FLOODS HIT QUEENSLAND CLUBS
Last month, the Queensland weather lashed across the State and flooded two of our clubs, Tansey Bowls Club and Maryborough Services Memorial Bowls Club. Tansey Bowls Club was hit the worst, with about a metre of water inside the clubhouse. Tansey’s President Rainer Marschall said they had to remove the wall linings so that the walls could dry out properly.
“Most of our tables, chairs and other furniture were ruined and will be dumped,” he said.
“The kitchen and appliances including fridges, freezers, stoves and ovens will have to be replaced.
“All of our machinery for green maintenance has also been under a metre of water and we are still in the process of trying to assess what can be saved.
“Fortunately, our cold-room looked like it was okay, although all of our stock was lost, our BBQ is still operable so we can operate in some form. We are not a rich club and we have fewer than 30 full members.
“Our little club is not just a bowls club. It is not in a town or city, it is in a rural area and is used by the local community who vote there, have birthday parties and all other sorts of other gatherings there.
“These same people were amongst the workers you see in the photos helping to clean up the mess at our club, even though most of them had lost horses and cattle, which is their livelihood, and had extensive damage to fences and other property damage to deal with at their own properties.”
Rainer is very grateful to the community, volunteers and also to the North Toowoomba Bowls Club who held a raffle during the Junior State Championships to help raise funds for the club. Murgon Services Club has made a $30,000 donation to assist the club. Within a week, the machinery was repaired and the club had been cleaned.
The oldest working volunteer helping to restore the damage was the club’s life member who is 86 in May and the youngest was about three years old.
Maryborough Services Memorial Bowls Club also suffered damage during the mid-January flooding. The bottom level of their club house was flooded, which included the lockers, toilets and cold room.
Clubs that have been affected by events such as flooding can contact Bowls Queensland and apply for disaster relief funding.
