THE ARARAT region has had its fair share of floods over the past 160 years, but none as damaging as the floods of February 1899.<\/p>\n
Rain started on the night of Saturday, February 26 and continued until daylight the following day, dumping 17.7 inches on Ararat.<\/p>\n
Three Mile Creek was running full on the Sunday as was the Hopkins River and dams were filled.<\/p>\n
Green Hill Lake, which had been dry, was full within 24 hours.<\/p>\n
Sultry weather culminated in a tremendous storm in early 1897. Three inches of rain fell within two hours and roads were submerged in many places.<\/p>\n
Several bridges were destroyed, and the Hopkins River was flowing over a mile wide at Ararat racecourse.<\/p>\n
Damage was initially underestimated, and it soon became clear that it was worse than first thought.<\/p>\n
Fenton\u2019s bridge at Moyston, one at Warrack (Robertson\u2019s) and one over the Hopkins at Maroona were swept away and many others badly damaged.<\/p>\n
So great was the downpour that Green Hill Lake, which hadn\u2019t overflowed for two years, and which was dry on the Friday night at seven o\u2019clock, was overflowing at 11 o\u2019clock.<\/p>\n
Many vineyards at Rhymney were damaged by surface soil being carried away and some orchards at Jallukar and Moyston were damaged; scores of miles of fencing and some sheep lost.<\/p>\n
In total contrast, conditions were extremely dry around Ararat in late 1905 and early 1906. The long spell of dry weather broke on March 11, 1906, when a torrential downpour caused disastrous floods.<\/p>\n
The weather had been unusually sultry for several days before a thunderstorm accompanied by lightning hit the area and five inches of rain fell in 12 hours.<\/p>\n
It was the heaviest fall since the great flood of 1898 when 4.96 inches fell in 30 hours.<\/p>\n
A great deal of damage was caused in town with the rain finding its way into many businesses and private homes in the lower pasts of the town.<\/p>\n
William Bates\u2019 house in View Point Street was inundated with three feet of water.<\/p>\n
Several bridges and culverts were washed out, particularly those over the south stormwater channel in Vincent and Queen streets, on the Avoca road near the cemetery, and one on the Tatyoon road at White Patch.<\/p>\n
The high brick wall surrounding Aradale was breached on the south-west side for more than 65 metres.<\/p>\n
At Denicull Creek the bridge was badly damaged and there was so much water on the flat that the Cathcart Proprietary Company mine manager made his men come up above ground.<\/p>\n
All the rivers and creeks were in high flood with the Hopkins bursting its banks near Green Hill and inundating the racecourse. Fences were swept away in various spots.<\/p>\n
Almost two inches of rain fell in September 1894. Creeks were flooded and Crowland\u2019s bridge carried away.<\/p>\n
Ararat racecourse and a large area of adjoining land were under water.<\/p>\n
The sludge channel in the main street collapsed and carried away the footpath.<\/p>\n
Kate Derrick fell in and was pulled to safety by her husband, Henry with difficulty owing to the force of the water.<\/p>\n
Floods hit twice in 1904. On July 18, a total of 16.5mm was recorded.<\/p>\n
The steady downpour caused a flood in the Hopkins and the racecourse was submerged under water.<\/p>\n
Only a month later, a similar total fell, flowing low lying country on the banks of the Hopkins, Wimmera and Little Wimmera.<\/p>\n
Thirty-two millimetres of rain were registered in early August 1909.<\/p>\n
As flood water receded, extensive destruction property became apparent. In the Ararat shire, the approaches to about twenty bridges were swept away while four bridges were destroyed.<\/p>\n
The bridge over the Hopkins River near the racecourse was swept away while the road was considerably damaged.<\/p>\n
Several chains of the embankment at Green Hill Lake were destroyed and it wasn\u2019t long before the lake drained.<\/p>\n
Water was 12 inches (or a foot) deep in Mr Larkin\u2019s house on the Buangor road. The Larkins were so frightened that they attempt to reach Ararat but couldn\u2019t because of the state of the road.<\/p>\n
At Moyston 4.5 inches were registered from Wednesday night until 9am Friday. Miles of fencing was washed away and the approaches to several bridges were badly scoured.<\/p>\n
The dam at the Moyston school gave way under the pressure of the water.<\/p>\n
Willaura was hit by floods in February 1911. Rain came down in torrents and it wasn\u2019t long before the big storm water channels on either side of the town were like a roaring sea.<\/p>\n
The channels were too small to carry away the surging current, which brought with it all kinds of timber; consequently, all the low-lying lands in the vicinity were inundated and several houses flooded.<\/p>\n
In Ararat, several Barkly Street businesses were partly flooded.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of sheep perished in floods at Middle Creek and Buangor in August 1924 when 2.5 inches of rail fell, causing floods in the Little Wimmera and Hopkins rivers.<\/p>\n
Farmers were unable to move stock to higher ground in time before flood waters hit.<\/p>\n
Roads in the vicinity were significantly damaged and fencing brought down.<\/p>\n
The countryside around the Buangor Primary School was entirely covered with a sea of water up to five feet deep in places. Students had to be shepherded across the deeper flooded portions by residents on horseback to enable them to reach their homes.<\/p>\n
On the flats towards Langi Logan a sea of water extended in all directions, and traffic on the Ararat road was stopped.<\/p>\n
Almost four inches of rain was recorded.<\/p>\n
Bridges were washed away, and many sheep were drowned in the Ararat district in a storm when five inches of rain fell in early March 1931.<\/p>\n
A cloudburst over Mount Cole and Langi Ghiran followed a thunderstorm which began early in the afternoon.<\/p>\n
Motorists travelling from Ararat to Beaufort were in danger from the flooded state of the roads, which saw up to two feet (or 24 inches) of water across some roads.<\/p>\n
The road from Middle Creek to the Ararat side of Dobie was one sheet of water and floating logs of wood and debris.<\/p>\n
Dozens of cars were delayed on the other side of Dobie.<\/p>\n
Two elderly men and a woman were marooned on a log in the fast-running Hopkins River at Dobie, and three constables went out with ropes and were able to rescue them.<\/p>\n
Grape crops were stripped and at Dobie, railway residences were submerged, and miles of fencing lost.<\/p>\n
Hundreds of dead sheep were strewn along the banks of the Hopkins River.<\/p>\n
Up to five inches of rain fell in some parts of the district in a tropical downpour in February 1947.<\/p>\n
Heaviest falls were in the Moyston and Rocky Point district where floods spread over the flat country, carrying debris and fencing with them.<\/p>\n
A substantial timber and stone bridge on the Moyston road 11 kilometres from Ararat collapsed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE ARARAT region has had its fair share of floods over the past 160 years, but none as damaging as the floods of February 1899. Rain started on the night of Saturday, February 26 and continued until daylight the following day, dumping 17.7 inches on Ararat. Three Mile Creek was running full on the Sunday […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-5d","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}