but a portion of a bridge over the Deep Creek at Keilor was carried away, and no bullock drays or heavy carts could pass until the damage was partially repaired. T h e residents of Richmond were in a state of complete isolation for two days, as they had no means of crossing over the formidable body of water sweeping the Collingwood and Richmond Flats, as well as the Fitzroy Gardens and the Richmond Paddock to the Yarra. In thirty-six hours the Yarra at Melbourne attained the height offifteenfeet. T h e flood of 1844 was higher than the present one, for then the water was sixteen inches higher in the second floor of Dight's mills at Studley Park. T h efloodof 1848 went down m u c h sooner than that of 1844.
Flood No. 6 — in 1849.
On the night of the 26th November, a tremendous hurricane swept over the City of Melbourne, smashing and eradicating trees at Batman's Hill, Flemington, Collingwood, Richmond, South Yarra, and other places, demolishing and dismantling houses, and shaking every place and everything to their foundation. A two-storied brick house, belonging to John Bennell, a bricklayer, was blown down in Spring Street, two houses in Lonsdale Street, and one near the Flagstaff. T h e wooden tenement of Doolin, a shoemaker in Little Collins Street, was carried off no one knew whither, and chimney stacks were levelled by the score. It rained with great fury, and on the 27th there was an immense flood in the Yarra, and again the bnckmakers were summarily ejected from their holdings, and they and their hardly-acquired property, unceremoniously dissolved partnership, one m a n losing 100,000 bricks. Towards evening the river was almost as high as it was ever known to have been, and between the wind of the night before, and the inundation of the day, great loss was inflicted on the shopkeepers in parts of Elizabeth, Swanston, and Flinders Streets, as well as to the mercantile establishments formed along Flinders Street West. Murphy's Brewery was completely swamped, and a large quantity of sugar rendered useless. At the slaughter-houses on the bank of the river so m u c h meat was rendered food forfishes,that there was serious apprehension of a meat famine, and, as it was, rump steaks and loin chops were at a premium. The Western S w a m p was quite a new " Curiosity Shop," in consequence of the variety of dead and living lumber of which it became the receptacle—furniture, wood, bacon, pork, and poultry, etc. 2500 sheep at Philpot's boiling-down establishment perished. It was a grand field-day for the glaziers, for never before nor since was there such a shattering of glass, and the bad wind blew a good harvest to the putty fraternity, there being then no such thing as plate-glass in general use. Fencing was knocked down everywhere and the suburbs were strewn with posts, rails and palings. O n the 27th the river rose thirty-seven feet above its ordinary level at Dight's Mills, having ascended to the third storey, and Burchett's Tannery near the n o w Richmond Railway Bridge, a two-storied brick building, eighty feet long, was hurried down the stream and with it a considerable quantity of leather and other property. At Melbourne the river was two and a-half and at Richmond four feet higher than in previous floods, and there were several very narrow escapes. At the south side a m a n had to be released from a house, and another individual, whilst endeavouring to preserve his chattels, was obliged to scramble upon the roof, until a boat put off and rescued him. A boat with half-a-dozen m e n capsized in the Yarra basin, but they were saved. O n the 28th a horse saddled and bridledfloatedover the breakwater, which led to the supposition that a m a n had been drowned somewhere up the river. T h e same evening, the body of a w o m a n with a child clasped to her breast, was carried down the Yarra, past the end of Spencer Street, and neither was ever recovered. They were supposed to be a Mrs. Tegg and her infant (lately come from Adelaide), w h o had that morning left the Victoria Hotel in Little Bourke Street. O n the Melbourne wharf and the swamp a gang of wreckers turned out, considering it a good opportunity for turning a dishonest penny, but "a party of police was told off for "coast-guard" duty, and disappointed the would-be-plunderers. T w o policemen were detected in the act of appropriating some firewood to which they had no claim, and were " d r u m m e d out " of the service. T h e losses sustained by the Melbourne merchants were put down at several thousand pounds. Even on the 29th the flood was so high that Mr. Furze, of the firm of Stook and Furze, butchers, was drowned in attempting to ford the Merri Creek. H e had been only five months married, was a general favourite, and m u c h regretted. His body was found next day, and his funeral was a very large one. T h e communication was kept up between Melbourne and Sandridge by means of boats put on through the enterprise of Mr. Liardet, an hotelkeeper,
