The 1955 Flood - Namoi and Peel Rivers

One of the largest floods to have occured and in the Peel and Namoi basins occured in February 1955. The 1955 was the culmination of several periods of moderate to heavy rain in the 5 weeks preceeding the event, with heavy rain in the period 23-28th February bringing major flooding. Rainfall totals exceeded 250mm in 24 hours on the 23 February 1955 between Nevertire and Dunedoo.

At this time equitorial air with high moisture extending to 11,000 m and originating in NW Australia was able to penetrate to Northern NSW via Western Queensland. As it moved SW over Southern Queensland the air mass was met by a stream of moist tropical air from the Pacific. A cold front developed which produced a moist cold airstream from west to east, increasing convergence of the two saturated airstreams triggering rains of unprecedented intensity over the NW of the state.

The flood is the largest to have occured in the Peel. With the the combined contributions from the Peel, Manilla and Mooki Rivers producing the highest flood at Gunnedah since 1864. Narrabri was completely isolated - water up to 3m deep covered some streets. Around 1000 homes at both Narrabri and Moree suffered water damage.

Heavy rains then moved east across the Liverpool Ranges into the Hunter Valley, commencing one of the most devastating flood events in Australian history. In the Hunter at Maitland more than 5,000 homes were flooded and around 15,000 people were evacuated and 14 lives were lost. At Singleton another 1600 homes were flooded.

As a whole, the flooding claimed 25 people and around 2,000 cattle and many thousands of head of other livestock were drowned.

Sea Level Pressure 6z: 23 February 1955

Sea Level Pressure 6z: 24 February 1955

Sea Level Pressure 6z: 25 February 1955

NCEP Reanalysis data provided by the NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnostics Center, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their Web site at http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/

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