1858 Flood

From: Local Intellegence: The Late Flood, The North Australian, Ipswich and General Advertiser, Tuesday 12 October 1858, p.3

THE LATE FLOOD

On the evening of Monday, the 4th instant, the rain set in with renewed violence form the east, continuing throughout the night.  On Tuesday was a succession of heavy showers, but in the evening the rain fell in torrents, and continued during the whole night.  About nightfall the Bremer was observered to be rising, and during the night the goods in the sheds on the wharves of Messrs. Towns and Co., Walter Gray and Co., and Mr. Boyland were removed on baord the steamers Breadalbane and Hawk.  At one o'clock on Wednesday morning the water had covered the wharves, having risen about sixteen feet, and about ten o'clock, the roof of Messrs. Gray and Co. shed was obervered to break up, and shortly after, that on the wharf of Messrs. Towns and Co.  About 2pm the flood appeared to be stationary, and it gradually subsuded some four or five feet.  The Hawk steamer left soon after three o'clock, for Brisbane, but the Breadalbane remained at anchor, with her steam up, and wraped out of the force of the current.  During Wednesday night the rain was heavy and incessant, and on Thursday morning the shed on Mr. Boyland's wharf was swept away, the flood, having risen during the night some ten or twelve feet, the back water extending to the causeway in Brisbane Street.

 

The water rose sixteen to seventeen feet abouve the bridge at Little Ipswich and extended up to near the corner of Malmesbury House, a large lake being formed in the hollows below, which nearly converted a large part of the river bank into an island.  The river abated during the morning of Thursday, and the water gradually fell until about one o'clock on Friday afternoon, when the downard current was arrested by the rising of the Brisbane, and hte Bremer rose again about two feet.  The bridge across the Bremer was passable on Friday morning, the water being then about five feet below the platform.  The bridge had sustained no other damage than the loss of about one-half the parapet-railing on the east end, from the large quantity of drift wood arrested by it forming a partial dam; and the removal of some of the material forming the roadway at hte eastern foot of the bridge.  From the large quantity of drift wood intercepted by the piles on which the bridge is built, it is evident that a larger space for water-way should have been left.

 

ACCIDENTS DURING THE FLOOD

On Wednesday, about 2pm, Mr Marsden, painter, went into the Bremer, from below the Catholic Church, with the professed intention of having a swim.  The river was running with great force, about fifteen feet above its ordinary level.  He continued his course down the river until opposite the end of East Street, when he made for a wra[ from the Breadalbane steamer, whch was made fast on the north bank, and clinging to it, called for assistance, saying that he was tired.  While on the rope, the steamer receded and advanced, and the men on board not having had presence of mind enough to have kept the wrap taut, he was completely immersed three times successively; the last time the rope tightened, his hands were seen grasping it with his head beneath the water, when he let go his hold, and his body was observered to pass the steamer's bow.  It never rose again.  A boat from the steamer was coming ashore at the time, and, after landing her passangers, returned to afford assistance, but too late, nothing  could exceed the culpable apathy and neglect of the ferryman, who must have seen the unfortunate man struggling for his life, and having a boat at hand that would live in the ocean, never made the slightest effort to reder assistance.  The melancholy catastrophe was withnessed by many persons who had been attracted to the vicinity by the flooded state of the river.  The deceased had been resident but a short itme in Brisbane, and was formerly, we understand, in the East India Company's service, in which he had recieved a sabre wound on the head, from the effects of which he occasionally suffered from mental excitement.  His habits had been latterly somewhat irregular, and only two hours before his death he was observered by a friend, on whom he called, to be apparently suffering from exhaustion.  He appears to have been an excellent swimmer, and it is most probably that hte excessive cold of the flood-water acting on impaired health subjected him to an attack of Cramp.  His boy has not yet been found.  On friday morning, a person name John Hugh was accidentally drowned while engaged in rafting timber, near the Pine Mountain.  On Thursday a man in the emply of Messrs. Richardson and Somerset, of Brisbane, was drowned in attempting to secure a raft of timber near Kangaroo Point.

Messrs. Gray and Co. have sustained very considerable loss from the effects of the flood at their coal mine on the Bremer.  The whole of the workings are filled with water, which it will take some seven or eight weeks to remove.  The tramway has been broken up, and the works must be suspended for a very considerable period.  At the stores of Messrs. Moffatt and Co. and the Warrel boiling establishment, a quantity of goods, including some tons of flour, have been injured or destroyed, and the shed on the wharf at the latter place has been removed.  The bridge in course of erection at Laidley Creek sustained some damage, the framing of the top having been displaced.  From McKeons the Western Creek overflowed its banks, inundating all the flat country along this road to whithin six miles of Ipswich, and a large quantity of fencing along the line from the angle of the Rosewood Scrub to the Seven-Mile Creek has been washed away.  Bundamba bridge was covered by water about two feet above the side railing, and the road to Brisbane stopped for some hours on Wednesday.  We learn that the flood at Normandy Plains was almost as extensive as that of 1841.  Nothing but the absence of a fresh in the Brisbane prevented the most calamitous consequences to Ipswich, as the water rose even opposite Woodend some six feet higher than during the flood of May 1857.