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1956 Flood
In 1956, a monster flood overwhelmed the banks of the Murray and Darling Rivers, producing floodwaters in surrounding towns and rural areas that reached over 30 feet above normal levels.
The Murray Darling Environmental Foundation's 1956 Flood video features historical footage - including photographs and wonderful super8 film from personal collections - that document the rise and flow of the waters, and the monumental effort mobilised to tackle them.
It is presented here in 3 extracts.
The full video is over 25 minutes long, and copies can be obtained from:
Emma Bradbury, Murray Darling Association, Post Office Box 1268, Echuca 3564
Film - 1956 Floods - Extract 1, Apricot Films, Mildura Arts Centre
Courtesy of Mildura Arts Centre and Murray Darling Environmental Foundation
Film - 1956 Floods - Extract 1, Apricot Films, Mildura Arts Centre
REPORTER (VOICEOVER): The swirling clouds raising every minute until they've engulfed every building they haven't washed away. Water surging through the streets, tearing at the buildings, the homes, the shops. For our floods bring tragedy, they also highlight the Australians' courage and tenacity.
NARRATOR: As the ancient lowlands along the River Darling and River Murray were succumbing to the greatest flood of our time, deluging town after town as a flood peak made its way to the sea. Flood prone towns and communities knew weeks or months ahead it was coming, but how high would it be?
Important state-owned infrastructure was at serious risk. On water's edge sat power stations and pumping stations that must be kept operating. Without them, the towns wouldn't survive. Local engineers at the critically important Mildura and Red Cliffs power stations kept alerting head office in Melbourne there was trouble brewing. Maintaining electricity was crucial. Without power in the districts, hundreds of pumps would fail, creating an even greater disaster.
MAN 1 (VOICEOVER): One wet Melbourne Sunday evening, I arrived home to find the SEC chief civil engineer waiting in the lounge room with my ticket for the first plane out of Essendon Airport next morning. He said the power stations at Red Cliffs and Mildura were in danger of being flooded by waters of the Murray River rising at the alarming rate one inch per hour. When I got there, I worked from the Monday morning until midday on the Wednesday before finally sleeping. At Mildura Power Station, we made a raft for the engineer to go out by cable to the pumping station out in the river. It was very difficult with the swift movement of the river, and twice we nearly lost this headstrong Dutch engineer, who was hellbent on being a hero, much to our dismay.
NARRATOR: The community response became a local military style operation, something that came naturally to the thousands of World War II soldier settlers, Aussie diggers who'd been given development land along the river. Joining them were thousands of European migrants, the so-called new Australians escaping the aftermath of war. Now, they were about to face a slow moving common enemy, the bringer of wealth to the region in good times, now threatening life and property around every turn.
WOMAN (VOICEOVER): Many people evacuated their homes and were taken to the Mildura migrant camp where flood evacuees were stationed. Half the camp's population of over 200 people during the flood period came from Wentworth and district. Around the town, a number of men were allotted to each section to patrol its banks. Sirens were placed at the town hall and at the post office, and sounding of the sirens and the number of blasts would indicate to the town where help was required.
MAN 2 (VOICEOVER): While the floods were rising, we tried to maintain a cash flow by moving vegetables by boat and by devising a flying fox. It was difficult and dangerous work. I well remember brother Jack taking a full load of bagged pumpkins across Boyle Creek. He was swept against a stump, and the boat overturned. Pumpkins floating away. Only a few bags were saved and no boat. Lucky we were both strong swimmers.
Another day, this mermaid suddenly appeared out of the water. My wife had swum the swollen, steadily flowing snake, snag, and insect laden flood waters to tell me that the government was considering allocating flood free lease land to those who had been flooded out, and was I interested.
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Can you reuse this media without permission?No (with exceptions, see below)
Conditions of use
All rights reserved
This media item is licensed under "All rights reserved". You cannot share (i.e. copy, distribute, transmit) or rework (i.e. alter, transform, build upon) this item, or use it for commercial purposes without the permission of the copyright owner. However, an exception can be made if your intended use meets the "fair dealing" criteria. Uses that meet this criteria include research or study; criticism or review; parody or satire; reporting news; enabling a person with a disability to access material; or professional advice by a lawyer, patent attorney, or trademark attorney.
Attribution
Please acknowledge the item’s source, creator and title (where known)
Courtesy of Mildura Arts Centre and Murray Darling Environmental Foundation
An edited extract from 1956 Flood, a film that explores the impact of the 1956 floods along the Murray and Darling Rivers, using historical film footage and photographs, many sourced from private archives.
Apricot Films
Writer: Mike O'Reilly
Editor: Phil Guerin
Research: Diana Byrne & Graham Downie
Re-edited extract: Sophie Boord
An initiative of the Murray-Darling Environmental Foundation and the Murray-Darling Association Inc
Film - 1956 Floods - Extract 2, Apricot Films, Mildura Arts Centre
Courtesy of Mildura Arts Centre and Murray Darling Environmental Foundation
Film - 1956 Floods - Extract 2, Apricot Films, Mildura Arts Centre
NARRATOR: At the flood front, it was action stations. At the first sign of flooding, Wentworth's emergency service swung into action. Bulldozers were called in. Sand bags came from more than 300 miles away. The town was surrounded with levee banks. Volunteers worked 24 hours a day in shifts, building and patrolling banks. Boats were made available to evacuate the town, and many rescue plans formed if any one of the banks should give way and the entire town be flooded. One of the centers of flood activity was the Wentworth District Hospital. Men worked for weeks with tractors building levee banks to prevent the hospital being flooded. Wentworth was an island, in an inland sea.
MAN: This was a People's Army of many languages. Men, women, grandparents, and children, working side by side against the swelling tide of Australia's greatest river as it grew slowly out of control. Communities banded together in a massive human response-- the greatest peacetime mobilization of men and women working along the river's length for half a year. A voluntary military operation to build levee banks from anything they could find-- sandbags, tree stumps, cow bodies, using their bodies at times to stem the wildcat break out.
GIRL: In 1956, my uncle lived at Curlwaa and remembers picking oranges and grapefruit from boats. He had a big boat, in which he would go from the levee bank towing smaller boats, in which they would then climb into to go around the trees. His mom and a friend soon learned how not to go in circles.
WOMAN: I was 8 years old when the 1956 flood was on. When the flood was heading towards our house, my mother sent my step-father off to hire a truck to bring out all our furniture and possessions. Instead, he took the money and headed for the hotel.
MAN: Oh, I don't know. Well, I remember one incident was when we three blokes launched our boat with a valuable Aberdeen Angus bull tied on behind. And we were also trying to move 60 head of cattle across flooded creeks and the odd piece of dry land. Took us nearly all day to achieve that, but we did. My wife used to take the Fergie and drive across the paddocks to the back road to pick up any mail or bread. And the kids went by boat to a pickup point to go to school. They saw heaps of big brown snakes, and there were hundreds of rabbits and 'roos.
WOMAN: The cemetery being on the hill was our savior. It was like an island. My husband was the church sexton and helped with funerals. The minister would hold a little service before my husband and the undertaker would take a small rowboat towing the coffin across the large expanse of water. My husband had to dig the hole, and then go home and get dressed in his grey coat, and row over for the service, and then row back to the cemetery.
MAN: I was an Adelaide journalist. When I arrived, there was a great stretch of water in the whole valley. There were various plans to evacuate people, but it was a constant state of tension and alert. The remorseless Murray crept up the main street of Mannum to unimaginable heights. The river drove up drain pipes and exploded in geysers in streets. It was night that everybody dreaded, because the river would start to infiltrate. Some of the outer banks went, others nearly went, but were saved by the crash crew. They were the commando force, ready to be rushed to anywhere the bank had weakened and was ready to break. The river was sly and treacherous. I knew as the days passed and the river peaked and the fight was won, that I had been covering an epic of human endeavor, one I never forgot.
Reuse this media
Can you reuse this media without permission?No (with exceptions, see below)
Conditions of use
All rights reserved
This media item is licensed under "All rights reserved". You cannot share (i.e. copy, distribute, transmit) or rework (i.e. alter, transform, build upon) this item, or use it for commercial purposes without the permission of the copyright owner. However, an exception can be made if your intended use meets the "fair dealing" criteria. Uses that meet this criteria include research or study; criticism or review; parody or satire; reporting news; enabling a person with a disability to access material; or professional advice by a lawyer, patent attorney, or trademark attorney.
Attribution
Please acknowledge the item’s source, creator and title (where known)
Courtesy of Mildura Arts Centre and Murray Darling Environmental Foundation
Apricot Films
Writer: Mike O'Reilly
Editor: Phil Guerin
Research: Diana Byrne & Graham Downie
Re-edited extract: Sophie Boord
An initiative of the Murray-Darling Environmental Foundation and the Murray-Darling Association Inc
Film - 1956 Floods - Extract 3, Apricot Films, Mildura Arts Centre
Courtesy of Mildura Arts Centre and Murray Darling Environmental Foundation
Film - 1956 Floods - Extract 3, Apricot Films, Mildura Arts Centre
MAN 1 (VOICEOVER): Crossing the river with the ferry was very hazardous because of the debris, tree trunks, branches, boats, shacks, water tanks, petrol drums, anything. I had to stay operating so that motorists were able to get back to Cadell. The water was lapping the causeway by the time the last vehicle crossed. Then I was provided with a launch for future crossings. The Waikerie bank manager made the crossing once a week with his cash strong box and his pistol. On Sundays, up to five denominations of priests and ministers had to make the crossing. Luckily, they agreed to cross together, which assured me of my entry into heaven, if the worst should happen. The river eventually peaked at 31 feet at Cadell, and the ferry was out of commission for three months.
MAN 2 (VOICEOVER): I was nine years old. When the water started rising, all our household furniture and goods were placed on planks supported by 44 gallon drums. The flood waters rose to the roof of our house, but my aunt and uncle's new house collapsed from the force of the waves, which undermined the walls, and the timber and roof washed away in the flood waters.
These days, I'm an accountant, and I must have shown some aptitude in those early days, because when the tourists came, I charged them two shillings to row them down the main street of Mannum in one of my father's boats.
WOMAN 1 (VOICEOVER): My neighbor, who was the baker in Mannum during that time, often told his story. The local fire chief had come into the bakery and had said, there's been a break in the levee. And so he slipped on his knee boots, took two steps down, and found he was well up past his knees in flood waters. They had had yeast and dough all on trays as they were making buns. They just had to empty everything else out and let it float off in the water.
I do recall him saying that the Bottom Hotel had about eight feet of water through it, but the pub was operational. They would row the boat up to the top balcony where they had a hole cut in the railing and tie up their boat.
NARRATOR: The early high bravado of battle on the levees and community one-for-all spirit was coming to an end.
WOMAN 2 (VOICEOVER): After the flood subsided, there was very little government assistance. People that had been on the floodplain at Moorook at the packing shed were battling for some relief to rebuild. That's when everything got political. Who got what. Who got compensated. Who was in the paper. Who wasn't in the paper. All those things started to come out of the woodwork when people had had a chance to sit back and breathe and toss it all over. There was bitterness in every town over who did what and that sort of thing. For a time, I think the 1956 flood built up community spirit.
NARRATOR: Along the battered river's edge, recovery was slow. Houses and businesses were still in ruin, and small communities suffered from the inevitable stress of loss of property, stock, and cash. Incredibly, the death toll was said to be four lives. No one will ever know the full community cost, the early demise from tragic loss, the mental strain on families, but for wide-eyed youngsters sharing the adventure of driving a Fergie tractor, toiling with adults, it was a badge of courage, a rite of passage that helped make a stronger person.
Reuse this media
Can you reuse this media without permission?No (with exceptions, see below)
Conditions of use
All rights reserved
This media item is licensed under "All rights reserved". You cannot share (i.e. copy, distribute, transmit) or rework (i.e. alter, transform, build upon) this item, or use it for commercial purposes without the permission of the copyright owner. However, an exception can be made if your intended use meets the "fair dealing" criteria. Uses that meet this criteria include research or study; criticism or review; parody or satire; reporting news; enabling a person with a disability to access material; or professional advice by a lawyer, patent attorney, or trademark attorney.
Attribution
Please acknowledge the item’s source, creator and title (where known)
Courtesy of Mildura Arts Centre and Murray Darling Environmental Foundation
Apricot Films
Writer: Mike O'Reilly
Editor: Phil Guerin
Research: Diana Byrne & Graham Downie
Re-edited extract: Sophie Boord
An initiative of the Murray-Darling Environmental Foundation and the Murray-Darling Association Inc
Victorian Collections acknowledges the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and the traditional custodians of the lands
where we live, learn and work.
