Reminiscence of a flood on Ropes Creek 

During the 1950's and 60's I was working as a truck driver, carting sand and gravel from the Nepean River to various Council and Building sites in the Sydney Metropolitan area. The truck depot was located at Prospect. Each morning at 5-30 I would leave my home in St Marys and drive to Prospect via The Great Western Highway to pick up the truck for my day's work.  

In those days the Highway was the only link road from the West to Parramatta and beyond. Early 1960 saw one of the biggest floods in decades on the Nepean-Hawkesbury River system. South Creek was in high flood, and both Byrnes Creek and South Creek had cut the Western Highway at St Marys, thereby stopping all road traffic.        

As I drove to Prospect that morning the Highway was cut by floodwaters at Colyton, by Ropes Creek, Minchinbury at the foot of the hill west of the old crashed aeroplane at Penfolds vineyard, Eastern Creek from Wallgrove Road to a point east of the road bridge across Eastern Creek. The flood was very deep across the Highway at all of these points. I had an old A Model Ford with high wire wheels and was just able to get through on the run down, but as the water was still rising, there was no chance of returning by the same route. The trucking company management decided that no trucks would be sent out that day because of flooding. 

In order to return home I had to take a different route, as the Highway was impassable in many places. I chose the Blacktown-Richmond Road and intended to divert along Woodstock Avenue and Forrester Road (then known as Windsor road) adjacent to the St Marys Munitions Filling Factory (now ADI) .As I came down the hill from the water towers in Forrester Road I could see that Ropes Creek had inundated the road from the bridge across the Creek to a point about a quarter of a mile ahead to the main entrance gates to the Munitions factory area at North St Marys.
Bounded by Ropes Creek, Forrester Road and the Munitions area was a large holding paddock for cattle for the local butchery at the time, containing a slaughterhouse, which was owned by Beacrofts Butchery, whose shop was located on the corner of Queen Street and The Great Western Highway St Marys. 

The water level was above the three strand wire fence enclosing the paddock on the roadside and the cattle were swimming in order to keep their heads above water. The only indication of the road below the water was the ripple effect on the water surface. There was a late model car stopped at the bridge in front of me, and on inquiry from me the driver indicated that he would not try to drive through the water ahead. As my old car had high wire wheels, I offered to push him through with my front bumper to his rear bumper, to which he agreed. I slowly pushed him through the water to the high ground near The Commonwealth Peace Officer's gate. which was the main gate into The Munitions area. (Commonwealth Peace Officers were the security officers for the Munitions Factory.) I then drove to Beacrofts butcher shop in St Marys and advised them that their cattle were swimming. They closed the shop and left immediately for the slaughterhouse. 

Inside the Munitions area at the time were a number of newly built brick houses, which were built for the staff of the second Munitions factory on the site (built in 1956-57).The new Munitions factory was officially opened on 17th December,1957.The aforementioned houses were flooded to a great depth by the severe flooding of Ropes Creek at that time. In the floods of 1963 over 1000 sheep were drowned near the junction of Ropes Creek and South Creek, both of which run through the ADI Site and link up just to the North of the site at Llandilo. The sheep were kept at the time by the Munitions factory for grass control, but after that disaster they passed the handling of sheep to the CSIRO for experimental laboratory work and planted pigweed on the mounds. High earth mounds were constructed around all of the bunkers in the magazine area, as well as the shell filling and other at risk buildings as a matter of containment in the event of an explosion. The brick staff cottages earlier referred to have long since been demolished. They stood next to the St Marys Sewerage treatment works (Kiewa Rd, still marked on Sydney street directories) close by the intended development of the Dunheved Industrial Park,30 hectares being earmarked for filling because of its location on the floodplain. Incidentally a new levee bank and channel were constructed to the north of the flooded staff cottages following the flood. 

Written by Bernard Laughlan.

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