 This approximately equates to a 100-year flood event.At the Helena River, the 1872 flood level was two feet 3 inches higher that the 1862 event (ARI=60).An account in "The Perth Gazette and Western Australian Journal" on 26 July 1872 reported
In and about Perth, the water owing to the force of the incoming seas at the mouth of the river presented a scene of a great lake, all the jetties were submerged, the high roads to Fremantle covered, and passage traffic rendered impossible quantities of sandalwood lying along the banks of river were washed away, and the inhabitants of the suburban villas on the slopes of Mount Eliza obliged to scramble up the hill sides to get into Perth.