1955 floods in Dubbo saw water inundate much of the CBD

A report in the Daily Liberal by Heather Crosby, recognising 60 years since the event said four thousand people were evacuated as turbid, swirling flood waters pushed trees, animals and debris through residential and business areas.

Water more than a metre deep flowed across the main street and in some of the worst affected areas families scrambled onto roofs to wait for the arrival of rescue crews.

Five homes were destroyed at Dubbo when the Macquarie River exceeded its previous record height by 1.6 metres.

The central business district was devastated. It was a similar story at Narromine, Warren, Trangie and other towns in the Macquarie Valley.

With the Macquarie River bridge at Dubbo cut by flooding, people of all ages climbed the railway bridge to get to West Dubbo. Boats were used for rescue missions and to ferry supplies around the town.

At the aerodrome planes were loaded with supplies for people isolated in the west of the state. Radio station 2DU broadcast 24 hours a day from the upstairs foyer of its Macquarie Street building after the downstairs studios were completely flooded.

The February 27, 1955 edition of the Sunday Times reported a message from Dubbo warned the Macquarie River was threatening to sweep the whole town away.

"Since that report communications have been cut," the paper said.

"RAAF aircraft dropped urgently needed food supplies to the majority of the 50 country town in the grip of the floods.

"The RAAF airdrop, the greatest of its kind ever in Australia, began at dawn.

"Reports were filtering in from stricken areas telling of fresh horrors in many centres now reduced to pathetically silent ghost towns set in seas of swirling, mid-stained waters."

It was about a week until water levels started to drop in Dubbo.

When the 1955 flood struck, Tom Gray was an 11-year-old living in the family-run hotel.

The Macquarie View Hotel was located on the corner of Macquarie Street and Talbragar Street, opposite where Dubbo Regional Library is now located.

Speaking to the Daily Liberal in 2012 on the 55^th anniversary of the floods, Mr Gray recalled a time when he and his uncle Frank Gray would swim up Talbragar Street in order to get supplies.

"Dubbo used to flood a fair bit in those days and from the pub we could see a normal flood down where Brennan's Mitre 10 is now," he said.

"But then water starting coming through gutters and it became obvious pretty quickly that this was not your average flood."

As water levels rose in streets and buildings, Mr Gray and his uncle would try and get furniture and equipment up to the top story of the Macquarie View.

"Inside I would swim around and try to pick up some furniture and get it upstairs," he said.

"We knew it was coming inside the pub when the kegs in the downstairs cellar were hitting the roof, which was the floor of the pub.

"I would go out on the balcony of the pub upstairs and you could look down Macquarie Street, it was flowing pretty quickly.

"Me and my uncle Frank would swim up Talbragar Street. By the time we got to the Castlereagh Hotel I couldn't touch the ground anymore."

Despite the passing time Mr Gray said they memories remained vivid, and it was strange to think such a long period of time had passed.

"It was certainly an experience I will never, ever forget," he said.

"Like I said earlier, Dubbo used to flood a bit. You could go down and paddle in the bottom end of Macquarie Street and Talbragar Street.

"But this was something else. North Dubbo went under and it was just an event that it can be really hard to put into words."