The Northern Rivers Times Edition 131

Kyogle flood. Three crosses show where houses once stood. Courtesy ABC website and Kyogle Historical Society

THREE GENERATIONS LOST TO ’54 FLOOD

By SAMANTHA ELLEY

In the tiny office of the Evans Head Presbyterian church, a small plaque is attached to an old hymnal board. It glints as the sunlight hits it where it rests against the wall. It reads:

“Presented by Mrs Walter Golding in loving memory of her husband, daughter, son-in-law and their three children, Mr and Mrs David Chapman and family. Drowned at Kyogle, 20th February 1954.”

This small plaque is a reminder of a tragic tale that unfolded during one of the region’s worst natural disasters back in 1954.

In the wee small hours in the morning of February 21, 1954 the village of Kyogle,

Walter Golding

located in the northeastern corner of New South Wales, was inundated with a wall of water that showed no mercy. It left behind a devastating result, which saw the loss of 10 lives, including six people from the same family.

Witnesses recounted the cries of people who were caught in nearby

trees, being that of the Chapman family, who eventually all drowned. They were Walter Golding, 67, his daughter Isabel Chapman, 28, her husband David, 34 and their sons Walter David, 7, Ian, 4 and Geoffrey, 16 months.

Three generations in one family swept away by the dangerous torrents.

The unfortunate family had no time to escape their inundated home and found themselves trapped on the roof.

Evans Head Surf Club member Matt Doughtery of Kyogle attempted to rescue the family members and nearly lost his own life.

He roped himself to a surf rescue reel and

then entered the flood waters from the railway station but was instantly swept away. The line became tangled in the debris and he was forced under. A new device on the reel - a quick release pin - helped him escape the vest and he managed to get clear of the floodwaters.

The Chapman family

was by this time swept away, the only survivor being grandmother Helen Golding who presented the plaque as a reminder of her family.

Walter Golding

Walter and the Chapmans are all buried in Kyogle cemetery.

References

• ‘60 years on: Kyogle residents ‘will never forget’ 1954

floods, ABC Local, acessed 16th November, 2022,

• ‘SPECIAL

REPORT: Memories of ‘54 and how the flood changed us’, The Daily Telegraph, accessed 16th November, 2022, https:// www.dailytelegraph. com.au/news/nsw/ lismore/special-report-

memories-of-54-andhow-the-flood-changedus/news-story/8265a2d9 5a899a94f8a2a091121f4

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• ‘Twenty-one lives lost in NSW Floods’, Cairns Post, Tuesday 23 February, 1954, Page 1

This story first appeared in talesfromthegrave.org

Diary of a Flood Survivor Part 23

The numbers on the letter box are still holding.

We just haven’t received any mail yet.

I went to our local interim post office, which is in a shed used for boxing classes, at the back of the actual post office building still in a state of flood disrepair.

The post lady was very obliging and helped me to organise for our mail to come back to our house.

A vanity in progress with makeshift mirror and unplastered walls

Our poor longsuffering friends who took us in for seven months, can now stop holding our mail.

This is a big step to feeling established at home, also it was my birthday in the past week, and I didn’t want to miss out on the tsunami of cards coming my way…haha.

Actually, the number of Facebook messages, telephone calls and visits I received more than made up for that inevitable year closer to 60.

All tradies have been on holidays over the Christmas, New Year break so it’s been quiet around the place, and I am still clocking up steps on my Fitbit as our only toilet is downstairs in the laundry.

So, I am excited to get the workers back, if only to see our vanity

area completed and going to the toilet in the middle of the night no longer a harrowing experience.

The count so far is two frogs in the toilet and two in the laundry on our middle of the night excursions.

Maybe I should stop drinking herbal tea before I go to bed!

Our plans for this year include more work on the house, as we have not touched downstairs, other than to gurney the walls of the laundry and put in electricity.

We want to see what La Niña has in store for us this year before we commit to any renovation’s downstairs.

We do plan to get our back deck up to scratch so we can get some nice new outdoor furniture, a barbeque and enjoy our views of the cane once again.