Discover Waikumete Cemetery: David Barclay - "Flash flood takes workers' lives as they sleep"

The single men's quarters at the Kopuawhara no 4
public works camp before the flood.
Gisborne Photo News N0 87 Sep 7 1961 044a
photonews

David Barclay would have been tucked up in his bed at the public works single men’s camp along the banks of Kopuawhara Stream in a remote area of Hawkes Bay, when the powerful force of a 16 foot high water wall overwhelmed the camp in the wee hours of Saturday morning the 19 February 1938.

At around 3.30 a.m. water began to rush across the camp at 25 miles per hour battering huts and tents with large boulders, logs and debris from a washed out bridge and the surrounding hillside. A worker raised the alarm banging on doors and ringing the cookhouse gong before he was swept away. Men fought for their lives in the darkness and cold as they struggled to reach high ground as the water rapidly rose to their necks many scrambling onto the rooves of huts which broke up and collapsed like balsa wood as the flood engulfed almost everything in its path. The camp waitresses hut was one of the first to be swept away and two men lost their lives wading into the torrent in an attempt to locate her. Sadly she was going to return home for her father’s birthday and decided to stay the night and go home the next day. She would not see her father again. [1]

The devastation after the flood.
Gisborne Photo News N0 87 Sep 7 1961 044b
photonews

Eleven men attempted to escape the flood in a truck which was turned over in the deluge, and the men were swept away to their deaths. The only part of the truck recovered was the bonnet located 10 kilometres downstream.

Survivors told tales of heroism, and there are varying reports of a group of people who survived by clambering onto the roof of the cookhouse, then jumping across to the caterer’s quarters in the nick of time. [2] An elderly man and a five year old girl were pulled to the safety of high ground after the man lashed himself to a hut with an electrical cable and held the girl above the water for an hour. Only three huts remained standing, one fortunate soul had sought shelter behind one of them. [3]

Rescue parties had some difficulty accessing at the scene due to the road being torn away leaving a huge cliff face in its place. When they arrived they were confronted with utter devastation and were faced with the task of digging for bodies in several feet of silt. Many bodies were discovered several miles downstream and two were never recovered. [4] [5]

Although the camp accommodated up to 80 men, there were fortunately only 46 persons in camp that fateful morn, including two women and two children, as many had left for the weekend. The tragedy claimed the lives of 21 labourers who were constructing the railway between Wairoa and Gisborne residing at N0 4 camp. Among them the life of David Barclay whose final moments can only be imagined. And another was drowned at Boyd’s Camp at the Gisborne end of the railway line where the Maraetaha stream flooded due to the unexpected heavy downpour which was being reported as an act of god. [2] [6] [7]

It may have been of some consolation to families to know that although bodies were recovered in an injured state, and their loved ones experienced a horrifying ordeal, their end would have been peaceful, as the coroner found “That the evidence shows that deceased would in all probability have been rendered unconscious before death, by moving boulders and logs in the stream and so would have been incapable of assisting themselves to safety.”

"It is quite clear to me," said the coroner, "from the evidence that has been given by all witnesses, that something very much out of the ordinary occurred in Kopuawhara and surrounding districts on the night of February 18. It is something perhaps that has never before been heard of in the history of New Zealand.”

Indeed a resident in the general locality testified at the inquest that he awoke at 2.15am on the 19^th of February to torrential rain, and the rainfall recorded from 7pm on the 18^th to 5pm on the 19^th of February of 9.8 inches was regarded as phenomenal.

The discharge capacity of the stream at N0 4 camp was calculated at 13,728 cusecs, and the discharge of the flood was 33,000 cusecs! A rate that had never before been heard of. [8]

A funeral was held on Tuesday morning at Wairoa for eleven of the victims who were buried together in a communal grave. Government and union officials attended the service along with grieving friends and family. [9] [10]

The remaining victims were transported to their home towns in Te Puke, Wellington, Opotiki, Waipukurau and Gisborne by train for interment. [11]

David was sent back to Auckland and a funeral service was held for him on Wednesday afternoon at Waikumete cemetery where he was buried with his father Thomas.

KOPUAWHARA VICTIM, New Zealand Herald,

Volume LXXV, Issue 22972, 25 February 1938
paperspast

Waikumete Cemetery burial book:

Anglican Division A, Row 9,

Plot 28b: Thomas John McManus – Gum Worker

David Barclay (59) 1938

Elizabeth Ann McManus

In Loving Memory of

THOMAS JOHN.

Beloved husband of

Elizabeth A.

McMANUS

passed peacefully away

18^th June 1931

aged 67 years.

ELIZABETH ANN

his beloved wife

passed peacefully away

11^th Jan. 1959

aged 87 years.

In Loving Memory

DAVID BARCLAY

lost his life

19^th Feb. 1938.

In 1942 a memorial to those who perished was erected on high ground above the Kopuawhara Disaster site. Access to it has become difficult over the years, however the Gisborne Canoe and Tramping Club conduct an annual walk to assist people in locating the monument. The inscription bears David’s name along with his work mates. [12]

THIS MONUMENT

RECORDS THE PASSING OF 22 SOULS

RESIDENTS OF

RAILWAY CONTRUCTION CAMPS

WHO PERISHED IN THE FLOOD

OF 19^th FEBRUARY 1938

MARTHA QUINN

W. AULD R. JOHNSTON

A.F. BAJOMEY J. KELLIHER

G. BARBARICH E. McGIVERN

D. BARCLAY E. MARTINAC

F.I.C. CLARKE R.D. NEISH