24
BAMOS
Jun 2018
Charts of the Past
with Blair Trewin
7 June 1954
The autumn of 1954 was a very dry period in much of
southeastern Australia, something of an aberration in the very
wet 1950–1956 period (including severe flooding in February
1954 on the north coast of New South Wales from a nearby
cyclone). It was the fourth-driest autumn on record in New
South Wales.
A breakdown in this dry pattern came in the first week of June
as a trough developed on the 3rd over inland Queensland and
New South Wales and moved slowly to the east. Widespread
rain fell on the 4th and 5th in the eastern inland, including 82
mm at Caiwarro, near Hungerford, on the 4th, and 71 mm at
Hungerford itself on the 5th. Locally heavy falls also occurred
closer to the coast as a low formed over eastern New South
Wales on the 4th, with 94 mm at Stroud and 81 mm at Forster
on the 5th. The generally light to moderate falls in inland New
South Wales, including weekly totals of 25 to 50 mm over most
of the grain belt, were agriculturally useful, although the winter
ultimately proved also to be drier than average with consistent
above-average totals not occurring until October.
The low moved offshore on the 5th and then intensified rapidly
as it moved southeast, before becoming near-stationary east of
Tasmania on the 6th. This directed a moist southeast flow into
Tasmania, leading to extremely heavy rainfall over the next
two days in much of eastern Tasmania. The heaviest falls were
in the Hobart area, with 215.9 mm at Kingston and 201.4 mm
at the Hobart Waterworks Reserve on the 7th, but heavy rain
also extended north along the east coast, with daily totals in
excess of 100 mm extending north to St Helens, and 177.3 mm
at St Marys. The Springs, on the slopes of Mount Wellington,
had 311.1 mm over two days. Hobart city received 147.3 mm
on the 7th, its second-wettest day on record, whilst the two-day
total of 190.2 mm was a record. Records were also set at every
timescale from three to seven days, and June 1954 went on to
be Hobart’s third-wettest month on record with 238.3 mm.
The heavy rains led to significant flash flooding in and around
Hobart, with damage in the central city alone running to
hundreds of thousands of pounds as the Hobart Rivulet reached
its second-highest level on record (at the time). Water was 60
centimetres deep in City Hall. Flooding also affected other parts
of the state; the far south of the state was cut off after a bridge
over the Esperance River was washed out, and the Macquarie
River at Ross also experienced major flooding. There were
several substantial landslides in the Huon and Channel areas.
One person died when they fell from a broken swing bridge into
the swollen Derwent River. Power was lost to the entire state for
a time, and phone services were also disrupted, whilst there was
significant disruption to coastal shipping in high winds off the
east coast.
The low moved east on the 8th, with the rain clearing from
eastern Tasmania. Falls continued in east Gippsland, with
Cabbage Tree Creek ultimately receiving 141 mm over the two
days to the 8th, although with dry antecedent conditions there
was no significant flooding. Temperatures during the event
were below average but not exceptionally so, with maxima on
the 7th including 9.7 °C at Hobart, 8.6 °C at Canberra and 10.7 °C
at Melbourne (which missed most of the rain, receiving just 12
mm over three days); snow fell on higher ground in the Alps and
the Monaro, including 15 centimetres at Nimmitabel.
On the other side of the continent, a blocking high over Western
Australia brought a prolonged period of dry and cool weather
to the southwest, including sequences of seven consecutive
sub-zero nights at Bridgetown (a June record) and eight at
Wandering.
Synoptic chart for 1200 AEST, 7 June 1954