The strangest tourist attraction in Charleville is the two Vortex Rainmaking Guns in Graham Andrews Park off the road to Cunnamulla. The story of the guns dates to the bizarre actions of an extraordinary meteorologist during the worst drought in Australian history. The federation drought began in 1895 and lasted seven years. It reached its devastating climax in 1902 with virtually all of NSW and Queensland affected. Half of the newly formed commonwealth's sheep died as did two in five cattle. Graziers grieved as their parched topsoil turned to dust.
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The desperate NSW State Government declared 26 February 1902 a day of "humiliation and prayer" for rain. Queensland matters were just as bad, but one man in particular wasn't prepared to simply pray for rain. He was Chief Meteorologist Clement Lindley Wragge. Wragge wasn't waiting for God - he wanted to make the rain himself. Wragge was flamboyant but no crank. He was a world renowned meteorologist who travelled widely and was extremely innovative. It was his idea to give names to cyclones. He took great pleasure in naming the storms for mythological creatures and politicians who annoyed him. This latter habit, while endearing, created many powerful enemies. He was overlooked to lead the newly created national weather bureau in 1908 even though the bureau was his idea and he had the best credentials for the job.
Back in 1902, he had other weighty matters on his mind. Wragge had been Queensland's chief government meteorologist for 15 years and the impact of the drought and finding ways of fixing it were a personal obsession. During a visit to Europe he found a novel solution to the problem. In the wine-making region of northern Italy, he found out about a strange invention grapegrowers used to dispel damaging hailstorms: the Stiger Vortex gun.
The apparently successful idea was the brainchild of Austrian inventor Albert Stiger. In the 1880s, Stiger constructed a four metre tall cannon which when shot vertically into the air prevented the formation of hailstones. No one was entirely sure how. Some attributed it to the effect of the explosion while others said it was the vortex ring that rose from the cannon. Whatever it was, it worked and the hail fell as rain to the delight of the vineyard owners. Wragge was impressed and immediately thought Australia's drought could also be ended by "explosions in the air".
Wragge took Stiger's design back to Brisbane and created his own guns. The weapons were 18 feet long and shaped like "conical candle snuffers". The idea was to use a battery of the guns to fire shells at clouds causing a vortex (an artificial whirlwind) to release rain. Wragge already had a working relationship with Charleville council so the outback town seemed a logical place to conduct the experiment. The drought-suffering council were happy to oblige and raised public donations to help fund the mission. Wragge took ten candle-snuffing guns to Charleville and placed them at locations across town. Then it was a case of waiting for a cloudy day.
The Charleville Bugle of 12 September 1902 described the anticipation:
Self-confessed rainmaker Clement Wragge, has arrived in Charleville to oversee the delivery of six massive Stiger Vortex cannons. Mr Wragge will begin rainmaking operations when suitable clouds gather above the township. At that time Mr Wragge will give the word for the cannons to fire rain producing gas into the atmosphere. "I feel sure he is our strongest hope for rain," town Alderman John Armstrong said.
The Bugle also expressed its doubts. Its editorial asked would Charleville "be the laughing stock or envy of the world?" It would take two weeks before that question could be answered. On 26 September, the cloud cover was satisfactory for the experiment. Wragge gave the signal to load and the guns exploded into life. A flask of gunpowder was emptied into each breach and the powder was detonated with a piece of blasting fuse. The guns banged away till all the powder was used up. The effect was noisy and spectacular but there was no rain. Undaunted, Wragge procured more gunpowder and launched more detonations. Again the clouds obstinately refused to offer rain. Wragge abandoned the experiment. That night he gave a lecture to a packed hall and returned to Brisbane the following day. He later tried similar experiments in Roma and Harrisville but they also failed. Worse still, some of the guns exploded when they fired, narrowly missing onlookers.
When Herr Stiger found out about Wragge's experiments, he sent him a letter admonishing him for foolishness in trying to make rain this way. The guns were designed to dispel hail, he wrote, and not to force clouds to release rain. People lost interest in Wragge's idea as news of the failure spread. The drought broke at the end of 1902 and the ten Charleville guns were abandoned and left to rot until most became dilapidated and sold for scrap.
Today only two guns remain intact. They have been lovingly restored and given pride of place in Charleville's biggest park. Wragge quit his job the following year when his funding was decreased by the Commonwealth. Fuelled by bitterness that his talents were not recognised, Wragge moved to New Zealand where he built an observatory. He died of a heart attack in December 1922 at the age of 70. The Vortex guns are a fitting monument to a bold experimenter for whom failure was always only a temporary obstacle. As a sign at the park reads, Wragge was "equal parts genius, eccentric and larrikin".
- By Derek Barry, Editor, North West Star, Mount Isa.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
