Eather FamilyPrint Page

The memorial sign was erected to members of the Eather Family who were washed away in the record 1867 flood in which twelve of them died. A new sign was erected at the site in 2017, the 150th anniversary of the event. 

LOSS OF LIFE AT WINDSOR.-The gloomiest forebodings as to probable loss of life are prevalent. It is reported that William and George Eather, farmers, living at Cornwallis, placed their wives and children on the roofs of their houses, and there clung with them awaiting help until the rising waters washed them off. The two wives and their ten children were overwhelmed in the flood, and the husbands saved themselves and one little boy by swimming to a willow tree, from which they were shortly afterwards rescued and taken in a boat to Richmond. It is said that they made fruitless attempts to save their wives and children and that one of the poor women, seeing the impossibility of escape, begged of her husband to save himself and not to mind her.
Excerpts from Incidents of the Floods in NSW, 
The Brisbane Courier (Qld), 1 July 1867. 

The tragedy that occurred to the Eather family during the Great Flood of 1867 has a new marker at Cornwallis. On the 150th anniversary of the flood, a new sign to replace the old one marking the tragedy was unveiled. The 1867 flood was the highest recorded flood in the Hawkesbury, and 12 members of the Eather family lost their lives in the flood, after becoming trapped. Eather family members were at the unveiling on Thursday morning. 

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