John McLauchlin and drowning in floods
McLauchlin’s Bakery was an institution in Maitland for over a century. Its founder, John McLauchlin (sometimes spelt McLaughlin), who had started baking in 1864, was one of four Maitland people who lost their lives to flooding in 1870. This was a year of several flood events in Maitland.
The circumstances of McLauchlin’s death
At dusk on March 21, in his own boat with four other men (William Miles, William Graham, John Mason and JT Tegg), McLauchlin was rowing through floodwaters from East Maitland to South Maitland to deliver loaves of bread to people who had become isolated. He had done this often during floods. At the time there were strong winds, a fast current and a heavy ‘sea’. In deep water near Louth Park Rd they struck a fence and the boat was holed and sank. Three of the men clung desperately to a willow tree and another to the fence but McLauchlin, heavy in thigh-high boots which would have filled quickly with water, was drowned.
A boy named Atkinson, riding bareback on a horse through the water, raised the alarm. Boats set out to rescue the survivors, cold and wet after a harrowing three-hour wait and probably in danger of dying from hypothermia. In today’s environment young Atkinson would undoubtedly have been awarded a medal for bravery.
McLauchlin was buried in the Hilands Crescent cemetery in East Maitland. The hearse, according to the Maitland Mercury, was followed by ‘a large concourse of people’ until it was stopped by floodwater on the road at East Maitland. It eventually reached the cemetery.
John’s widow, Susannah, carried on the business for 31 years after his death. Her cart was a familiar site in West Maitland. In 1871, the bakery began operating from premises at 303 High St: this building was being constructed at the time of McLauchlin’s death.
Left: Susannah McLauchlin (David Sciffer collection) - middle: Susannah McLauchlin’s bakery cart (Athel D’Ombrain Collection, University of Newcastle) - right: McLauchlin’s Bakery., 1902 (Picture Maitland, from Town and Country Journal, 1902)
click on above images for large views
Drownings in Maitland’s floods
The story says much about the risks of entering floodwaters. Probably the men could not swim ─ school swimming lessons for all were not the norm in Australia until well into the following century ─ and McLauchlin’s clothing was far from ideal once he was in the water. At almost the same time that he died, another man (John McFadyen) drowned in floodwaters while walking home from East Maitland to Pitnacree. Presumably McFadyen waded into the water, lost his footing and was swept to his death.
In all, six people in the history of the Maitland area have been swept off horses during floods and drowned, and a further six apart from McLauchlin died as a result of accidents involving boats. One of these, George Standen, drowned at Narrowgut (near Largs) a week after McLauchlin when his boat overturned.
Five people have died while trying to save property or helping others to escape Maitland floodwaters. A small number have lost their lives in their homes or when their houses fell into the river during floods. In these cases the floodwaters could be said to have invaded human domains, but most flood deaths resulted from people entering the water whether on foot or by some means of carriage.
Many farmers took great personal risks to rescue their cattle from flooded paddocks and swamps, though only one (James Gould, in 1864) is known to have died in doing so.
Several people, most of them children and including 10-year-old Agnes McNeilage in 1870, have drowned as a result of slipping down wet and greasy riverbanks as floods subsided. Another 10-year-old (James Abrahams of West Maitland in 1890) fell into the river while gathering firewood. This was an important activity during floods, debris being of value for cooking and heating, and the task often fell to the young. ‘Fishing’ the river for pumpkins and grammas to supplement family food supplies was another risky job commonly done by children during floods.
Drowning was a common mode of death in Australia during flood times in riverside communities in the nineteenth century. Many floods claimed a life or two by drowning, a few taking substantially larger numbers of lives.
Drownings occurred outside of flood times as well as during them. One man who drowned while rowing on the river in seemingly benign conditions was Robert Seddon, the captain of the first British Lions rugby team to tour Australia, in 1888: his rowing boat capsized, his feet were lashed in and he was unable to free them. The Lions had visited and played in Maitland the day before.
Lions captain Sam Warburton at Robert Seddon’s grave, Campbells Hill Cemetery, 2013.
Undoubtedly, drowning was more common during episodes of flooding than outside them. More than 40 Maitland people have been drowned in floods since 1840, of about 50 total deaths due to floods, and there were probably others before that year. The Mercury in its early years carried many reports of drownings. Undoubtedly the frequency of drownings was highest in flood times.
These days, drowning after driving a motor vehicle into floodwater is by far the most common cause of flood deaths in Australia. As it happens, only one Maitland person has died by this means since World War II, an elderly woman trying to get from Maitland to Gillieston Heights in 2015. Longer ago, boat accidents and riding horses into floodwaters were the equivalent causes of death.
References
Keys, Chas, Maitland, City on the Hunter: fighting floods or living with them?, Hunter-Central Rivers Catchment Management Authority, Maitland, 2008.
Keys, Chas, ‘Our past: tragic 1870 drowning of baker John McLauchlin’, Maitland Mercury, 23 July, 2021.
