
About 5.45 pm on Saturday 2 February 1918, Brighton and Brighton Beach was lashed by a severe storm, described as the most furious windstorm in Melbourne since meteorological records, with wind estimated by Commonwealth meteorologist, Mr HA Hunt of Elsternwick, to have been more than 200 miles an hour (320 km/h).
The column on Adam Lindsay Gordon’s grave was broken and thrown some distance away, breaking the wreath, the only grave damaged.
After the storm formed and moved off Port Phillip, two tornadoes struck Brighton Beach simultaneously and proceeded inland, converging near the junction of Halifax and Church streets. The prevailing north-westerly winds were accompanied by heatwave conditions.
Two people were killed, a man and a boy, and several injured. The tornado completely destroyed the Hawthorn Road Methodist church, which was later rebuilt, and numerous homes were demolished. The tornado badly damaged the Brighton Baths, tore the roof off the Royal Terminus Hotel and destroyed the verandah of Grimley’s Hotel, as well as causing extensive infrastructure damage to the Sandringham railway line.
Chimneys collapsed, boats were capsized, trees uprooted, and telephone lines blown down. The Brighton Beach Baths were also destroyed.
Although reported as tornadoes, Mr Hunt explained that the technical term was ‘line storm’. (The Argus, Melbourne, Monday, 4 February 1918, p. 7.)
On 1 September 1918, several thousand people gathered at Gordon’s grave, the column having been restored after the storm damage. (Age, Melbourne, 2 September 1918, p. 6.)
Ernest Blake (pictured at the grave in 1919) was a member of the Gordon Memorial Committee and attended almost every memorial event. From 1925 he spent each weekend in a voluntary capacity attending the grave, and collecting seeds from the golden wreath wattle that then stood over the grave. More than 60,000 seeds were sent to schools and public institutions, etc., in Australia, New Zealand and parts of England. Blake was also largely responsible for the re-interment of Gordon’s daughter Annie Lindsay in 1919, and the unveiling of a plaque to this effect in 1935.
Ernest Blake died in 1938 and is buried not far from Gordon.