My father used to tell the story of how most of the sheep in NSW in the late 1800s were infected with footrot. It got eradicated because most of the sheep died during the Federation drought 1895 - 1903.
There was a massive snowfall in our district in the year 1900 with snow laying 6 feet deep, I have also seen records for Bathurst where it laid 1.2 meters deep and many roofs caved in. My great Grandmother was away on horseback doing midwife duties delivering a baby and couldn't get home for six weeks because of the floods from the melting snow.
