OUR PAST: Maitland's Great 1893 Flood

To that time no flood had killed as many as the five who lost their lives in the Maitland area three others were drowned near Branxton and none had been so damaging to property and the local economy.

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).

It 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 rain event.

The flood reached a height almost a metre higher than had ever previously been measured at the Belmore Bridge gauge.

The debris load was great, the current fast and the rate of rise unusually rapid, and the damage done was considerable. The river's bank was eroded, houses and other buildings falling into the torrent, levees were overtopped and many dwellings deeply inundated. On the farms, livestock, sheds, outhouses and crops were swept away. Every house 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: several proprietors reckoned their losses in the hundreds of pounds. £100 in 1893 would be worth about $12,500 in 2020.

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 effort to protect belongings was made.

But the level reached defeated many efforts as is usually the case when floods break height records: people did not know how high to lift items to avoid them being inundated.

There were many rescues, the water brigades taking people off roofs and haystacks, and hundreds were given shelter in buildings like the Town Hall, the Mercury offices, the Salvation Army barracks and several hotels. Hundreds were made homeless, at least temporarily.

An appeal for relief funds was launched and committees were formed to allocate it to those who had lost belongings: such things were standard in Maitland floods in the late nineteenth century.

The three councils of the area (West Maitland, East Maitland and Morpeth) managed the cleaning up of the streets and the repair of roads, and railway lines also required mending. Much temporary employment was created, a boon especially to the farmers who could not work their land for weeks.

The 1893 flood became the 'benchmark' flood 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 were not high enough to keep out the flood of 1955 which exceeded the 1893 event by about 80 centimetres at the Belmore Bridge gauge.