Introduction
In December 2003 the City of Darebin was hit by the “worst storm in 100 years”. While the whole of metropolitan Melbourne was affected, areas within Darebin were the worst hit with people’s homes, schools and businesses, severely damaged and even devastated by flooding.
Residents described the Fairfield shopping strip in particular as “looking like a war zone” on the morning following the floods. The street was strewn with broken glass, debris and spoilt stock. People were wandering around shocked and in a dazed state. In the aftermath of the crisis people had to deal with the stress of financial and emotional loss leading the experience of grief for many.
In the weeks following the floods a group of City of Darebin officers got together to talk about the collective community spirit they observed during this time and the willingness of residents to support each other in the face of adversity.
These officers had been closely involved in supporting people affected by the crisis and some were themselves flood affected residents.
Out of this grew the ‘After the Deluge Project.’ Its aims were to utilise artistic expression and to develop and promote the emerging community spirit brought on by shared adversity and the need to rebuild after the floods. The project would allow members of the community to express their hopes and fears and help them come to terms with their changed lives.
Funds were sourced from the Department of Human Services to bring about the project. Two project officers were appointed and after extensive community consultation it was decided to produce a CD ROM and booklet which would feature stories, news items, anecdotes, and artwork about people’s experiences of the floods.
Facts
- The floods of December 2003 affected 4000 – 7000 homes in Darebin
- Flooding began in the evening of Tuesday 2 December when approximately 100 mls of rain fell in a 2 hour period in the Darebin area.
- The worst affected areas within Darebin were Fairfield and Thornbury with all parts of the municipality affected in varying degrees.
- By 6.30 am on the morning of December 3, Northcote State Emergency Service had logged about 650 calls for emergency assistance, compared with Doncaster (280 calls) and Nunawading (350 calls).
- 1600 emergency grants were made to households in Darebin.
After the deluge words
“The night of the storm and the next morning… ”
I didn’t hear the storm as I had just come out of hospital and still had my hearing aids out! When I woke up in the morning I didn’t believe what was on my front verandah, mud, sticks, garbage bins and all my pot plants had been washed away to the backyard.
Our street turned into a river. Outside our front door looked like the water wall at the National Gallery.
There was one foot of water coming down High Street, and great masses of stone and mud coming with it.
The water was one inch from coming into my house.
Next door to me was like a swimming pool.
The man next door had a garage under his house and a sloping driveway. It went up to the ceilings in his place. You could have dived into the water it was so deep.
I’ve never seen anything like it. Flash, flash, flash! When it rains now I think, “How heavy is it? Will it flood?” I always go out and check the gutter.
During the storm I was scared, I was terrified.
The guttering couldn’t hold all the water. There was water dripping from my ceiling light.
I had about seven buckets out to catch water that was coming into the house.
My skylight filled up with water and shattered.
I had a big mess to clean up. The fernery and the front verandah had so much stuff on it, my daughter cleaned four buckets of stuff off the verandah.
The newsagents shop was almost washed away…the lady in the bookshop was heartbroken. The fruit shops were all wrecked…there were vegetables floating down the street.
Sue’s story
I woke up from the sheer noise of the storm.
It was so dramatic I got the girls up so they could experience it.
We brought the dog and cat inside.
We had the two girls and me all in bed and eventually we fell asleep.
Then later I was woken by a woman’s voice calling for help. The storm had stopped and everything else was quiet except those cries of “Help! Help!” I went outside and saw a car sinking in what looked like a lake and the woman was trapped inside.
Near our house there is a dip in the road, which had completely flooded, and some cars were still trying to get through. I ran through the water towards the woman in my nightie and then realised that others had arrived to help her and what was I doing out there in my nightie anyway! After that some of us neighbours got together and put a barricade of rubbish bins across the road to stop more cars getting into trouble and tried to flag down approaching cars.
The most amazing thing was when we tried to flag down a truck. The driver decided to ignore us. I suppose he through he could make it in his truck.
We all had to get out of his way in a hurry and I could see what was going to happen.
Sure enough, the wave he made caused a lot more damage to surrounding houses, – I saw a neighbour’s fence collapse completely as the wave hit and disappear under the water.
I yelled at my kids to get back into the house and slammed the door when the wave came down the road.
As the night wore on the water rose higher. This is when a lot of houses filled up with water. I saw someone come out of his house carrying the dog above his head. This was after the storm but the water had banked up somewhere and was flowing down our street like a river. My house was higher than most, like an island in a lake. I made the kids stay in the yard because of all the debris that was floating around. Some of it was really big and heavy. Also it was rubbish night so there was rubbish and floating bins everywhere.
I went to see the next door neighbour who were worse affected and up all night moving stuff and told them my house was dry inside and open to them if they needed to rest on the sofa or to make a cup of coffee. I left the door open after the girls and I went back to bed.
People were all checking on their neighbours so, overall in Darebin, I don’t think too many people would have been ignored and left to face things totally alone.
In a funny way I felt guilty that although we had a heap of rubbish to clean up in the yard, at least our house was OK.
The next day everything looked surreal.
Children
“One good thing that has happened was that we got new couches. Our old couches had been scratched by our cats.
Another good thing was that the floods cleaned some of our stuff.
We didn’t have to do the dishes they got washed in the flood.
We had an indoor swimming pool.
The floods showed that if we stick together and help each other we can get through it.
We hardly knew the man across the road, but he carried Mitchell across the water.
I saw my old friend Karl. I hadn’t seen him since I was five. He helped us to shut the door against all the water. We’re friends again now.
Another good thing that happened is I met a girl from down the street called Ruby and I’m still friends with her now.
One bad thing was that all my fish swam away and my guinea pigs drowned. My cat didn’t like the flood.
My friend’s dog got left outside and when the flood came under the dog was washed under the house and the dog paddled under there for two hours until he was found.
The funniest thing was that I slept through the whole thing, lucky I was in a top bunk.
My mum fell down into a drain during the flood but she held up her car keys and her mobile out of the water.
Our dad was outside taking photos of hail stones the size of golf balls.
We made Dad go out in the storm to rescue the guinea pigs. We watched through the windows. The hail stones were huge.
My dad went down the street to complain in the morning because his paper hadn’t been delivered. Then he saw that the newsagency had been wrecked so he didn’t complain.
I woke up because of the noise and saw my bedroom window crack and water start to come in. I said a swear word!
My little brother was screaming and jumping up and down on the top bunk and nearly fell off until my parents came and rescued him.
Now my brother gets scared when it rains.
Some older kids were using big buckets as boats and tried to float down the street.
There was a tree full of bats in our yard and when the tree fell down in the storm, the bats moved next door. So now the bats are the neighbour’s new problem.
People’s mums made hampers of food for neighbours, my mum fed people chocolate to keep their energy while they were cleaning up the mess.
Our chickens were all drowned which was sad.
Our neighbour had a special rabbit with large ears, well known in the neighbourhood. It was never seen again.
It was good that people didn’t drown, and my dog was safe and I didn’t have to fill his water bowl.”
