the weather was now bright and sunny, and toward the afternoon it became evident that the flood was slowly abating. On Friday the wharves were still covered with water, and a busy passenger traffic was being carried on by boats ply- ing between Spencer street and Port Mel- bourne, and Prince's Bridge and South Melbourne. Gradually conditions returned to normal, and on Saturday traffic on the St. Kilda railway line was resumed, al-
though the amount of reballasting required on the route to Sandridge kept that por- tion of the Hobson's Bay Company's sys- tem closed for a day or two longer. The loss of life during the flood was incon- siderable. Only three or four persons were drowned. But the destruction of property was tremendous, and flood relief meetings became the order of the day.
Before the flood marks had time to dis- appear some enterprising person, endowed with historic sense, affixed a board to a solitary tree which stood in the swamp on the east side of St. Kilda road, near the spot where the water had made a deep cutting, about 30ft. wide, in the low em- bankment of the road itself, which in those days dipped down from the south approach to the bridge, and then breasted a slight rise to the level of the spot now occupied by the police hospital. My recollection of this tree, 20 years later, is that it stood well back from the bank of the river, and that its flood mark might easily have been 25ft. to 30ft. above the level of the stream. Unfortunately, when the new St. Kilda road was formed and the swamp inproved out of existence, no one thought it would while to perpetuate this interesting re- cord.