A Tale of Bravery in Gundagai An Old Australian Story That Should Be Told
I notice that the good citizenry of Gundagai finally recognized the town’s one true hero (not a manufactured one – but a person who risked his life to help fellow humans) in June this year over 160 years ago.
It is a cautionary tale of European arrogance and of Aboriginal bravery. For nearly two decades the Wiradjuri people living along the banks of the Murrumbidgee River at Gundagai had been warning of a potentially catastrophic flood. The river’s indigenous name wasn’t “one big water” for nothing.
Typically the European settlers took no notice and built their settlement on the floodplain beside the river. Consequently, on the night of 24 June, 1852, after three weeks of solid rain, the Murrumbidgee broke its banks and poured through the riverside town.
The results are still recorded as the worst natural disaster in Australia’s history. One third of the town’s residents (83 out of a population of 250) were drowned and 71 buildings were destroyed or washed away. It was a cruel consequence of a refusal to listen to the advice of people who had been living in the area for tens of thousands of years.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man! At this point let me hand the story over to Kamilaroi man and one-time editor of Tracker magazine, Chris Munro: “The population of Gundagai were now either on the roofs of their houses, or had chanced a perilous swim to higher ground to escape the rising water level … [when a young Wiradjuri man, Yarri, sprang into action.
“Yarri launched into the now kilometre wide flood zone in a traditional bark canoe he’d carved himself from local timber. Many dwellings had already been washed away, torn off their foundations and sent downstream with their human cargo.
“In the black of night, Yarri was guided by the screams of survivors clinging to trees and rooftops in the freezing waters. Dodging huge logs and other debris, he went back and forth rescuing anyone he could find. He spent the entire night in his canoe, paddling up and down stream to conduct rescue after rescue. His canoe would usually only hold one person, but such were the water skills of Yarri, he ferried up to six people at a time to a safe spot on the river bank.
“John Spencer … the Inn Keeper spent 36 hours in a tree until Yarri came for him. Spencer was near frozen and completely naked at the time, save for a cash box strapped around his neck.
“Whole families were torn from the roofs of their houses, the carcases of sheep, horses and cattle were found wedged in the branches of trees the following day … Yarri saved 49 people from the great flood over a 40-hour period.
“In a disaster of any kind, such a truly amazing act of bravery is simply mind-blowing, but given the date was 1852 and Yarri was atop a bark canoe in the black of night, it makes this yarn all the more astounding. But what’s perhaps more mind boggling is the lack of recognition in Australian history books of such a superhuman feat. There’s no poetry, folk song or bronze statue to honour Yarri in Gundagai.”
Well, Chris, the locals have finally put up a sculpture. A small recognition for one of the greatest acts of heroism in Australia’s history.
www.theguardian.com
