Maitland's 1913 flood had major impacts on the community

The floods of 1893 and 1949 rank next: these are the other 'great floods' of Maitland's history as is implied by their peak heights being recorded like 1955's on a wall at the Maitland Railway Station.

Then come a number of others including those of 1870, 1913, 1930, 1952 and 1971 which can be thought of as being in the third rank of Maitland's historical floods.

The flood of May, 1913 peaked at the Belmore Bridge at 37 feet or, in today's metric, 11.09 metres.

At its peak it was fully a metre lower than the level reached in 1955. Nevertheless it had substantial impacts on the community, not only in Maitland itself but also in communities upstream and down.

The 111th anniversary of the peak falls next week, on 16 May.

The 1913 flood resulted, unusually, from rainfall that was catchment-wide. Most Hunter floods come from heavy rains over only some of the sub-catchments of the valley.

Interestingly, this flood was less consequential in terms of damage done than the 1949 flood which peaked somewhat lower at 10.96 metres at the Belmore Bridge. This indicates that damage and loss are not simply functions of peak height: many other factors are involved including flow velocities, time of year, debris loads and the effectiveness of community responses.

Several embankment failures occurred in 2013: this was the norm in significant floods until the modern era of well-engineered levees and spillways.

What is now known as the Oakhampton floodway, a former path of the river crossed by the Long Bridge and at the time intensively farmed, saw great damage to crops, farmhouses and farm sheds as the river reclaimed its old course. Louth Park also suffered badly, thanks to flooding on Wallis and Fishery creeks as well as from water from the main stem of the Hunter River via Oakhampton.

There were embankment breaches between Mount Pleasant Street and Horseshoe Bend too. South Maitland was hard hit, as were Devonshire St and the other streets running south of High Street. Some low-set dwellings were inundated almost to their rafters.

Efforts were made by the Maitland Borough Council to shore up the embankment along the river parallel to High St, and there was much neighbourhood-level resident activity involving the relocation of furniture and other household items by horse and dray especially to East Maitland.

Items were lifted within dwellings too. By this time the people of Maitland were used to undertaking property-protecting endeavours as floods approached.

Probably no houses were completely destroyed in 1913, and there was only a single death: a man drowned at Brisbanefield when his sulky was overturned by floodwater. There was a near miss at Oakhampton, where a patrolling boat capsized. Its crew were rescued near the Long Bridge.

The 1913 flood was significant in Maitland, merely less so than those of 1893, 1949 and 1955.