They call them the one in a hundred because of their immensity and long turnaround.
The last one in 1890 was near the time when the property came into our hands.
A huge event that decided the location of the homestead, being the only dry ground.
There was an elevated sand ridge close by that was higher, that land was not in our ownership.
The year started like any other summers day after a slow January, getting back into routine of ground preparation for crops and normal grazing husbandry tasks
With Dad we inspected, purchased a second hand tractor and drove it home before the storm on the horizon made it too wet
.
The rain we received 2 inches [ 52 millimetres] would be handy for the cropping program.
Next day, the falls kept coming until we totaled nearly 6 inches [ 143 millimetres] in 24 hours.
More falls of rain were received in the catchments of the 6 creeks that emptied onto the flood plains of our country.
Following 2 days rain of 247 points [ 61 millimetres] fell.
We totaled, in 4 days, 819 points or a bit over 8 inches or todays metric measurement = 204 millimetres.Our long term average was 21 inches pa.
Then the sun came out, the rain event was over, UNTIL the swollen creeks produced what you see in the old pictures taken at the time.
Our homestead stayed out of water, not so lucky was the cottage that was inundated with 2 feet of water, as was the 10 day old car of the young couple that worked with me.
A wave, kilometres long rolled onto the place, taking some our livestock with it.
The diary entries notes Norm and Ann Carrigan and myself endeavours to locate stock that were somewhere over the inland sea.
The horses, we used mostly for work had gone missing, until I found them on foot some miles away on a dry ridge. They were not keen to go back through the water to home and even less keen to be ploughing through black mud and water.
Our horses were bogging down in the black mud so we borrowed our neighbour, Hector Jackson row boat and attempted to row [depth of around 2 feet on the flat and over 3 feet in the channels] across a normally dry black floodplain, not easy as neither of us could row in a straight line with the overland flow current.
We did after much effort and zig zaging reach our high sandy country to find the bulk of our stock, sheep and cattle, had instinctively managed to either swim or float to safe high ground.
Proof that nature left to its own devices does mostly look after its own
Our big neighbour was not so lucky, losing 13,000 sheep piled up against fences in a rotting summer heat needing to be raked off the tangled fencing.
Our telephone system of a party line [6075] between 5 or 6 properties remained intact for us all to keep contact, although contact with town central exchange had been cut.
Our number was 6075-A
'A' a morse code 'short and a long' was so we knew to pick up the phone as the call was for us.
Other neighbours had a different letter and hence a different ring. It was etiquette not to pick the phone up to listen on other business when the system was working properly.
Our staple diet of potatoes and some tinned stuff was getting repetitive was also getting low, so it was with some relief on the 20th we were able to get to town for fresh supplies and no doubt a cold beer. I note in my entry I did stay the night, probably at the pub.
Recovery of the many miles fences took many months to repair
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