The Great flood of December 1934

December 1, 1934 was when the largest flood ever to hit Koo-Wee-Rup and surrounding districts  occured.  In October of that year, Koo Wee Rup received over twice its average rain fall. November also had well above average rainfall and heavy rain fell on December 1 across the State. This rainfall caused a flood of over 100,000 megalitres or 40,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) per day. This was only an estimate because all the gauges were washed away. The entire Swamp was inundated; water was over 6 feet (2 metres) deep in the town of Koo Wee Rup, exacerbated by the fact that the railway embankment held the water in the town; my grandparents house at Cora Lynn had 3½ feet of water through it and according to family legend they spent three days in the roof with a nine, five, three year old and my father who was one at the time. This flood also affected other parts of the State, including Melbourne and over a thousand people were left homeless in Victoria. 

Rossiter Road., Koo Wee Rup. The house, Mallow, was built, c. 1916,  by John Colvin for his daughter Margaret on her marriage to Les O'Riordan. It is now the home of the Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society. 

Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society photo

Here are two eye-witness accounts of the flood.

This account is from More Mickle memories of Koo Wee Rup* by David Mickle.

The average flood in the Koo Wee Rup township had been up to two feet. The State Savings Bank Building Department specified that floor levels in this locality must be 30 inches above the ground.
We had the highest single level house in town and consequently on December 1, 1934 about 8.00am we invited Wally Bethune, his wife and two children to come from their ground level home opposite to our “unsinkable three footer”. Mr Graham and child came to help us but very soon we were sinking too. I waded to a wood shed for a ladder to put through the man-hole in the bathroom ceiling and very soon the Bethunes, Grahams and Mickles – total eleven- were on blankets in the ceiling. The flood would have been four  feet deep outside then and rising fast. The depth was five feet six inches when apparently it managed to cross the railway embankment and stopped rising. This embankment had caused the flood to back up with disastrous results. Here we stayed like many others on and in roofs until boats arrived. From these vantage points we watched cows, sheep , pigs and poultry intermixed with oil drums and trees go by... That afternoon Pomp Colvin came with his boat and took Mr Graham and girl to their house. Nine of us were taken to the Railway Crossing at 10.30am the next day, Sunday, by boat. On the Monday, men only, were allowed back into the town to organise the cleaning up.

This account is from Patsy Adam Smith from her book Hear the train blow**. Her mother was Station Mistress and Post Mistress at Monomeith railway station at this time and her father was a fettler.

At home we were perfectly safe because of the house being off the ground up on the platform. On the second day Mum heard on the radio that homeless people were being brought into the Railway station at Koo Wee Rup. She walked in to help. Where she walked on the five-foot the swirling waters lapped over her shoes, the ballast had been swept away and the sleepers were held up only because they were fastened to the rails. The whole line in parts was swinging…..Dad and other fettlers brought in scores of people who had been cut off on high ground or in the ceilings of their homes. The water had run over the land so suddenly that most people were taken unawares. The Bush Nursing Hospital was caught this way. The fettlers cut through the roof of that building to take out the patients…… Mum, helping patients out of the boat when it reached Koo Wee Rup station found Dad’s coat around an old lady who had only a thin nightdress beneath it

David Roberts in From Swampland to Farmland*** pays tribute to the early pioneers on the Swamp and it is a fitting tribute to our parents and grandparents.

It is interesting to note that the three large floods of 1924, 1934 and 1937, all within a thirteen year time span contributed to the development of a “breed” of people –people who had faced floods and continued to work their land in the belief that they could be beaten and that the good years would outweigh the bad. A certain resilience and tight knit community spirit had grown amongst the people, some of whom were children or grandchildren of the original drain diggers, and like their predecessors they weren’t going to be beaten by the Koo Wee Rup Swamp.

References :
*More Mickle Memories of Koo Wee Rup by David Mickle (The Author, 1987)
**Hear the train blow by Patsy Adam-Smith (Nelson,  1981)
**From Swampland to Farmland: a history of the Koo Wee Rup Flood Protection District by David Roberts. (Rural Water Commission, 1985)

100 years ago this week - An embrocation

Local farmers may find this embrocation of use, if you could actually still purchase the ingredients.

Farmers Advocate October 14, 1918

http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223662270

In October, Mr M.D. Dalley of Koo Wee Rup, wrote the following letter to the Farmers’ Advocate newspaper - Among the papers of my late father the following recipe was found; it has been used by him on many occasions, and found an excellent embrocation (lotion). For the benefit of farmers I give it: - 1 oz. Laudanum, 1 oz. Tincture of Myrrh; 1 oz. Tincture of Aloes; ½ oz. Sulphate of Zinc; 1 oz. Carbolic Acid. Mix with 5 oz. salad oil.

For the young readers of this article, the word oz is the abbreviation for an ounce which is about 28 grams. These ingredients were obviously freely available at the time; I am not sure how you would access them all now. Laudanum is opium mixed with alcohol and, not surprisingly, no longer available at the local shops; Myrrh is a type of tree resin and was one of the gifts given by the Three Wise Men at the birth of Jesus. I didn't actually realise that it was used anywhere outside the Bible; Aloes is made from the leaves of the aloe plant; Sulphate of Zinc is the dietary supplement; Carbolic Acid or phenol is used as an antibiotic or disinfectant and is considered to be a poison. Salad oil sounds like the least dangerous and easiest to obtain ingredient out of this list. As a matter of interest, Mr Dalley’s full name was Moorabool Darriwell Dalley, quite an unusual set of given names. He was born at Batesford, which is on the Moorabool River, and Darriwell is the name of a land administration Parish, just north of Batesford. Darriwell was also the name of the 1879 Melbourne Cup winner.

Bunyip Cemetery

The Bunyip Cemetery site was officially reserved on November 22, 1886 and on December 6, 1886 the first Trustees were appointed - William Harry Webb, Lawrence Finch, James Mortimer, Joseph Archer, Christian Hansen, Peter Gillespie and John Reynolds.  The first official burials, as listed in the Cemetery Register, did not take place until eight years after the Cemetery was officially gazetted with the first one in March 1894. Of the first 20 burials in the register, 19 were children. This was a result of the high infant mortality rate at the time before vaccinations and antibiotics came into widespread use. Here is a sample of this depressing and sad list: William Barnes aged 6 - cause of death Diphtheria; Ethel Wayneith, 9 months - Marasmus (severe undernourishment); John Peart, 2 months - Marasmus; David Fallon 9 weeks - Maramus; Ann Benham 10 months - Pneumonia; Lily Norton 10 weeks - Whooping cough; William Heuson 4 months - Whooping cough; Denis McIvor 20 days - Meningitis; Mary Anne Mulligan 3 years - Diphtheria.

Land was set aside for the Cemetery November 22, 1886

http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1886/V/general/126.pdf

However, the Cemetery was obviously in use before it was officially gazetted and a register established as there is a report in the Weekly Times of August 21, 1886 of the death of 22 year old Henry Manley, whose body had been found in a waterhole near his house at Cannibal Creek (Garfield). It was surmised that he had fainted, as he had been having treatment for heart disease, and fallen into the waterhole when he was collecting water in a billy. The report goes in to say that he was buried in the ‘new Bunyip Cemetery’ (1).

The first Trustees of the Bunyip Cemetery appointed December 6, 1886.

http://gazette.slv.vic.gov.au/images/1886/V/general/132.pdf

Apart from the six Trustees listed above the following were amongst the men that acted for various lengths of time as Trustees in the first 20 years - William Pitt, Arthur Gadsby, Enoch Holgate, Michael O’Brien, William Masters, Patrick Heffernan, John Ryan, Daniel Topp, William George Kraft, James Pincott, John Hade, Charles Pearson and Henry Rodger. As far as I know there has not been a woman who has been a Trustee but there have been a number of women who have undertaken the role of Honorary Secretary, including Mrs Sarah Kraft who had the role for 25 years. In June 1914 she was presented with ‘an artistic illuminated address, nicely framed’ to mark the appreciation of her work as Secretary (2).

We will now have a look at some of the early burials that were reported in the local papers.  Amongst the saddest burials is that of Alfred Ernest Duncan, who drowned in the Main Drain on June 14, 1901 trying to rescue his sister, nine year old Janet (also referred to as Jane).  He was 10 years and 9 months old. They were the children of John and Mary Margaret (nee Grant) Duncan who also had another daughter, Annie. From reports in various papers we can piece together what happened. The children attended the Iona State School (then called Bunyip South) and they were going to school and instead of using the school bridge (3) they used a plank further along the river. Janet fell into the drain and her brother said Janet, turn on your back and I will save you. Albert immediately plunged in, caught the girl, held her head above water for some moments but both sank and were separated (4). Her body was never found. The Inquest of Alfred has been digitised and is available on the Public Records Office of Victoria, website, here.  It is very sad reading.

Report of the drowning and the public meeting held to raise money for a memorial

The Argus June 22, 1901 https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/10557352

The funeral service was held on Tuesday, June 18. 1901. The children attending the State school marched in front of the hearse to the Bunyip cemetery. The Age reported: The service at the grave was a very touching and impressive one, the clergyman dwelling on the noble action by which young Duncan lost his life (5).  The Bunyip community raised money for a memorial to be placed on his grave and this was unveiled in December 1901 (6).  The grave, which is in the Presbyterian section, is, sadly, a bit neglected. It has the motto - ‘Greater love has no man than this; that a man lay down his life for his friends’

Alfred Duncan's grave

Image: Heather Arnold

Many of the early pioneers are buried at Bunyip - Bartholomew Fitzgerald settled on 20 acres in 1892 on the Main Drain at Bunyip South. Bartholomew, his wife Annie, and their 13 children worked the family farm. Bartholomew died in March 1906. Annie, who died in 1948, is also buried at Bunyip. Joseph Archer, aged 77, died in  August 1908. He had lived at Garfield for 31 years and is source of the name Archer Road.  Honora (or Hanorah) Fallon died in September 1908, she was wife of Michael and mother of ten children. They had settled at Iona in 1901. Michael, who died in March 1915 is also at Bunyip. The family is the source of the name Fallon Road (7). 

If you read reports of deaths in old newspapers, then you would know that many deaths were caused by workplace accidents. In June 1915, 40 year old Joseph Henderson, who drove a wagon for the Drouin Butter Factory, was struck by a train at the Garfield Railway Station, whilst transferring milk cans from one platform to the other. He was ‘badly mangled, one of his legs being severed from the body’ according to a graphic report in the Bunyip Free Press (8). Joseph was buried at Bunyip.

One of the more publicised deaths at the time was that of 40 year old Miss Clara Snell who died June 13, 1914. Clara had been born at Bunyip and died at Nar Nar Goon. Clara and her sister Anna and brother Thomas were part of the ‘Gippsland Giants’ who toured the world. The trio were of abnormal size and weight as the South Bourke & Mornington Journal  reported, with Clara being 39 stone and over six feet tall. When they finished touring Clara and Anna operated the Robin Hood Hotel at Drouin.  Clara, her parents, Sophia and William, and other relatives are all buried at Bunyip (9).

If you visit the Bunyip Cemetery then you would know that is very attractive and well maintained. It seems that this has always been the case as the Bunyip Free Press from November 11, 1915 had this to say about the cemetery the Bunyip cemetery looks just "it" now that the plants and bulbs are in full bloom (10).

Footnotes

(1) Weekly Times, August 21 1886, see here.

(2) South Bourke & Mornington Journal, June 18, 1914, see here.

(3) South Bourke & Mornington Journal, December 18, 1901, see here.

(4) Both quotes from The Argus June 22, 1901, see here.  

(5) The Age June 19, 1901, see here.

(6) Read a report of the unveiling - South Bourke & Mornington Journal, December 18, 1901, see here.

(7) Some of the information in this paragraph comes from Call of the Bunyip: History of Bunyip, Iona and Tonimbuk 1847-1990 by Denise Nest (Bunyip History Committee, 1990)

(8) Bunyip Free Press, July 1 1915, see here.

(9) Clara Snell's obituary - South Bourke & Mornington Journal, June 18, 1914, see here.

(10) Bunyip Free Press, November 11, 1915, see here.