The old Brownhill Creek bridge

Today we checked out the Brownhill Creek after the torrential rains of the last few days. But no evidence of flooding. The road across the Village of Mitcham, through the Village Green or Reserve was opened in the mid 1860s, with a ford providing a crossing of the creek until 1875 when the keystone bridge was constructed by John Prince.

A flood during construction washed the partly built bridge away and work had to begin again. Nearby cottages and market gardens were also flooded. So today I decided to blip this old bridge.

The old keystone bridge. You can see the Creek is just a trickle.

A thunderstorm one hot afternoon in February 1897 brought the creek down so quickly that two people were drowned in separate incidents. A month later the creek water was four feet over the bridge near the Torrens Arms Hotel, (at the back of the current Mitcham Shopping Centre), and extended for about a quarter of a mile along Bulls Creek Road, (now Belair Road).

So there is a long history of floods in Brownhill Creek, but no evidence of a flood today.