The great flood of 1893
Maitland had experienced many severe floods before 1893, especially between the mid-1850s and the mid-1870s, but the flood of 1893 beat all Maitland records for severity. To that time no flood had killed as many as the eight who lost their lives between Branxton and Maitland, and none had been so damaging to property and the local economy. Its impact was exacerbated by the fact that the flood occurred at the time of one of the most punishing economic depressions in the history of New South Wales, and the drought that followed it had further deleterious effects on economic conditions and living standards.
The characteristics of the flood
The 1893 flood was destined to be seen as one of the ‘great floods’ of Maitland’s history. For decades, indeed until 1955, it was the great flood of Maitland memory.
The flood’s origin was not the standard east coast low pressure system of Maitland’s usual floods: it was caused by an ex-tropical cyclone that arose between New Caledonia and the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu). As a rain depression the system produced torrential rain especially in the lower reaches of the Hunter Valley. Morpeth recorded 21.52 inches (546mm) in a single 24-hour period at the height of the event. The upper Hunter received less rain and the flooding was not so severe.
The flood reached a height almost a metre higher at the Belmore Bridge gauge than had ever previously been measured there. The debris load was great, the current fast and the rate of rise unusually rapid.
Consequences
The damage done was considerable. The river’s bank was eroded, houses and other buildings fell into the torrent (one was swept past Morpeth intact), levees were overtopped and many dwellings were deeply inundated. On the farms, livestock, sheds, outhouses and crops were swept away. Every one of the 265 houses in Horseshoe Bend took in water, as did most to the south of High St. Some were flooded over their roofs.
The Maitland Mercury despatched a reporter to estimate the financial losses in shops. He went door to door in High St, interviewing proprietors. Several of them reckoned their losses in the hundreds of pounds. £100 in 1893 would have been worth about $12,500 in the early 2020s.
High St, West Maitland, looking east, 1893
Floodwaters in Melbourne St, East Maitland, 1893.
(Photographer: George Thomas Chambers)
The telegraph brought warning from upstream, until the line was severed near Farley, and the town’s fire bell was rung to alert people. The usual efforts to protect belongings were undertaken, but the level that was reached defeated many efforts as is usually the case when floods break height records. It was known that a flood was approaching but there was no way of telling with accuracy how high the peak would be. People did not know how far to lift items in houses and shops to avoid them being inundated, and in any case there would not have been sufficient time to undertake all the actions that might have saved items of property.
Responses
There were many rescues. The water brigades of West Maitland, East Maitland and Morpeth took people off roofs and haystacks. Hundreds were given shelter in large multi-storey buildings like the Town Hall, the offices of the Maitland Mercury, the Salvation Army barracks and the several hotels of the towns. Hundreds were made homeless, at least temporarily.
An appeal for relief funds was launched, the colonial government provided money and committees were formed to allocate it to those who had lost belongings: these things were standard after Maitland floods in the late nineteenth century. ‘Means tests’ of sorts were applied before grants were made and a Ladies’ Committee gathered and distributed items of clothing.
The three councils of the area (West Maitland, East Maitland and Morpeth) managed the cleaning of the streets of silt and debris, ‘the effluvium [odour] from which [was] anything but enjoyable’ according to the Mercury. Roads and railway lines had to be repaired. Much temporary employment was created, giving work to hundreds of men, which was a boon especially to the farmers who could not work their land for weeks before it dried out.
The 1893 flood became the ‘benchmark’ flood disaster of Maitland, and the event which determined for some the height at which the floors of new dwellings were set. Inevitably, some of these floors turned out not to be high enough to keep out the flood of 1955 which exceeded the 1893 event by about 80 centimetres at the Belmore Bridge gauge.
The 1893 flood has never lost its status as one of the ‘great floods’ of Maitland’s history, though its place was threatened in 1949 and in 1955 its record as ‘the worst ever’ was superseded. It probably caused previous severe floods like those of 1857, 1867 and 1870 to lose some of their status in local lore.
References
1893 flood photograph album, Picture Maitland.
Keys, Chas, Maitland, City on the Hunter: Fighting floods or living with them? Hunter-Central Rivers Catchment Management Authority, Tocal, 2008.
Keys, Chas, ‘Our past: Maitland’s great 1893 flood’, Maitland Mercury, 24 September 2020.
Maitland Mercury.
