Storms Wreck Havoc for SE Queensland Supers

 

As residents and business throughout south east Queensland were left to mop up after the recent storms, golf course superintendents and their maintenance staff also faced extensive clean up operations in the wake of some of the most extreme weather to hit the region in years.

The carnage began on the afternoon of Sunday 16 November when a super storm cell ripped through Brisbane bringing with it torrential rain and winds up to 200kph. Rain continued to fall throughout the week and peaked again on the Wednesday night when upwards of 250mm fell in some areas to the west of Brisbane thwarting many clean up efforts. If that wasn’t enough a further storm front passed through on Thursday night and while rainfall was much less, gale force winds again left a trail of debris.

Two of the region’s worst affected courses were Keperra Country Golf Club and Ashgrove Golf Club in Brisbane’s western suburbs. Keith Johnson, superintendent at the 27-hole Keperra Country Golf Club, has been at the club for the past 23 years, including the past 11 as superintendent, and says he has never witnessed so much destruction.

“It’s the worst I have ever seen it here,” Johnson says. “I now know what the guys up north were going through earlier this year. I was at the course on Sunday afternoon just before the storm cell hit. All the warnings were suggesting that it was going to pass to the south of us but before I left work, around 4.30pm, I had a quick squiz at BOM and could see it was coming right for us. I left to head home - I live a kilometre away from the course - and by the time I got there the wipers were going flat out. It was incredible.”

Before the maintenance facility rain gauge clogged up with leaves, debris and hail it had recorded 85mm in very short time but Johnson figures the amount was greater. Combined with 130kph winds the scene that greeted Johnson and his staff the following morning was one of devastation.

“We probably have between 300-400 trees down,” says Johnson. “Some of the older trees which were 15-20 metres high were just ripped right out of the ground or snapped in half. The water cleared pretty quickly and we went out on the Monday morning with blowers and rakes to clean silt off the greens. We had about 40 volunteers helping and we managed to get a 20 tonne excavator, truck and chipper in to help with the clean up.

“There wasn’t a huge amount of silt damage, but we have had large chunks of fairway turf just scalloped out. A retaining wall was washed away and we will have to repair some of the bridges which have also been damaged. All the bunkers have been scoured severely too so we’ve got a fair bit of work ahead of us. But there’s not much you can do about it – that’s nature for you.”

Johnson and this crew had the front nine cleaned up by the end of Wednesday but that night the course copped another 70mm, which combined with the 65mm received on Tuesday night meant that the course was again under water on Thursday. The clubhouse also suffered extensive flood damage.

Over the hill at Ashgrove Golf Club and “trashed” is the word Daniel Breen uses to describe the state of the course he has been superintendent at for the past eight and a half years. Breen and his staff of five are looking at a minimum two week course closure and when The Cut called 40 SES volunteers and trucks were helping with the clean up.

Situated in The Gap, which bore the full front of the Sunday storm, the heavily tree-lined course copped 92mm of rain in 25 minutes, cricket-ball sized hailstones and wind gusts of up to 200kph. That was followed up on Wednesday night by a further 112mm which saw the local Fish Creek burst its banks again. Normally about 6m across and a metre deep, Breen estimates the creek at one stage was about 70m across and seven metres deep.

“We’ve had a couple of good storms over the years but nothing quite like this,” says Breen. “More than 300 trees were uprooted and some of the bigger ones look like they have been twisted right around. A number of bridges have suffered extensive damage and the new practice nets the club installed recently are about four kilometres downstream.

“We’re quite a hilly course and we have also had a lot of landslides too so we are in for a big clean up. We’ve lost our pumps too and up until now we haven’t been able to get hold of a wood chipper because they are all being used to clear debris everywhere else. Compounding matters is that we back on to Army land and damaged trees at that end of the course have ripped up an extensive network of fibre optic cables.”

Elsewhere across the region many superintendents had to deal with surface flooding to parts of their courses and faced lengthy clean-up operations. Brisbane Golf Club (photo top right) had 203mm from Sunday-Thursday, while at at Indooroopilly Golf Club staff were mopping up after receiving nearly 230mm for the same period (see photo right). Recently appointed Helensvale Golf Club superintendent Alan Mulcahy and his crew were also cleaning up after copping 195mm in three days which caused extensive flooding (photo middle right).