100 YEARS AGO:        There are two centenaries being celebrated in 2011.  The first is St. Aidan’s Anglican Church on 17 March.  The second is the centenary of policing.

On 15 November 1911 approval was granted for one mounted constable to be sent to Terror’s Creek.  Constable Alfred Leech was temporarily transferred to Terror’s Creek (In Charge) on 29 November 1911.  Rody Cruice, who came to the district in 1870 as Overseer of William Henry Day’s sugar enterprise, died on 21 February 1911, and the Terror’s Creek Timber Company Limited, which operated the sawmill for quite a number of years, was formed on 1 June 1911.
80 YEARS AGO:        On Thursday 6 February 1931 the town flooded.  As a result of heavy rain on the Wednesday night and Thursday, thousands of pounds worth of damage was sustained in the Dayboro District.  On the Thursday morning rain fell at the rate of an inch (approx. 25ml) an hour and the flood was worse than that of 1893.  In the main street there was over 3 feet (approx. 900ml) of water and several houses had to be abandoned.  The water was nearly a foot (approx. 300ml) deep in the Butter Factory.  All communication with Brisbane was cut off.  Dayboro township was isolated for 3 days.  We do not have details of the actual rainfall in Dayboro at that time but Petrie recorded 19 inches (approx. 475 ml) in 24 hours to 9am on Thursday 6 February and nearly 30 inches (approx. 750ml) since the early part of the week.  Mt. Mee School recorded 54 inches (approx. 1350 ml) in an 8 day period. 
History repeated itself and Dayboro township flooded again on Tuesday 11 January 2011.  Was it the highest flood on record?  Possibly not.  1931 may still have been higher.  Time will tell after all the surveys etc. have been done.  At this stage I do not have rainfall figures for 2011 other than I live at King Scrub and recorded 417ml (approx. 16.7 inches) in 36 hours for 10/11 January 2011.
Our Society occupies “Dayboro Cottage” at 27 Williams Street and we had about 200ml (approx. 8 inches) through the building and about 750ml (approx. 2 ft 6 inches) through our storage shed.  In 1931 our cottage would have been one of the houses that had to be abandoned and at that time it would have been occupied by Mick & Annie Linnane, the great-grandparents of Devin Linnane who in 2011, with his wife Gloria, had to “abandon” the Dayboro Post Office.  The Post Office building was not built until 1936 so this was a “first” for it. 

 

The Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864-1933), Monday 9 February 1931, page 15:
"HEAVY DAMAGE.
DAYBORO ROADS.
COMMUNICATION SEVERED.

Thousands of pounds' worth of
damage has been caused to roads
in the Dayboro district owing to
the deluge there on Thursday.
                   DAYBORO, February 8.
   Over nine inches of rain fell in nine
hours on Thursday morning, and old
pioneers state there was more water
than in the 1893 flood. Five homes
were abandoned, and there was
3ft. of water in the main street. The
water was 9in. deep in the Dayboro
Butter Factory, and all communication
with Brisbane was severed.
Several yards of earth was washed
away on the railway line, leaving the
Sleepers suspended in the air.  The
bridge across Rush Creek collapsed,
and a youth, Harold Hart, who was
standing on the bridge at the time,
was thrown into the river, but escaped
without injury.  About four cows and
four horses have been drowned.
Several landslides have occurred on
the main road to Ocean View, and on
the partly constructed road between
Dayboro and Mt. Mee.
   The damage on the partly constructed
Dayboro-Mt. Mee main road is
estimated at between £6000 and £8000.
Hundreds of pounds' worth of fencing
has been destroyed. Approaches to the
new bridges over the Pine River at
Lacey's Creek and Armstrong Creek
were badly damaged, and the Petrie
road also suffered badly.  The telephone
service was disorganised from
Thursday to Saturday Afternoon."

To everyone who helped us after the flooding, a heartfelt thanks.  There are just too many to mention.  To our own members who have spent countless hours spreading out sheets of paper and drying out books page by page, what can I say!  The panels from the Dayboro Story – the First 100 years, survived virtually unscathed.  The cardboard boxes they were stored in disintegrated and the sheets that were interleaved between the panels almost dissolved but the panels live on.  To Karen at Maya Maze, who has donated shelving so we can have things stored up off the floor – many, many thanks.
Mention has been made of the 1 in 100 years flood – there was only 80 years between these two floods.
Carmel Bond, President – Ph: 3425 1717 (h) or 3425 2032 (Dayboro Cottage)
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