Short memory

The north coast of New South Wales is a region dear to the heart of The ShadowLands, which is why the recent floods caught our attention.

These floods have been commonly described as "once in 100 year floods", however we suggest that they are in fact - at best - once in 50 year floods.

In 1954 the town of Dorrigo received 809 millimetres (31 inches in the old money) in 24 hours, about four times what it received in the past week, and twice as much as Coffs Harbour received in this year's floods.

This was followed up in 1955 by another deluge associated with the deadly Maitland floods.

However, no prizes for guessing what some are attributing to the latest floods. (See comments here.)

Floods were not unknown to the people of the north coast going back many years, including legendary country singer Slim Dusty who wrote the following classic song in 1945.