The Great Flood of December 1934

December 1, 1934 was the day when the largest flood ever to hit Koo Wee Rup and surrounding districts  occurred. There had been above average rainfall in the October and November and more heavy rain fell across the State on December 1st. This rainfall caused a flood of over 100,000 megalitres or 40,000 cusecs across the Swamp and this was only an estimate because all the gauges were washed away. The entire Swamp was inundated; water was over six feet deep in parts of the Koo Wee Rup township, and this flooding was exacerbated by the fact that the railway embankment held the water in the town. 

At Cora Lynn, 3½ feet of water went through my grandparent’s house (Joe and Eva Rouse) in Murray Road. The family, including the four children aged 11, 5, 3 and nearly 1 (my Dad, Frank), spent three days in the roof of the house. This flood also affected other parts of the State. The Argus reported that there was four feet of water over parts of the Princes Highway between Dandenong and Berwick. The Yarra River caused flooding along its banks from the City to Heidelberg to Warburton; the Moe Swamp around Trafalgar flooded; the old Carrum Swamp around Chelsea was flooded as were low lying parts of Melbourne such as Kensington.  

Over a thousand people were left homeless as a result and around 15 people, including six locally, were sadly drowned throughout the State. The Argus of December 3, 1924 (see here) reported -
Two men, both thought to be farmers, were drowned near Bunyip. They were Councillor John Dowd, formerly president of the Berwick Shire, and a man whose name was Jolly. George Wilson, of Iona who was drowned near Garfield. The body of a man named Williams was recovered at Garfield yesterday morning by Constable Jordan. The body of John Samwell, aged about 55 years, sustenance worker, was seen by Mr John Hickey being carried by the flood waters toward the main drain in the Koo-wee-rup Swamp. Mr Hickey, who is aged 70 years, was rescued after he had clung to a tree for 28 hours. Gordon Nash, aged 14 years, of Tonimbuk, was drowned in Diamond Creek

Another man was reported missing - Mr. Patrick Brennan a resident of the town [Garfield] has been missing since Friday night, and as his horse and jinker have been found fears are felt for his safety. His body was found a few days later.

Weatherhead Brothers timber yard at Tynong in 1934 flood.

Photographer: Alf Weatherhead

See more flood photos here and here.

The town of Koo Wee Rup was especially hard hit. The women and children were evacuated by train, mostly to Dandenong. Relief trains arrived on Monday, December 3rd which contained food, clothes and equipment. The homeless men were housed in tents, which had also arrived on the relief train, and were paid to help clean up. At the eastern end of the Swamp, the hundreds of homeless people took refuge at Garfield in the Mechanics' Institute and the hotel.

The flood didn’t just have human toll, many animals were also killed. The Minister in Charge of Sustenance, Dr. Shields, visited the area and reported that –
"More than 2,000 carcases including cows sheep pigs goats and poultry have already been disposed of," he continued. "The carcases have been thrown into the main canal and floated down to Westernport. There are still about 1,000 dead animals in the district but some of these will have to be buried. The party was told that the carcases would be devoured readily by sharks which were plentiful in the northern end of Westernport. One resident said that they were so numerous that fishermen were afraid to put out in small craft. Countless hundreds of chickens and fowls have been destroyed by the floods. Only the dogs seem to have escaped. These are ravenously hungry and fight for scraps of food when it is thrown to them. (The Argus, December 6, 1934, see here)

As well as the loss of livestock, 12,000 acres of potatoes were destroyed around Koo Wee Rup and Trafalgar as were many acres of other crops such as onions. The School at Koo Wee Rup closed until the New Year and the Hospital, which had seven feet of water through it, re-opened on Christmas Eve (read more about the Hospital and the flood, here)

If it wasn’t bad enough losing everything and being stuck on your roof, The Argus, noted another danger - Saturday night was a night of terror for the persons marooned on the housetops. The waters were infested with hundreds of swimming snakes, which tried to reach the roofs. The stranded persons had to fight them off with sticks as well as try to keep themselves above the level of the flood. 

(The Argus,  December 3, 1924, see here) 

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: a history of the Koo Wee Rup Flood Protection District 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)

Newspaper articles - see my Trove list, here.