Congratulations to Peter Woodley and the staff of the Maitland Library for the excellent presentation of the newly digitised version of Newsfront.
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It was a most enjoyable evening.
The newsreels of Maitland’s flood of February 1955 took our plight and our need for help to the rest of Australia and the world. Literally – we were on our knees in the mud.
Our two immediate needs of food and clothing were being looked after with plenty of tinned food at the Salvos and convoys of truck loads of clothing arriving for distribution from various depots.
We needed money and help to make our homes habitable again.
Many flood appeals were opened and when the newsreels were shown in Britain.
The UK government responded with a donation of £250,000, sterling.
William Dobell donated a painting to be raffled.
We found out that Australia was a land of good Samaritans.
The miners were first in, wading through water-filled streets to find houses just free of water and quickly shovelling out the mud.
In the weekends after the flood, truckloads of tradesmen and helpers arrived from Newcastle to help where they could.
Police blockades ensured sightseers were sent back home.
The owner of a hardware shop in Newcastle had a carpenter working in his shop. The carpenter was told not to come to work on Monday but to take the work truck and his tools and get up to Maitland and help wherever he could.
The shopkeeper paid the carpenter’s wages while he was in Maitland.
As the word spread of our plight and people began to get organised, they came to help from further afield.
Water and electricity do not mix and our home in Horseshoe Bend had water in the ceiling and was completely rewired by a group of electricians from Wollongong.
Much of the help we received came from the newsreels of our plight.
- Peter Bogan, East Maitland
