Deluge in Yass Valley

This week saw many areas of the Yass Valley flooded, and we sincerely hope that everyone, including stock, has survived unscathed.

There have been some terrific images of the flood shown on “The Yass Noticeboard” on Facebook, some of which were taken by drone. The images show the swollen Yass River threatening Cobblestone Cottage and breaching Riverbank Park. Other images show heavy rains gouging out large chunks of road and making low lying roads impassable.

There was also much talk on social media about previous floods, with some contending that the 1989 flood was the worst, and others arguing that the 1959 flood was the ultimate. We wondered flooding that occurred in Yass beyond living memory, and hunted around Trove to find the following:

June 1867: Rain began to fall steadily soon after sundown on Tuesday, and has continued with only brief intermissions to the time we are writing. During Wednesday night there was the heaviest downpour, and when the day broke on Thursday the Yass River was found to have overflowed its banks, and the water was within a few feet of the flooring of the Hume bridge. The river began to fall about 11 o'clock, from which it may be judged that there was less rain about Gundaroo than here. Mail communication was entirely cut off between the town and the neighbouring districts on Thursday night.

April 1870: News from Yass states that a flood commenced there early on Tuesday. The old bridge gave way and the debris lodging against the new iron structure was also destroyed. The water rose very rapidly until the greater portion of the town was submerged. Grosvenor's cottage, Robb's public house and the side of the Commercial Bank, were swept away during the day. Six houses on Mud Island also disappeared. The water rose to the roof of Douglas's public house and filled Rich's store, from which the stock was removed in a damaged condition. A large quantity of wheat was destroyed in Cotwell’s store. Barber’s mill was completely covered and with its – disappeared on Wednesday morning. The approaches to the town are entirely destroyed.

July 1900: After a very heavy fall of rain, snow fell to a depth of 4in. The river rose at a terrific rate, and is now nearly 8ft below the 1870 flood. Many people were rescued from their homes during the night. A number of people have barely escaped with their lives, leaving their furniture in the houses. Messrs Hayhow, Reedy, Reid, Rooney, Ordige, Morris, and Costley are among the largest sufferers.

Dec 1914: At the latter part of last week heavy rain fell at Yass. The main street was flooded. Water found its way into the town from the hills on the western side, and entered Cooma St., at various points. The iron gates at the Mechanics’ Institute were not strong enough to stand the weight of water, with the result that it entered the building, covering the ground floor to a depth of six in., and Way’s motor garage adjoining, out of which floated numerous tins of benzine. All the buildings at the lower end of the town suffered considerably. Every building on the western side of the street was damaged. The iron fence around the Royal Hotel was washed down, and the ground of the place was flooded.

May 1925: As the result of the heavy rains, Yass River was flooded and overflowed its banks, much damage being done to houses and property close to the watercourse. Nearly nine inches of rain were recorded during the past few days, and this is a record. No white man’s memory (reports the Yass Courier) goes back to a time when a greater rainfall took place in May.

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• Natural Disasters