A BRISBANE FLOOD

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21747, 1 April 1936, Page 5

A BRISBANE FLOOD

TO THE EDITOR. OF THE PRESS. Sir, —In response to the request of "Curious," as I was in Brisbane at the time, and familiar with all the (circumstances, I have pleasure in supplying the following information. The great flood took place on February 2, & and 4, 1893, the water rising to 30ft 4in above standard low water at Brisbane, and the following were some of the results. The steamer Elamang, of about 900 tons, the gunboat Gayunda, and a coal hulk, were landed in the Botanical Gardens, a 450-ton hopper barge, Bonito. was landed in a sugar-cane field at Bulimba Point, and the excursion steamer, Natone, about 100 feet long was floated some way inland below, the Hamilton. The Victoria traffic bridge, connecting north and south Brisbane, was carried away by the undermining of the concrete piers supporting it, the Indoorapilly railway bridge was destroyed in a similar manner, a considerable part of the business area of the city was submerged, and much other damage was done, as may well be imagined. Although this flood rose only 30 feet 4 inches above low water, or say 22 feet above high spring tide level at Brisbane, the rise higher up the river was much greater, 94 feet 10 inches in Ipswich. 47 miles up. A. second large flood occurred on February 16, 17, and 18, the same year, and rose to 29 feet 6 inches, floating off the Elamang and Gayunda. but the coal hulk was broken up, as not worth the cost of launching. The Bonito and Natone had to be dragged to the water and launched.

The immediate cause of the flood of February 4 was a rainfall averaging 4.4 inches in about four days over the watershed of 5200 square miles. The maximum discharge was computed at 400,000 cubic feet per second, though this has been deemed an exaggeration by some later engineers, who were not there to measure it. —Yours, etc., *

CYRUS J. R. WILLIAMS March 31, 1936.