1922 Wagga Wagga floods

There is major flooding on the east coast of Australia at the moment. It has been declared a natural disaster by the NSW and Federal Governments. Thousands of people are been told to evacuate as some of our major rivers have breached their banks. Sydney's main dam, Warragamba Dam, is overflowing.

Watching all the coverage today reminded me that I have this photo. It was taken during the 1922 flood in Wagga Wagga, now a major regional city in the Riverina region of New South Wales. It is situated on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River. The tall man standing in the water under the grocer's shop awning is my paternal grandfather. He was a talented pastry cook who, during the hard years of the 1920s, worked as a cook in the massive shearing sheds  around NSW. Together with the shearers he travelled from sheep station to sheep station.