When Melbourne become “Venice”

"Once more Victoria has been visited by very severe floods, and every part of the country has suffered more or less. In fact, since 1859, there has been no such destructive flood in the country districts as that which occurred on the 9th September. Almost the whole distance from Sandhurst to Echuca, about sixty miles, was laid under water, and of course a great deal of damage was done to property. In the Ballarat and Geelong districts there was also great loss....
    "'I left Melbourne with the River Yarra at flood height [says our correspondent], and though subsiding, Flinders Street was submerged at the end of William Street....  [H]ardly had I been seated in the train than the whole area between Spencer Street and the Saltwater [Maribyrnong] River spread out before me as one vast sea, and as we neared Footscray no traces of the river could be seen but half buried houses, black chimneys rising isolated out of the water, and the bridge with hardly the shape of the arch visible. Further on to the right the bridge at the racecourse had floated away, and was leaning half over against some cottages, of which the roofs only could be seen'."

~ Excerpt from 'The Floods in Victoria,' from the 10 Oct 1870 edition of The Illustrated Australian News for Home Readers [hat tip Jo Nova]