Above: Fire at Dumbrell's (Aurthur Cocks & Co.), Bourke Street, 1927. Photographer unknown.Source: Fire Services Museum

Below: A wall of water running at about 6 knots down Elizabeth Street, 1972. Photographer Neville Bowler.Source: The Age Newspaper

Fire danger was never far from

the early settler’s m

ind. Prior to 1891, central M

elbourne was

without a state fire brigade and

entirely dependent upon water

to be carried from the Y

arra by m

eans of a manual pum

p and w

ater carts.

The

Melbourne

Fire and

Marine

Insurance C

ompany

was

so concerned

about the

number

of highly

flamm

able tim

ber houses in the settlement

that it

suggested sm

oking in

public places be banned. Not

surprisingly, early

colonists refused.

By the m

id-1800s, insurance com

panies form

ed their

own

fire brigades.

Rivalry

was

intense, drawing huge crow

ds w

hen fire bells rang and dozens of m

en belonging to different brigades dragged carts hundreds of m

iles to claim ‘first w

ater’. If the burning building belonged to a rival insurance com

pany, the m

en more often than not

turned around

and w

andered hom

e, hampering the arrival of

the next brigade.

The

year 1889

proved disastrous,

with

six firem

en losing their lives and several injured in a series of disasters,

including the

destruction of

the Bijou T

heatre in April and

George and G

eorge’s of Collins

Street in September.

A

fter several

attempts,

the Fire

Brigade

Act

was

finally passed in 1890 and the first

meeting

of the

newly

constituted Metropolitan Fire

Brigades B

oard held in 1891 at the M

elbourne Town H

all. In 1893, a block of land on E

astern Hill w

ith frontages to G

isborne Street

and V

ictoria Parade becam

e the Brigade’s

present headquarters, featuring a 150-foot w

atchtower.

Sources: Shaw, E

.D. (1939), “T

he Early

History of the M

elbourne Fire Brigade”,

The

Victorian

Historical

Magazine,

Vol.

XV

III; N

ewnham

, W

.H.

(1985), M

elbourne: Biography of a C

ity, Hill of

Content, M

elbourne.

The lack of early land-use

planning meant that, for half

a century,

Melbourne

was

menaced by disastrous floods.

In the 1830s, right up until a sew

erage system w

as built m

ore than 60 years later, most

establishments

relied upon

cesspits into which bedpans

and other household refuse w

ere emptied.

E

nough waste escaped from

pits in these early years to m

ake William

s Creek, w

hich flow

ed along Elizabeth Street,

a filthy

watercourse

that discharged

into the

Yarra,

affecting the town’s drinking

water

and causing

frequent epidem

ics of

dysentery and

typhoid. A sim

ilar stream, the

Enscoe, ran from

the junction of

William

and

Flinders Streets.

Four major floods occurred

during the 1840s, with boats

being rowed along Sw

anston and E

lizabeth Streets. One of

Melbourne’s prom

inent citizens,

Michael

Cashm

ore, row

ed ‘overland’ in 1842 for four m

iles between Footscray and

the Royal H

ighlander hotel in Flinders Street, w

here he tied up at the bar for refreshm

ents.

The Yarra and M

aribyrnong R

ivers flooded periodically, inundating the low

-land houses and factories. E

lizabeth Street w

as a gully that became a

raging torrent

in the

rainy season. Shopkeepers in the street kept specially prepared boards that fitted into doorw

ays to fend off floodw

aters.

William

Kelly described

the chaos in 1853:

“…w

hen the rain ceased, I

walked

out to

witness

a scene not to be equalled in any other city in the w

orld. Sw

anston Street on the one hand, and E

lizabeth Street on the other, w

ere complete rivers

running in volumes, and w

ith a velocity that w

as startling to look at, and perfectly im

possible to cross w

ith safety on foot.

…the current w

as so impetuous

that it

made

one giddy

to gaze at it as it roared past, em

pty cases, coffee tins, old hats, sardine boxes, discarded clothes, tattered m

ats, butchers’ offal, and all the varieties of household filth and w

arehouse abom

ination hoarded

since the previous flood, careering frantically on its bosom

. I saw

a fine horse—one of a w

agon team

—drow

ned, beyond the possibility of aid, at the crossing in front of the Post-office…

” Sources:

New

nham,

W.H

. (1985),

Melbourne: B

iography of a City, H

ill of C

ontent, Melbourne; K

elly, W. (1859),

Life in V

ictoria, vol. I.

September 5 - N

ovember 1, 2003

City G

allerySeptem

ber 5 - Novem

ber 1, 2003C

ity Gallery

September 5 - N

ovember 1, 2003

City G

allery

Fire at Stewart D

awson's, E

lizabeth St, opposite the GPO

, 1927. Photographer unknown.

Source: Fire Services Museum

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