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Information on floods
has been retrieved from newspapers and other journals published in South
Australia between 1836 and 2005. Reports of floods have been recorded in
a database, capturing the name and date of the journal, the article’s title
and page number, location of flood (if recorded) and significant impacts
such as loss of life, injury, animals killed, loss and/or damage of
personal property, etc.
The database contains
references to sources of information about particular flood events that the
researcher can use to investigate the source-information in the
journals. There is no actual commentary on the flood event included in
the database.
Two methods of retrieving
data on floods are available. The first method displays a map of South
Australia and using a variety of tools, the user can zoom to portions of
the state, overlay flood locations on the map, show major roads, river
catchments, etc. Flood markers on the map can be highlighted and the data
associated with that flood can be displayed.
The second method is
a text-based retrieval system where the user is prompted to enter search
criteria such as date range, location, name of newspaper, etc. All flood
events matching the criteria are displayed and can be saved in a
comma-delimited file for use in a word processer or spreadsheet
system. The text-based query
system cannot be run from this web page. Print and read the Text-based
Query User Guide for instructions on how to execute it.
To be able to run the
map based query system, your computer must have Java Run Time Environment
1.4 (JRE 1.4) or higher. To run the text based query, your computer must
have JRE 1.5.
Click here to install
J2SE Runtime Environment (For
Windows) 
Before using either method
of retrieval, the user is advised to read the relevant help information
first.
Click to view Map-based
Query User Guide.doc 
Click to view Text-based
Query User Guide.doc
Caveat
The data has been
gathered mainly through a comprehensive reading of newspapers published in
the State. Newspapers have been published in South Australia since
the earliest days of European settlement. They are a valuable source of
information about past events and public attitudes at the time. They are
often the only consistent consecutive contemporary records of current
events in the State. This is certainly the case with regard to floods in
South Australia of which there were no continuous specific records. As a
result, teams of researchers from the Bureau of Meteorology in Adelaide
have searched the newspapers for reports which identify or describe flood
events. It has not been practical to read every newspaper, but every issue
of a number of the major newspapers has been surveyed as well as many of
the minor ones.
The resulting
database is a listing of newspaper reports which refer to, or otherwise
identify, flood events in South Australia since European settlement. The
editors do not claim that these are flood events, but simply that the
newspapers label or describe them as such. We do claim that each newspaper
report cited exists, was published on the date given and appears on the
page given in the particular newspaper. We also assert that each newspaper
report cited has been viewed by a research assistant and later verified. We
are confident that the references given here are accurate.
It has been the
intention of the editors to include as complete a listing as possible of
flood event reports. However, we accept that there may have been omissions.
If a report is not included, this does not mean it does not exist. Also,
when there has been a major flood event, some newspapers have been full of
small snippets of flood-related news in addition to their major articles.
Occasionally there have been so many that to include them in the chronology
would have been impractical. In those few cases, their existence is
acknowledged without further bibliographical details.
Occasionally
newspapers may publish more than one edition on a particular day. In such a
case, the edition mentioned in this chronology will be the one usually
available for perusal in the State Library of South Australia.
Over time some
newspapers have changed or amended the name on their masthead. Others have
not. For example, The Bunyip was first published in Gawler on 5 September
1863 and is still published in the same community with the same name.
Others have had several names which may reflect changes in ownership,
amalgamations, or simply fashion. In the chronology we identify a newspaper
with the name by which it is commonly known, in line with the practice used
at the State Library of South Australia. At the end of the document may be
found an appendix which lists, by date, the name which appeared on the
masthead at the time, but we do not include sub-titles.
The editors welcome
notice of any omissions and errors from readers so that future editions may
be corrected and expanded.
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