It was very unusual the way that flood came in. It was one of the driest summers and autumns and that was the time I was out on the rabbits. At this particular time, I was right away out the back of what was then Matt Kelso’s property, the other side of Tarranlea on Falkenburgs boundary. I was in my spring cart, I was trapping at the time with the steel rabbit traps, and I had to drive the pegs in to the ground out there. It was red gum tableland country with very little topsoil there and it was mostly gravel. Driving a peg in and pulling it out after to shift the trap, was a terrific problem. I relied on the dam there for my water supply for own drinking and for the horse but it was almost finished.
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Well a bit of a clouds came up there on the night of St. Patricks' Day the 17th, 16th March. And rain started reasonably light, but by about two o’clock in the morning it was coming down in absolute bucketfuls. Well of course with a tent, you had the fly and the guy ropes, and if you didn’t loosen them when it rained, they would shrink and they'd pull the pegs out of the ground, and the whole thing would fall down, ridge pole and all. So I got up, I got up to slacken off the tension on the tent and rope and I was darn well standing in a foot of water. Then I thought, “God, what about my ferrets?” Well they were swimming around in the box, so I had to bring them in and put them up on the end of my bed and the greyhound was up on the end of my bed and of course I sat it out till daylight. But the rain hadn't ceased. So all I could do was bale out, put the horse in the spring cart, and get my ferrets, and I had to leave practically everything else there that I had around the place. And it took me all my time to get across the tableland. There were rabbits sitting up on old stumps everywhere because it was a rabbit plague at the time and they were flooded out of their burrows. For a little bit of safety they were all climbing up on these stumps where these old trees had been cut down.
The horse was floundering up to its hocks and the spring cart was bogging because with the light country out there, once it gets wet, there’s nothing to hold you, you go right through it. And I knew quite well, with the amount of water that was flowing around out there, Coleraine had to be flooded.
When I got as far as the top of Rowe’s Hill, I looked down onto Bennet's flat. That was a sheet of water. By that I was nearly home and when I got home of course, the news had come round that Coleraine was under enormous flooding. Of course I went down to have a look and down as you go to the Oval now by the skin store John, there a cow standing up top of the hay stack. And it headed a way down towards Sandford I suppose. God knows where it finished up. I was alright as long as it stayed on top of it, and this was a big big hay stack too.
And there was a lot of people marooned in houses, there was people in what was called the golf house and they nearly lost their lives. But fortunately no one lost their lives. But there was another interesting thing down at James's there. Of course in those days there was no morgues or anything. If anybody died they were more ore less taken down to the undertakers there was a bit of a shed and he had all had all his coffins there. Well they were picking up coffins there away down there through Hilgay and God knows what but I don’t know if they found anyone in them or not but they lost all their coffins.
We finished up with around 8 or 9 inches rain for that particular day and a half and of course if you go down onto the Wannon River you can still see where the high water mark was where it threw great big limbs and barrels of trees up into the forks of the high red gums there. And it’s amazing when you look up at the amount of the height of the flood that was then in the Wannon River.
It created an enormous amount of interest. After that, we were still milking cows here and the grass grew that quickly that the people were getting a bigger factory cheque into March and April than they were getting in the flush of Spring the previous year. There was tons of water but it did an enormous of erosion and that’s when our creeks below went back here by half a mile or more. That was the start of some of the worst erosion everywhere because of the dryness of the soil. It hadn’t had time to absorb this quick runoff and all the dams were full of silt, because being so dry they filled with sheep manure and the top soil because of no grass. They had to get slush boxes and take all the silt and rubbish out of the dams so they could hold enough water again.
That was the second big flood because there was another in 1887 and quite a few people drowned at that time, kids and that. Fortunately, there were no fatalities. By God, I’ll tell you what, it created history. We will see it again, because of the way Coleraine is placed. It’s only a matter of getting that heavy rain again. If that same amount of rain would have fallen in June or July after all the catchments were full well then is would have been an enormous record. I suppose it took 4 or 5 inches to fill all the big dams and reservoirs before they started to overflow. It was such a sudden shock to the whole system of the earth, that it became saturated so quickly so there were land slips everywhere. The roads were impassable with enormous slips and there’re still to be seen now. It all happened in 1946 including the huge landslip below our orchard.
Some of them were old landslips, perhaps a thousand years ago, the remnants of them and the weakness must have been there. With the enormous quick rains and the ground was so cracked, the water got right down onto that type of clay. The water couldn’t hold it and away went whole hills. (Sutherland’s slip occurred in 46 but increased greatly in the 70’s. This is when it was fenced and trees were planted – Brian)
Sunday morning March 17th 1946: The northern and Western side of the town were enveloped with water due to the flooding of Bryant's Creek. Many people evacuated their homes ........ women and children were carried through the water. The streets were 4 to 5 feet deep in water. No loss of life. The last big floods were in 1893 and 1870. By 6 o'clock Saturday evening 500 points had been registered (5 inches : 100 points = 1 inch ) Two feet of water started to flow through many people's homes. Whyte St was a sea of water. The water covered the verandah of the Post Office. Boxes, oil drums and timber were swirling in the tide. ............ One of the most exciting incidents in the early morning was the repeated attempts to rescue Mrs L. Torney and young daughter who were marooned in their home........... Mr Leo Casey attempted a crossing by boat but this turned over when Mr. Casey went to get in, luckily the occupants were none the worse for the immersion. Quite a number of others endeavoured with the aid of a long rope to cross the swollen stream in Turnbull St. but without avail. Mr. Doug Ferrier set off in a horse drawn gig. Les Hutchins had 6 feet of water going through his house at the end of Gage St. A big truck belonging to Messrs C. Tippett and Sons was carried into Mr. T.K. Browns garage yard where it lies upturned with its four wheels in the air. Quite a number of shed collapsed. Roadways and footpaths were torn up. Five tons of firewood belonging to Mr. Cooper was swept away. Mr. C. Tippett lost 15 tons of firewood. Many miles of fencing disappeared. Mr. Burchell lost 75 fowls and ducks. The suspension Bridge at Silvester Oval was carried away. Other bridges were washed away. A relief plane dropped a parcel of six pairs of blankets on the old cricket ground. Rainfall at Mr. Reid's place at Nareen was 7 and a half inches. Coleraine Albion.