Brief History of Brisbane City in the 19th Century
Brisbane experienced catastrophic floods on several occasions in the nineteenth century. The sub-tropical climate is characterised by hot, wet summers and dry, mild winters. Wider influences arising from changes in the Pacific Ocean also play their part and lead to exceptional climatic events which distort the usual sub-tropical rhythm and lead to periods of drought and flood. When a number of circumstances occur together, severe flooding results. These are a storm surge which adds to the normal tidal effect increasing mean sea levels and river penetration; if exceptionally heavy rains fall on tributary creeks which deliver the excess rapidly to the River; if heavy rain also falls in the upper catchments of the Brisbane River and those of the Stanley and Bremer Rivers.
Flood and drought fluctuation in the years before 1893 Oxley saw a well-watered country in December 1823. Nine months later, the country was in the grip of severe drought. Drought during the summer of 1828-1829, when the convict population was growing at its fastest, dried up the available water supply. In the late 1830's and early 1840's, there were several years of exceptional rainfall occurring almost on top of each other. The 1841 flood was one of the two highest Brisbane River floods in the first 170 years of European experience in the Brisbane area (higher than the 1974 flood). There was a recurrence of years of flood cycle in the early 1860's particularly 1863 and 1864. This was followed by severe drought in 1865. Apart from a few small floods, few exceptional climatic incidents disturbed the weather pattern between the late 1860's and the late 1880's. There was high summer rainfall and damaging floods in 1887 and 1890 but these were followed by very dry years.
