A portrait photograph of Nancy Lloyd when she provided the Historical Society her memories of Bacchus Marsh and the Darley Military Camp in September 2020. What it was like when the soldiers came to town during WWII.
Courtesy of Nancy Lloyd’s Personal Collection.
Nancy Lloyd (nee Densley) was about 6 years old when the Darley Military Camp was built in 1940. She lived in Reg Closter’s house on the Lerderderg Gorge Road and her father worked for the Closter brothers in the market garden.
“We used to sit up on the fence and watch the soldiers coming past our place. We would wave and laugh at them and sometimes they would speak to us”.
Nancy Lloyd
Learn about how the family shopping was carried out using a jinker during the war years, especially when you lived a little way out of town.
“When the Military came to the Marsh you couldn’t move in the town”.
Nancy Lloyd
Goodman Creek Floods
Nancy has strong recollections of the Australia Day weekend in January 1941. It wasn’t the celebrations, but rather, the 36 hours of torrential rain and strong winds from a summer storm. The Bacchus Marsh valley with the convergence of the Werribee and Lerderderg rivers experienced localised flash-flooding.
The front page headlines in the Argus Newspaper on Monday 27 January 1941 describe the major floods and the damage to the two bridges that crossed the Goodman’s Creek.
Ironically, the new bridge collapsed and was swept downstream damaging the old bridge, which cut communication between Bacchus Marsh and the Darley AIF Camp.
Courtesy of TROVE.
A photograph of the Lerderderg River floods following 36 hours of heavy rainfall over the Australia Day weekend in January 1941.
Courtesy of the John Hannah Private Collection.
“I remember when the Lerderderg River flooded. It had rained and rained and the river broke its banks and flooded a lot of the farmland”.
Nancy Lloyd
A photograph of the collapsed bridge over the Goodman’s Creek (Lerderderg Gorge Road), caused by flash-floods following 36 hours of heavy rainfall over the Australia Day weekend in January 1941.
Courtesy of the John Hannah Private Collection.
Article from the Melton Express on Saturday 1 February 1941 page 1, describing what happened to the soldiers who were stranded in Bacchus Marsh, when the Bridges over the Goodman’s Creek collapsed due to flash floods in January 1941.
Courtesy of TROVE
Find out how close Nancy and her cousin Margaret came to being washed away when the flood waters lapped at the wooden planks of the Lerderderg Bridge. Did the bridge collapse and who saved them? Check out our Facebook page now.