Real Climate Records

[By Andrew Boss, M.D.]

I have read in a Sydney paper an interesting contribution on “The 1852 Flood in Gundagai”; but it sounds somewhat strange, if not in-opportune, to talk of floods in 1852, when residents and settlers, half a century older, and in spite of all by-gone experience, are suffering in 1902 from one of the most dire and disastrous droughts ever experienced by the oldest inhabitant in our midst.

To talk therefore of floods while the country is suffering, and tottering on the brink of ruin, if not starvation, from the effects of a far-reaching, calamitous drought, reminds one of the kind of disappointment and acute suffering weary, thirsty travellers too often experience from a fascinating mirage when travelling through a barren, arid desert.

The novelty, too, reminds me of a sermon I once read, in which a clergyman discoursed on the evils and sinfulness of dancing to a congregation many of whom had had the misfortune to have suffered the loss of one or both legs. It is not, however, on floods that I desire on the present occasion to dwell, but my experience of droughts as a resident in N.S.W. for upwards of 48 years, and the probability of the present drought breaking up at an early date. I have, as an old resident, witnessed several severe cycles or periods of drought in the Western district; but none for severity and heavy losses have I ever witnessed compared with the present, and one that has prevailed with so much loss, distress, expense, and far reaching havoc, north, south, east and west, during the last nine or ten months, aggravated and accelerated in many instances, I have no doubt, from a suicidal policy of over-stocking or wholesale system of ring barking.

I can well remember the heavy losses stock and sheep owners in the Molong district sustained from the severe drought that took place in 1865. The late Hon. Frank Lord, M.L.C., was the lessee of the Burrawong run which on an average grazed about 50,000 sheep; but he had the misfortune to lose nearly half the number during the nine or ten months while the drought lasted. The adjoining stock owners were equally unfortunate.

The drought of 1865 began about December after a prolific harvest and lasted till the 28th August following, when it broke up in heavy rain from the north-west, and continued for six or seven consecutive weeks following; so much so that it was almost an impossibility for stock or drays to travel owing to the boggy nature of the bush and roads, which were flooded with water, and a perfect quagmire.

Those who had the luck to save their stock during the drought, had the misfortune to lose many after the rain set in, owing to the dangerous nature and boggy state of the bush. During the drought Mr. Lord had a large number of hands employed sinking wells all over the run, but failed to obtain any permanent supply of water.

Little or no rain fell between December and August of that year. Feed of a rough, dry nature on some runs (not over-stocked) was plentiful, but the drawback on nearly every run, as far as the Lower Bogan, was the scarcity and want of water, and therefore the loss of sheep, &c., was very heavy.

Selectors and settlers who had sown their wheat during May, June or July found that the seed, in the majority of cases, had perished for want of moisture. Some had to re-plough and sow, while others trusted to the seed that had been planted, and to a self sown crop for hay. The harvest following the breaking up of the drought, in 1865-6, turned out better than was at first anticipated.

During the trying period of the drought, white, fleecy looking clouds were to be seen almost daily, but after sundown nearly all had, as usual, disappeared, followed by chill, cold nights and heavy frosts for many consecutive months. The number of bright, twinkling, dazzling stars seemed to have wonderfully increased during this cycle, or period of drought, and from their twinkling brightness at night they looked as if they enjoyed the continued drought and absence of rain-clouds in the heavens to obscure their dazzling brightness and gem-like attractive lustre.

The drought of 1827, old hands say, broke up in April and May, whereas the drought in 1889, it is alleged, broke up in July, while the drought of 1865 broke up on the 28th August, and the drought in 1882 in May and June. From the foregoing, it will be observed that, out of four of the above cycle drought seasons, April, May, June and July were the most likely months to expect any change of weather, and that only during one drought period, that of 1865, the drought broke up in August.

From this it may naturally be reckoned, seeing that the rainy season, or months of April, May, June and July, has gone by, that there is a probability of the present drought of 1902 breaking up in August or during the month of September, the latter being the equinoxial period of the year, aided probably by monsoonal influence and perturbations, that most invariably occur about this particular period of the year, when plant life and vegetation generally spring into bloom, activity and existence after a winter solstice.

During the drought of 1865, a large number of native trees in the Molong district perished for want of moisture and rain, and had the appearance as if they had been ringbarked. This occurred more particularly on the dry, stony tableland , between Molong and Orange, at Iguana Hill.

There was no “Wragge’s” to appeal to or to tell us anything in those early days of approaching meteorological changes, weather forecasts, or what the morrow would bring forth to cheer the heart of the lonely pioneer, grazier, and settler when no rain or rain clouds were about. It was simply trust in God and keep your powder dry in other words, no care, worry or bother for the future, but look to the heavens for rain, moisture and grass when wanted, and do nothing, in the way of conserving either water, grass, or fodder for the increasing number of flocks and herds that were allowed to roam in the open wilderness or bush when adversity overtook them in the shape of a drought.

God knows of late years thousands and tens of thousands of public money have been expended by a paternal Government in an attempt to stamp out an alleged bubonic plague or rat scare, and rabbit pest the chief source of support, and mainstay of many a poor family at the present time, when butchers’ meat is so dear, and beyond their limited means to purchase and other ordinary futile works that might have just as well been pitched into the sea or fire, but of all the “plagues” to which man and beast is heir in this semitropical southern continent, can we mention one that is more to be dreaded or more disastrous and far reaching than that of a dire calamitous drought that is bringing our hitherto fair sunny land and invaluable wool, &c., industry almost to the brink of ruin and bankruptcy?