Canberra marks 50 years from the Woden Valley flood which killed seven young people

Every year, for a few hours on January 26, now-retired police officer Blen McInnes sits at a stone memorial for the victims of the 1971 Woden Valley flood.

The events of that stormy night, which saw seven young people die, changed the course of his career, and still haunt him 50 years later.

“I wouldn’t go past [the scene] for some time, because it upset me,” Mr McInnes said.

“And even today, I’m getting goosebumps talking about it.”

Fifty years on, the flood remains Canberra’s deadliest natural disaster and the city’s largest civilian loss of life.

Mr McInnes had been babysitting for friends in the Canberra…