JOHN Miller has made it his personal crusade for the past 20 years to secure the Hawkesbury some measure of protection from the floods which he saw devastate the area repeatedly in the mid-20th century.
“I came to farm in the Hawkesbury over 60 years ago,” he said. “In 1956 my farm was flooded seven times. I have seen 12 major floods in those 60 years.”
He said the majority of new Hawkesbury residents haven’t seen a major flood, with the last of any consequence being an 11m flood in 1992.
“That’s a 24-year gap,” he said. “With such a long period of dry years, people think there will never be another flood.
“Historical records tell us that there were no floods between 1819 and 1857, a gap of 38 years. Then in 1867 we had the great flood of 19.3m, with most of our major towns inundated.”
The story of the 1867 flood, in which 12 members of the farming Eather family at Cornwallis died, is not known by newcomers to the district.
The rain started on Tuesday, June 18. The river began to rise on Thursday morning, strong winds began and the temperature plummeted, as the rain bucketed down.
The telegraph was cut between Windsor and Sydney on Friday morning, when the water was up over 14m. Those who were in distress were firing muskets from rooftops and all boats to hand were sent out to rescue the stranded.
When the scale of the situation became clear, the Colonial Secretary in Sydney sent four boats to Windsor which arrived in the afternoon. By then the water was up to 16m and a fierce gale was blowing.
While there was still light people remained calm but as the light faded and the waters continued to rise, they started to panic.
Throughout Friday night boat crews, the forerunners of our SES, tried to respond to all the musket shot distress signals and glimmers of lanterns.
Saturday morning, and it was still raining. Many families had been up all night and were greatly alarmed. People were driven from their homes. Drowned livestock were everywhere – cattle horses, pigs and poultry. Houses were giving way to the roaring waters. People were being rescued off rooftops or out of windows of their homes. Some were even rescued by cutting through the roof.
The Gazette reported 20 years ago that one of the largest mass rescues was made at McGraths Hill where 80 people had taken refuge in one building. A large boat was able to take 30 in its first trip, and the rest clambered into the next trip of more boats just as the floodwaters rose over the building.
But down on Cornwallis it was a different story. Brothers William, Thomas and George Eather lived on adjoining farms. William and wife Catherine had five children aged 1-11. Thomas had six children with his wife aged 3-16. William and Thomas and their families took refuge in George’s newly completed slab house.
William and Thomas knocked a hole in the shingled roof and passed the women and children through. All the next day they clung to the roof, battered by the fierce wind and torrential rain while the river rose and roared around the house.
For nine hours efforts to get a boat out to rescue them were unsuccessful it was dark and raining with high waves, until someone offered 50 pounds to get a boat out to them.
By evening William realised at least one of his children had died of hypothermia. the flood had now reached almost the top of the roof. At that moment, the house collapsed and they were thrown into the water, at a time when very few people could swim.
The boat with three men arrived – an hour too late. William, Thomas and one of Thomas’s sons survived the ordeal but their wives and 10 children drowned. One of the children’s bodies was later found in the chimney of the house.
From Riverstone to the Blue Mountains and from Pitt Town to Kurrajong there was a vast inland sea 25-32km wide dotted only by the islands of Windsor, Richmond and Pitt Town. The water was up to the eaves of Windsor railway station.
The rain stopped on Saturday and the water stopped rising at 5am on Sunday. By evening it began to fall.
There have been 120 floods over 6.4m since 1799.
