Great Flood of 1851

FROM ‘'THE BORDER WATCH’ NEWSPAPER, MT GAMBIER, S.A. 24 JULY
1926:

COLONIST FOR 75 YEARS - DEATH OF MR R.D. WILKE
CLOSE OF USEFUL CAREER

The death occurred at his residence, Port MacDonnell on
Thursday of Mr Rudolph Daniel Wilke, who had lived at Port
MacDonnell since 1876. Mr Wilke was 81 years of age, and had
led an active life, his chief business being that of a bark
merchant. Mr Wilke possessed a retentive memory, and was an
interesting conversationalist. Recounting his career a few
days prior to the “Back to Mount Gambier” celebrations he told
a representative of this paper that he left his native land
with his family on October 15, 1849 and arrived in Holdfast
Bay on March 23, 1850.

“I was awakened one morning by my parents”, said Mr Wilke, “to
find a boat alongside our ship. There were two men in it, and
they had bread and watermelons. We thought these made a great
feast, especially after five months of ship's diet. It was
good to taste fresh bread and the water melons, and we all
thought we had arrived at the land of plenty, which I have
found to be true since I have lived in Australia.

The morning we anchored in Port Adelaide the captain ordered
out the boats, and the sailors got into these and pulled the
300-ton sailing vessel up the Port River. What a comparison
with present day methods!

My family and another family at Port Adelaide hired a bullock
waggon and drove to Ackland St. Adelaide, arriving there about
ten o'clock the same night, after being about five hours on
the trip.

We lived only about fifty yards from the “Old Seven Stars” in
Angas Street and at the time there were only one or two places
about Halifax Street in that neighbourhood. All about was
timber. There was plenty of fire wood but a nuisance and
expense was the fact that we had to purchase water from the
Torrens at 1/- a cask. My father found employment as a wool
classer at the firm of Taylor Bros. fellmongers, at Hindmarsh
at a wage of 6/- a week, and we then removed to Hindmarsh, and
lived close to All Saints Church.

In 1851, when the Torrens over-flowed its banks, all the
gullies around Hindmarsh were deply filled with the flood
waters. Our house, like many others, was built on the side of
slopes, the back portion being two storeys.
In that year the whole of the back of the house was under
water to the depth of ten feet, and for three months we could
not use those rooms. In order to enable the men to go to their
work, it was necessary to suspend ropes across the gully, and
buckets were attached to these, in which the men pulled
themselves over the flood waters. The people were chiefly
engaged as tanners or fellmongers.

The wages as you have seen, were small. My father was the only
wool classer in the colony at the time. He received 6/- a week
during the summer and 5/- a week during winter. My parents had
to pay 5/- a week for rent, and since four of the children
went to school, the charge being 1/- a week it was not easy to
make ends meet, but even so we kept out of debt.
I went to school at an institution conducted by a Mr Moody,
the site now being that of Hindmarsh Oval, and after leaving
that district, I went to Chamber's School at Bowden.
That school was closed for a time because the son of the
principal was drowned at the wreck of the “Admella” in 1859.

I remember in 1852 and 1854 bands of Chinese landing at Port
Adelaide preparatory to go to the gold fields (diggings) in
Victoria. We used to go down to watch them fishing in the Port
River. The fish were dried and packed prior to their overland
trip to Forrest Creek Bendigo.

My father went to the gold diggings at Forrest Creek, and
there he found an old friend, Betheridge, who had been a
neighbour. Betheridge exhibited a pile of gold, and, saying
that he had found enough gave the tools and transferred the
claim to my father. Father did not know much about the
business. He had never had a spade or pick in his hands
before, and as he only scratched the surface, he found little
gold. He made a little money at the diggings, and then
returned home.

When we came to Hindmarsh we had as a neighbour old “Larry”
Egan, who was at that time keeper of the Adelaide Gaol. He
then became a school master, and subsequently a Crown Lands
ranger, in which position he was transferred to the South East
and established himself at Tarpeena.

Dr Wyatt kept a school at Hindmarsh, for which he charged 1/-
a week for each scholar. He had abaout sixty on his roll and
his living was therefore a very respectable one, for three
pounds a week in those days was equal to about ten pounds
today. As lads we used to walk from our home in Hindmarsh to a
fruit garden in North Adelaide. This trip was three miles each
way and was made on each Sunday. The old brick house is still
standing. It faces the parade and is next to the Childrens
Hospital.

I remember when the Hon. John Baker and others had hunting
hounds at C.B. Fishers place at Reebeds. Arthur Malcolm and
Billy Simpson were huntsmen. As boys we used to open the gates
for them to pass through receiving “tips” for our self-imposed
tasks.

Hindmarsh in the fifties depended for its milk supplies not
upon cows, but on goats. There were only one or two dairies.
Subsequently we lived at Tweedvale (Lobethal) and Birdwood,
and from there I came to Port MacDonnell in 1876, and
established a business as a bark merchant, which I conducted
until a few years ago.