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The 1909 Western Victorian floods consisted of widespread flooding on rivers of the western half of the State of Victoria during the middle of August that year.
With these moist conditions, it was natural that heavy rain in August would cause major flooding on the State's rivers, and a series of very slow-moving depressions naturally caused August to be very wet. As early as 11 August major flooding on the Richardson River at Donald was anticipated.
The third of four major depressions for the month arrived in western Victoria on the 17th and produced very heavy falls upon already-saturated catchments on flat land where water was not draining away quickly. As the slow-moving depression linked with warm air from the Tasman Sea, thunderstorms began to develop over the Wimmera region on the 18th. Rich Avon recorded 50mm (2 inches) from one of these whilst in the Great Divide there were reports that some areas had received as much as 100mm (4 inches) in as little as ''six hours''.
As a result of this heavy rain, many rivers rose to record or near-record levels. The
Meteorological background
Persistent above-average rainfall began to affect most of Victoria apart from eastern Gippsland in April 1909 as a result of strong southern low-pressure systems interacting with moisture in the Indian Ocean. Although April and May were moist, June was exceptionally wet, seeing in many places (e.g. Melbourne) a record number of rainy days for any month. The heavy June falls had already made the ground throughout Victoria very moist, and despite the fact that July rainfall was only above normal in the north of the State was of relatively little significance as evaporation was too low to dry the ground.The floods
With these moist conditions, it was natural that heavy rain in August would cause major flooding on the State's rivers, and a series of very slow-moving depressions naturally caused August to be very wet. As early as 11 August major flooding on the Richardson River at Donald was anticipated.
The third of four major depressions for the month arrived in western Victoria on the 17th and produced very heavy falls upon already-saturated catchments on flat land where water was not draining away quickly. As the slow-moving depression linked with warm air from the Tasman Sea, thunderstorms began to develop over the Wimmera region on the 18th. Rich Avon recorded 50mm (2 inches) from one of these whilst in the Great Divide there were reports that some areas had received as much as 100mm (4 inches) in as little as ''six hours''.
As a result of this heavy rain, many rivers rose to record or near-record levels. The Avoca River
The Avoca River, an inland intermittent river of the northcentral catchment, part of the Murray-Darling basin, is located in the lower Riverina bioregion and Central Highlands and Wimmera regions of the Australian state of Victoria. The head ...
rose above the top of sheds of farmhouses near its banks, as the Hopkins
Hopkins is an English, Welsh and Irish patronymic surname. The English name means "son of Hob". ''Hob'' was a diminutive of ''Robert'', itself deriving from the Germanic warrior name ''Hrod-berht'', translated as "renowned-fame". The Robert spell ...
and the Merri River near the coast. Further east, houses at Inglewood Inglewood may refer to:
Places
Australia
*Inglewood, Queensland
* Shire of Inglewood, Queensland, a former local government area
*Inglewood, South Australia
*Inglewood, Victoria
* Inglewood, Western Australia
Canada
* Inglewood, Ontario
*Inglewo ...
were swamped and many buildings were wrecked by the swollen Loddon River. In Donald itself, not only roads, but even footpaths were devastated as the Richardson River flooded the town to a level never seen before or since, eventually reaching normally-dry Lake Buloke
Lake Buloke is a eutrophic lake in the Wimmera region of north-western Victoria, Australia. The lake is fed by the Richardson River and is located adjacent to the township of . Lake Buloke is also one of the most popular duck shooting lakes in ...
. Near Geelong
Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in the southeastern Australian state of Victoria, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River, ...
, four people were drowned trying to cross the flooded Barwon River at Winchelsea.
The floods had a major impact upon agriculture in the region, with many crops in the Western District completely destroyed through being soaked - not only during the floods, but also before they reached their peak.''Terang Express'', 24 August 1909 Large numbers of sheep in the Western District were killed because of foot-rot due to the wet ground.
Unusually for floods in Australia, not only did the rivers recede rapidly but the excessively wet conditions of the autumn and winter that produced them gave way to much drier weather from September onwards so that a repeat was never remotely possible. Flooding during August 1909 also happened in South Australia, the northeast of Victoria and more northerly parts of the Murray-Darling Basin; however, these were not as unusual as those in the Wimmera and Western District.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:1909 Western Victorian Floods History of Victoria (Australia) Western Victorian floods Floods in Victoria (Australia) 1900s in Victoria (Australia) 1909 disasters in Australia