About 3.30pm on January 28, 1974 – 50 years in the past to the day – the LARC-05 gently handed six high-tension electrical cables close to the flood-swollen Pullen Pullen Creek.
The LARC’s crew assumed the electrical energy had been turned off after the Australia Day floods swamped Brisbane injuring 300 folks, destroying 8000 properties and inflicting an estimated $980 million in injury (the equal of about $9 billion at present).
The high-tension electrical energy “arced” from the cable towers to the metallic tip of Kerr’s boat pole after which to LARC-05, knocking a number of passengers unconscious and throwing some into the floodwaters, the military’s court docket of inquiry discovered.
An explosion begins after electrical energy ‘arcs’ from high-tension energy traces at Bellbowrie to the metallic tip of a ship hook held by military reservist Captain Ian Kerr, military inquest notes present.Credit score: Roger Todd
Professor Neville Marsh from the Moggill Historic Society stated there was “instantaneous pandemonium” as the electrical present seared by way of LARC-05 about 3.36pm that day in 1974.
“An enormous electrical discharge occurred” because the electrical energy arced between the primary cable [in the second set of three] and the boat hook held by Ian Kerr,” Professor Marsh wrote.
“The pressure of the discharge brought on the conductor to interrupt and the highest 4 inches (10 centimetres) of the boat hook have been blown off touchdown within the centre of the LARC.
“An enormous electrical shock handed down the aluminium pole and the 2 ends of the damaged conductor then flicked throughout the superstructure of the LARC inflicting additional arcing and delivering electrical shocks to different occupants of the LARC.”
Lickiss, who died in 1993, instructed the military inquiry “it appeared as if a torpedo had been shot off”, and described the explosion like “welding, static noises and electrical blast furnaces”.
Kerr and Hourigan have been thrown into the water and many of the passengers have been in “varied phases of panic and hysteria”, Professor Marsh described.
Military reserve Captain Ian Kerr who died on January 28 in 1974 after being knocked from a military amphibious automobile close to Bellbowrie after an enormous electrical shock. Credit score: Roger Todd
Lickiss, who additionally discovered himself dazed and knocked into the water, noticed Hourigan struggling badly within the water and – with assist – swam again to the LARC with him.
Nonetheless, each military reservists misplaced their lives, whereas a second LARC, and different smaller boats have been capable of rescue the opposite shell-shocked crew and passengers.
Kerr couldn’t instantly discovered in the course of the accident and his physique was discovered three days in a while the banks of Pullen Pullen Creek, about 150 metres east of Moggill Highway.
Lord mayor Adrian Schrinner will on Sunday open a everlasting memorial to Kerr and Hourigan, noting it was a reminder of the tragic penalties of flooding in a metropolis constructed on a floodplain.
“As Captain Kerr and Corporal Hourigan went out that fateful day, that they had one purpose in thoughts; to rescue stranded residents within the Bellbowrie space because the floodwaters rose,” Schrinner stated.
“The legacy of those two servicemen will likely be remembered not solely by way of this memorial, however by way of the neighborhood as teams just like the Moggill Historic Society proceed to inform these vital tales.”
An aerial view of Brisbane flood on January 28, 1974.Credit score: George Lipman
The memorial has been positioned in Booker Place Park at Bellbowrie.
Professor Marsh expressed his help for the fiftieth anniversary memorial, saying the heroic act is a vital a part of the neighborhood’s historical past.
“As is the case with pure disasters in Australia, the Military was there to assist, however sadly, two of their very own tragically paid the last word value whereas serving to stranded residents,” Marsh stated.
“It’s applicable that the fiftieth anniversary memorial is situated subsequent to the brand new Anzac memorial at Bellbowrie which honours those that misplaced their lives within the service of others, and I’m happy we’re capable of share this second with the surviving members of each households.”
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