An intense monsoon depression, which caused torrential rain across NSW, saw more than 250millimetres of heavy rain  fall between Nevertire and Dunedoo in 24 hours.

The phenomenal amount of rain in the upper catchments of the Hunter and Paterson rivers, combined with the deluge that spread from the west to the Liverpool Ranges and the Hunter Valley, was a recipe for disaster.

Maitland historian Peter Bogan, who lived in Carrington Street, Horseshoe Bend, with his parents, sister and two younger brothers, was preparing for the worst.

The family, along with most other Maitland families, spent the night of February 24 and morning of February 25 packing and moving their belongings to higher ground.

The authorities knew the levee bank at Oakhampton was going to break, and Maitland police sergeant Dave Sutherland sent Henry Firth to urge residents in Mount Pleasant Street to evacuate, but it was too late.

The flood was more than one metre higher than the 1952 flood, which had been the biggest in Maitland since 1900.

Mr Bogan and his father packed up the family’s belongings and put them on close family friend Cliffy King’s truck.

Mr King offered to take their belongings to a barn in Largs where they would be safe, but Mr Bogan’s father said his workshop opposite Maitland Courthouse was out of flood reach.

“They were famous last words,” Mr Bogan said. 

“We lost everything we owned.”

When the levee bank broke at the Cummin’s property in Oakhampton on February 25, a “wall of water” engulfed the city.

The force sent several houses into the river and they were smashed up against the Belmore bridge.

Mr Bogan and his father were at the house at the time, and had sent his mother and siblings to the workshop. 

When they walked up High Street and saw the workshop was gone they feared the worst.

Luckily the Royal Australian Air Force personnel, who were camping at the courthouse, saw the danger and took them to Maitland Public School before the bank broke.

The family camped in Pender’s timber yard until the water resided and they could get back to the house.

There were no homes lost in Carrington Street, but the water filled the entire house and reached up to 1.5metres into the pitched roof.

In Maitland, 31 homes were destroyed and 14 people were killed, including five who were electrocuted during a rescue operation.

Mr Bogan was a fifth-generation Horseshoe Bend resident but after experiencing the devastation of the flood he decided to move to higher ground.

​