WALKING tours highlighting Windsor’s flood history proved so popular last week that they were booked out, as the Hawkesbury marked the anniversary of one of the region’s most historically significant events – the Great Flood of 1867.
Dr Stephen Yeo, a flood specialist with a keen interest in the Hawkesbury, provided the tours last week and said he was surprised how popular they were.
Dr Yeo is not from the Hawkesbury, but runs his own flood consulting business and also works for the Hawkesbury-Nepean Flood Management Directorate.
“It seemed a nice way to spend 90 minutes sharing stories rooted in this community and Windsor has so much heritage,” he said.
“We are not just interested in 1867 as an historical oddity, but remembering that a flood like that can and will happen again.”
Dr Yeo said the marking of the 1867 flood was important, and should serve as a reminder to the residents of the Hawkesbury that disaster can strike.
“One of the big concerns is that there has been a whole generation that has never seen a decent flood in the Hawkesbury, the last even what I would call moderate flood was in 1992,” he said.
“The 150th anniversary of the biggest flood on record is a prime opportunity to remind people that not only have huge floods like 1867 happened in the past but they can and will happen again.”
Dr Yeo said from doing the tours of Windsor, he said it was clear there were many misconceptions about flooding in the area.
He said he hoped the tours helped end some of the ‘myths’ about how flooding occurred in the Hawkesbury.
He said the most common ‘myth’ he heard was that a flood such as 1867 could not happen again. He said a repeat of such a flood absolutely could happen again, although added it was statistically unlikely.
Another so-called ‘myth’ was that Warragamba Dam would stop all floods, but again Dr Yeo said that was not the case.
Dr Yeo said in his opinion, many Hawkesbury residents did not think flooding was a major concern for them anymore.
“We are trying to show why Windsor can reach such great depths and be so extensive [when it floods]. 1867 was described as a vast inland sea with no waves to rival Sydney Harbour on a squally day,” he said.
“We look at Windsor's flood history and there have been these almost decade long periods with few floods and small floods, but also decade long periods with many floods and big floods.”
Dr Yeo said he did not want to be a doomsayer, but people living in the flood prone areas of the Hawkesbury should be prepared for future big floods.
