Queensland Floods

[DIEHARD]

Reeling clubs put seasons on hold



LONG CLEAN-UP: Tom Lyne (right) and son Timothy (left) at the Souths Cricket Club, Yeronga, which was submerged up to the roof. Picture: Suzanna Clarke Source: The Courier-Mail

THE Queensland flood crisis has devastated grassroots sports clubs which now face an uncertain future with grounds and clubhouses flooded, often without the safety net of financial backing or insurance.

While dramatic images of a flooded Suncorp Stadium were a poignant portrait of a sporting industry in trouble, there are hundreds of clubs that have been left on their knees by the floods and may take months to recover.

The clubrooms and fields of the South Brisbane cricket club at Fairfield were submerged under metres of water, with officials visiting in canoes yesterday to survey the damage and destruction. Historic photos are lost forever, heavy machinery ruined and the clubhouse badly damaged.

Queensland batting legend and Souths cricket stalwart Sam Trimble could hardly believe his eyes. Vice-president Tom Lyne said the club faced an enormous battle to recover.

''We couldn't get insurance because we were in the 1974 flood zone ... a little while ago we spent $120,000 renovating the clubhouse and that has now been completely stripped. We will have to start again,'' Lyne said.

''The mud is almost 1m deep. We are going to get working bees coming in with shovels and wheelbarrows to try to clean up.

''We got the honour board out of the clubhouse before the floods and saved the bowling machine, which we walked out, but we have lost plenty of other things.

''We obviously won't have grounds to play on for many weeks but that is just the start of our problems.''

Queensland sports stars continued their terrific work to help out the flood crisis victims yesterday, with Brisbane Lions AFL and Brisbane Roar football stars turning up at evacuation centres to donate clothes and lend a hand.
Queensland Bulls and Queensland Fire cricketers were also out in the community, firstly helping former Test batsman Martin Love whose house at Fairfield went under water, and then offering a hand to anyone who needed it.

In times of trouble, Australians often turn to their favourite sporting pastime but that is going to be tough is some areas of the state where sport may not be possible for as long as six months.

Netball Queensland chief executive Cameron O'Hara said courts in Bundaberg, Rockhampton, Ipswich and parts of Brisbane had been inundated.

He said places such as Bundaberg, which had suffered a double drenching, were already discussing delaying the start of their season by three to six months in order to clean up and recover.

''The effect that it has on the sport, which has the highest participation rate in the country, as a whole will be huge and the flow-on effect will essentially be national,'' O'Hara said.

Rowing Queensland high-performance manager Chad King said the floods had highlighted Brisbane's need for specialist rowing facility not connected to the Brisbane River.

Almost every rowing shed in Bundaberg, Rockhampton and Brisbane had been inundated, with every launching pontoon (with a replacement cost of $250,000) destroyed or washed away.

King said that, with the polluted and debris-laden river now out of action for at least a month, the state's top rowers were madly scrambling to find alternate rowing venues ahead of national championships and World Cup trials in March.

Brisbane Second Division rugby league chairman Mick Tierney said that several clubhouses and fields across the city had been damaged by the floodwaters, with Brothers St Brendan's at Rocklea being one of the worst-hit.

''The water went into the top floor of the clubhouse, by about (40cm), although that was considerably less than the 1974 flood when all that was left showing was the rooftop,'' Tierney said.

''I haven't received formal reports yet but I understand clubs such as Graceville and Mt Gravatt also have been severely affected.''

The Brisbane Referees clubhouse and its training facilities at O'Grady Park, Fairfield, were inundated, but Souths Leagues Club on the river at Davies Park, West End, escaped unscathed.

''The water came up, into the carpark, and there was some on the playing fields, but we consider ourselves very lucky,'' said Souths chief executive Jim McClelland.

However, nearby houses and businesses were not so lucky, with McClelland joining other rugby league volunteers in the clean-up.

''There must be 400 people here helping, including some Gold Coast Titans players,'' McClelland said.

Easts Leagues Club at Stones Corner moved hundreds of poker machines to higher ground under armed guard.

But the floodwaters from nearby Norman Creek covered the Langlands Park playing surface without coming into the clubhouse.

Several bowls clubs around Brisbane face long hauls back to full operation, including Goodna, Toowong and Jindalee.

http://www.couriermail.com.au/

[DIEHARD]

NRL stars set to pitch in

DESPERATE to help the game’s heartland, National Rugby League stars will visit the ruins of Ipswich next week to help residents clean their worm-riddled and mud infected suburbs.

The Parramatta Eels and the Gold Coast Titans will send dozens of players to the city on Tuesday to get their hands dirty in flood-ravaged homes.

While the Sydney Roosters’ players and staff have already donated thousands of dollars to help Ipswich Junior Rugby League clubs return to their former glory.

They have also put a formal request out to their fans to help donate to the Ipswich region.

And there’s an enormous job ahead, one which will cost more than $100 million.

Ipswich’s sports clubs and grounds lay destroyed today.

Brothers and Fassifern were the only IRL clubs that were left dry this week.

While soccer, cricket and rugby grounds are weeks away from resembling nromality.

Yesterday, more than 60 players from the Ipswich Jets club cleaned the Norths Junior Rugby League club house and grounds.

Norths, which backs onto the Bremer River, was detroyed in this week’s 19.5 metre flood.

“We’ve got most of our three teams out helping whoever needs it and it’s the least we can do,” Jets Chief Executive Brad Wolens said.

“We spotted some elderley ladies struggling to get rubbish into a skip on the way to Norths, we stopped and got all the boys out to help them finish the job.”

Wolens said the Eels and Titans were heart broken watching Ipswich sink on national television.

“Both clubs called me this week and said they would send a bunch of their boys to help clean up,” Wolens said.

“Both teams will be up here on Tuesday and we will send them out in groups to different suburbs.

“They want to do anything they can to help.

“We hope that by them being in those suburbs Ipswich people will come along to meet them and also help clean up.

“The only problem we have at the moment is there are not enough skips, “All the big bins were washed away so we need utes to help carry the rubbish.”

The Ipswich Knights soccer club was also ruined, completely submerged.

North Ipswich Reserve was not affected nor were the hockey or rugby league fields at Briggs Road.

The cricket season in Ipswich has already been severely affected by rain and it will be two weeks before another game of cricket is played in the city.

Meanwhile, Australian cricket star and former Ipswich Grammar School student Shane Watson will also help clean up Ipswich.

After starring for Australia in its narrow T20 loss to England earlier this week, Watson pledged to return to his hometown to help.

“It’s really for me, personally, put things in perspective, exactly what cricket means, what life means, with all the devastation ... at home in my home town, Ipswich," he said after a herculean effort for Australia at Adelaide Oval on Wednesday night.

“I’m going to be doing everything I can to get back there as soon as I possibly can to help out.”

http://www.qt.com.au

[DIEHARD]

Roar forced to hit the road

The statue of former rugby league star Wally Lewis fitted out with water wings, a scuba mask and a snorkel outside Suncorp Stadium on January 12. Photo: AP/Brad M****llos


Runaway A-League leaders Brisbane Roar must become football's nomads with fears water-logged Suncorp Stadium will be off-limits for a month.

Hopes Queensland's premier football venue, which resembled a swimming pool this week, would bounce back quickly from the state's flood crisis have disappeared, forcing the Roar to look for alternate venues.

Gold Coast's Skilled Park, Queensland Sports and Athletic Centre (the former ANZ stadium), Ballymore and Toowoomba's Clive Burghofer Stadium are all in the mix to host the club's final four home games.

While the full damage is yet to be assessed, Queensland sports minister Phil Reeves and Roar chairman Chris Bombolas both admitted it may take until the A-League play-offs, starting February 18, for Suncorp to be re-opened.

The floodwaters receded below the surface on Friday, but areas under the stadium are still submerged and there are structural concerns as well as associated problems with the venue's electronics.

It's the second time in 37 years Brisbane's traditional football home has gone under, but Reeves was adamant Suncorp would recover much better and quicker than the old Lang Park did in the 1974 flood.

He was confident it will be ready for the A-League finals and the start of the NRL and Super Rugby seasons, beginning with the Queensland Reds' opening round clash against the Western Force on February 20.

"It's important we try to return Suncorp Stadium to its 100 per cent glory," Reeves told AAP.

"We're very hopeful it will be ready for the football seasons but we also have the Roar and we want to do everything we can do to assist them.

"Sporting stadiums are no doubt very important but we also need perspective.

"As a government our priority is getting people back into their homes and businesses."

The Roar, who hold a 10-point lead at the top of the A-League ladder, were to host Wellington this Sunday but flooding saw it postponed until January 26.

Bombolas gave the 52,500-seat stadium no chance of holding that fixture, nor the ensuing game against Melbourne Heart, set to be moved back two days from January 28 to allow the team extra recovery time.

Not interested in cancelling the matches and splitting the points, he said Skilled Park was the most likely alternative venue, but QSAC could also host games once it is no longer required as an evacuation centre.

Bombolas was keen to see the Roar's February 5 clash with North Queensland shifted to Toowoomba to aid flood relief for the Darling Downs and Lockyer Valley.

The Roar are also desperate to have Suncorp re-opened for a blockbuster February 12 match against Gold Coast with early plans being made for a flood relief encounter.

"That would be the one you would really hope could be back at Suncorp," Bombolas said. "That could be a call to arms."

Reeves said 75 per cent of Queensland's sports grounds and facilities had been badly affected by the flood crisis.

Among those requiring a massive clean-up and recovery effort is the Queensland Tennis Centre, which only last week hosted the highly-successful Brisbane International.

The centre's roofed 5,000-seat showpiece, Pat Rafter Arena, had water over the top of the central umpires chair while the expensive grass and clay practice courts were also submerged and damaged.

http://www.smh.com.au/

[DIEHARD]

Tedder Ave bash boosts flood appeal

TEDDER Avenue was transformed into a pumped-up, star-studded party that not only attracted a crowd of thousands, but raised close to $1 million for flood victims on Friday night.

The Mates in Need Street Party at Main Beach had such an overwhelming response from the community it baffled event brainchild Katie Page-Harvey.

It was just last week the idea of a street party was conceived, but on Friday the street was filled with entertainers, singers and food stalls.

Myer and Harvey Norman kicked off the fundraiser with a $750,000 donation but more money will be tallied over the weekend.

Mrs Page-Harvey, husband Gerry Harvey and models Jess Hart, Rebecca Twigley and Laura Dundovic all worked the crowd collecting donations for the Queensland Flood Relief Appeal.

Mrs Page-Harvey, who grew up in St George and Rockhampton and lived in Brisbane during the 1974 flood, said watching the horrific events of the past week bought back so many memories she wanted to help.

''People need cash,'' she said.

''They have no idea what they are going to come home to: mud up the walls, everything ruined and a stench that lingers for such a long time after the water recedes.''

Former Miss Universe Australia Laura Dundovic, one of many celebrities mingling at the street party, said what happened with the floods had been tragic but it was the clean up and ongoing effects that would be the hardest to deal with.

''I will do anything to help get everyone back to living their normal lives,'' she said.

''Whole towns are a mess when that is all better, that's when we can stop fundraising.''

The face of Magic Millions Jess Hart said she would continue fundraising at the big race day.

''Our aim is to raise a magic million,'' she said.

''I've been so caught up in the floods that I've barely had any time to even think about the races.''

Other celebrities to make an appearance were V8 supercar driver James Courtney, Dannii Minogue's boyfriend Chris Smith, Gold Coast Suns and Titans players and stars from Channel Nine show Sea Patrol.

Paris Findley, one of the Gold Coasters whose use of social networking site Facebook to spread the word of the event to 15,000 people, said it felt very rewarding to have helped in some way.

DG3 director and event organiser David Grant said he was humbled by the amount of people who donated their time and services to last night's event.

''This is a sexy precinct; I wish we had something like this in Sydney,'' he said.

''The community should do this more often.''

http://www.goldcoast.com.au