Flood - July 29 1987

These photographs were taken by the City of Berwick on July 29 1987

Beaconsfield Park showing the flooded Cardinia Creek. The Beaconsfield Park sign was erected in 1939 and refurbished and reinstalled in 2011 (it was then stolen and a new sign was made. I believe the old sign has just been found and that specific people living locally are 'helping police with their enquiries' )

Beaconsfield Upper Road

Beaconsfield - end of Adamson Street, looking west over Cardinia Creek and the Edrington property

Beaconsfield - Soldiers Road, north up the Cardinia Creek.

Hallam - Eumemmerring Creek looking east from end of George Avenue. 

Hallam - Eumemmerring Creek looking west from end of George Avenue.

Hallam - Gunns Road looking north to James Cook Drive and Hallam North Road. The photos were labelled in red texta, which was good as we know what they are, but the downside is that the texta has marked other photos. 

Hallam Road North looking west.

Hallam Road North looking south west.

Hallam Road North looking south to Belgrave-Hallam Road

Hallam Road North, Eumemmerring Creek looking east.

Hallam Road South, east side, looking south to the Railway line. Hallam Station is on the far right

Hallam Road South, east side, looking south to the railway line. This adjoins the photo above,

Ovals near Fountain Gate Shopping Centre and the retarding basin.

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Vervale

This is our 100^th blog post and I thought that I would tell you all about Vervale, which is where I grew up. Vervale is a locality surrounded by Cora Lynn, Iona and Garfield on the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp and I feel it must be the least known town in both Casey and Cardinia. The Shire of Berwick Rate Books give us some idea of the development of Vervale. Ratepayers in the area were listed as living in Cora Lynn or Iona until 1916 when some of these same rate payers had Clarke’s Post Office as their address. This had changed to Vervale in 1917. Vervale was first written as Vere Vale. Vervale means “green valley”.

Vervale doesn't have any Churches. Until around 1960 Methodist and Presbyterian Services were held on alternate Sundays at the Cora Lynn Hall, or Presbyterians could attend the Iona Presbyterian Church. Catholics could attend St Josephs Church at Iona and those of the Methodist and Anglican faiths could attend Churches in Garfield. There were no Vervale sporting teams – you had to go to either Cora Lynn or Garfield to play sport.

Vervale Post Office, 1967. ( Image no.B5919/2186). 
 From the collection on the National Archives of Australia website.

What Vervale did have was a General store and Post Office, established in 1907 by J. Kirwan. According to the Shire of Berwick Rate Books it was sold to James & Edith McMannis in 1916. They had the store until the mid to late 1960s. Vervale also had a State School, and although it had three names it was never called Vervale. State School No. 3201 was established in 1894 as Koo-Wee-Rup North School, changed it’s name in 1899 to Bunyip South and changed it’s name again in 1905 to Iona. The School closed December 1993.

However, Vervale does have one claim to fame as it was the first place in Victoria in which asparagus was commercially grown. Thomas Roxburgh, who was a Shipping Agent, planted the first commercial crop of asparagus at his farm Cheriton Park, though locally it was referred to as Roxburgh Park. The earliest reference I can find to this planting is an article in The Argus from May 8, 1912 where it is reported that he had nine acres of asparagus planted. By the 1930’s the major commercial asparagus production area in Victoria was the Koo Wee Rup and Dalmore area. Soon after, this area was to become the largest asparagus producing area in Australia. There was an interview in the Pakenham Gazette of December 8, 1999 with Bill Roxburgh, the grandson of Thomas. In the interview Bill talks about how his grandfather, who owned 300 acres, had planted all different kinds of trees on a five acre section of his land and had built his own park to relax in.

Some of the remaining trees planted by Thomas Roxburgh at Cheriton Park, on the corner of Fallon Road and Simpson Road in Vervale.

Image: Heather Arnold

As I said before, Vervale means green valley, which is a bit of a misnomer as, like the rest of the Swamp, if is very flat and prone to flooding. My grandfather, James Rouse, took up 56 acres on Murray Road in Cora Lynn in 1903 and in 1913 also purchased land on the corner of Main Drain Road and Dessent Road, which is now owned by my parents and the following pictures show this property under some of the many floods to hit the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp.

Corner of Main Drain Road and Dessent Road, under flood, in 1937.

Image: Rouse family collection. 

Corner of Main Drain Road and Dessent Road, under flood, in 1958. 

Image: Rouse family collection. 

Corner of Main Drain Road and Dessent Road, under flood, in 1990. The original house in the previous two pictures has been demolished and a new house built plus some potato sheds.

Image: Taken by a Pakenham Gazette photographer.  Rouse family collection. 

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The 1934 Flood

It is 75 years since the worst flood on record hit the Koo-Wee-Rup Swamp on December 1, 1934. The original Drainage works on the Swamp were completed in 1897 but later floods in 1901, 1911, 1923 and 1924 saw extra drainage work undertaken including the widening of the Main Drain and additional side drains. None of these works protected the Swamp against the big flood of 1934. 

Cora Lynn in an early flood, perhaps in the 1910s. The building on the right is the E.S.& A bank and the building in the middle is Murdoch's General Store.

Image: Rouse Family collection

There had been above average rainfall in the October and November and more heavy rain fell across the State on December 1. This rainfall caused a flood of over 100,000 megalitres or 40,000 cusecs (cubic feet per second) across the Swamp and this was only an estimate because all the gauges were washed away. The entire Swamp was inundated; water was over six feet deep (1.8metres) in parts of the Koo-Wee-Rup township. At Cora Lynn, three feet of water (about a metre) went through my grandparent’s house in Murray Road. The family, including the four children aged 11, 5, 3 and nearly 1, had to retreat to the roof. This flood also affected other parts of the State, for instance, it was reported in The Argus that there was four feet (120 cm) of water over parts of the Princes Highway between Dandenong and Berwick. Over a thousand people were left homeless as a result. The Koo-Wee-Rup locals were just recovering from this flood when another flood of about 24 000 cusecs hit in April 1935.

Rossiter Road in Koo-Wee-Rup in the 1934 flood. The photograph was taken just near the Railway line, the building on the right is St George's Anglican Church.

Image: Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society

As a result of the 1934 flood, the State Rivers and Water Supply Commission (SRWSC) worked on new drainage plans for the Swamp and these plans became known as the Lupson Report after the complier, E.J Lupson, an Engineer. A Royal Commission was also established in 1936. Its role was to investigate the operation of the SRWSC. The Royal Commission report was critical of the SRWSC’s operation in the Koo-Wee-Rup Flood Protection District in a number of areas. It ordered that new plans for drainage improvements needed to be established and presented to an independent authority. Mr E. G Richie was appointed as the independent authority. The Richie Report essentially considered that the Lupson Report was “sound and well considered” and should be implemented. Work had just begun on these recommendations when the 1937 flood hit the area. The 1937 flood hit Koo-Wee-Rup on October 18^th and water was 60cm (2ft) deep in Rossiter Road and Station Street. The flood peaked at 20,000 cusecs (50,000 megalitres) about half the 1934 flood volume.

Station Street, Koo-Wee-Rup, during the 1934 flood.

Image: Koo Wee Rup Swamp Historical Society

The main recommendation of the Lupson / Ritchie report was the construction of the Yallock outfall drain from Cora Lynn, cutting across to Bayles and then essentially following the line of the existing Yallock Creek to Western Port Bay. The aim was to take any flood water directly to the sea so the Main Drain could cope with the remaining water. The Yallock outfall drain was started in 1939 but the works were put on hold during the Second World War and not completed until 1956-57. The Yallock outfall drain had been originally designed using the existing farm land as a spillway i.e the Main Drain would overflow onto existing farmland and then find its own way to the Yallock outfall drain. Local farmers were unhappy at this, as the total designated spillway area was 275 acres (110 hectares). They suggested a spillway or ford be constructed at Cora Lynn so the flood water would divert to the outfall drain over the spillway. The spillway was finally constructed in 1962, though ironically its opening was delayed by yet another flood, as we can see in the photograph below.

This photograph was taken by my Uncle, Jim Rouse, in October 1962, before the official opening of the Cora Lynn spillway. The building, with the brown coloured roof, is the Cora Lynn Hall. The other buildings you can see in the background are the same as the ones on the other Cora Lynn photograph at the top of this post - the E.S.& A Bank and the general store, then Dillon's store. The road at the top left is the newly constructed spillway and you can see where flood waters have broken through the Main Drain bank and are spilling across it.

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