Sunshine Coast, Noosa sport clubs, fields impacted by flooding
Dozens of Sunshine Coast and Noosa sporting clubs have suffered financially following the heavy rainfall and flooding. See the list of clubs closed and rebuilding:
Sunshine Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Sunshine Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Dozens of sporting clubs across the Sunshine Coast and Noosa remain closed days after heavy rain and flooding damaged sporting fields and amenities.
The repair bill is climbing with some clubs reporting tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage.
Many club members have had a limited chance to assess the damage to clubs, lights, fields, gyms and change rooms but have said all fields would remain closed for at least the next few days.
It comes as Surf Lifesaving Queensland made the decision to cancel the youth and senior/masters state championships events that were set to take place at Alexandra Headland and Mooloolaba beach.
The Sunshine Coast Stadium was also forced to postpone the Queensland oztag junior state cup on Friday due to the wild weather.
The Insurance Council of Australia confirmed it had received 15,000 claims since February 21 from policy holders across NSW and Queensland, with the number of claims spiking by 33 per cent in just a single day.
Sunshine Coast mayor Mark Jamieson said a grants program to assist hard hit sporting clubs would be strongly considered during the flood recovery.
However, he said on Monday that the recovery phase had only just begun and it was too soon to put any concrete plans in place.
Here’s a look at how your local club has been affected:
Rugby League
All rugby league clubs from Gympie to Caboolture have reported that their fields and clubhouses are closed.
Stanley River Wolves and Pomona Cooran Cutters took to Facebook to say it was the highest water levels they had ever received in their clubs’ histories.
Pomona Cooran Cutters president Sharon Collins said the club had been “immensely” affected.
“Every time we look or check there’s something else that has been affected,” she said.
“Our last quote was up to $42,000 and we still hadn’t touched it so that’s without the damage of cleaning, electrical, paint and all that other stuff.”
A Facebook post from the club explained the extent of the damage.
“Areas most hit are toilets, referees room, canteen and shed that went totally under and water went halfway up the commentary box,” a comment said.
“Two toilets, dressing rooms and storage room, water went up about 2m, 1m off the veranda floor and the aftermath is just thick mud.”
Collins said all the equipment was moved to higher ground before the floods hit.
“We moved a lot of stuff but we still lost everything that was below the veranda,” she said.
“The cleaning has already started and we’ve filled up an entire skip bin with another two on their way.
“The council, the QRL and the wider community has been fantastic in terms of their generosity and support.”
Junior Nambour Crushers club president Carl Witherspoon thanked the work of the board members for salvaging the club’s junior merchandise.
“The majority of our kids play on the bottom fields which were totally covered and we also had a main pipe burst as well,” he said.
“We also have a shed down on the bottom fields which is fairly high up but it still got inundated with water which unfortunately is where we were storing our new merchandise for our junior players.
“It all got soaked so a few of us went in when it was a bit lower and took all of the brand new training gear out of the wrapping and straight to the laundrette.”
He said he was hoping to have the players back training by next week.
“We’re unsure of the cost at the moment but we’ll be in there all week after work cleaning and fixing up the change rooms and any other damages,” he said.
“Training’s been cancelled for the entire week already so we’ll wait and see but hoping to be back in action next week.”
Numerous other clubs such as Kawana, Maroochydore, Coolum, Noosa, Caloundra and Beerwah have also put out statements that their fields and clubhouse will remain closed until at least Wednesday, March 2.
Aussie rules
The Maroochydore Roos and the Hinterland Blues AFL clubs had some of most rain-affected sporting grounds on the Sunshine Coast.
Hinterland Blues club president Bruce Bell said he was thankful for the work and reconstruction of the clubhouse in recent years.
“We were pointed out as a club on a flood-plain so the reconstruction of our clubhouse has been very successful in terms of what it was intended to do,” he said.
“The new facility stood high and dry and we’ve instead had damages to our storage sheds, fields and car park.”
Bell said he was hopeful of beginning clean-up sometime this week.
“We have to get in there and start clean-up, see what equipment and memorabilia we’ve lost and to also assess the extent of gravel that has been washed across our field,” he said.
“If we're looking at field rectification and equipment I’d say it would be around $30,000 but again it could've been much worse.”
Roos club president Brad Saunders said he hadn’t had the chance to get down to the fields but was hopeful of getting things back on track in the coming days.
“I’ve been here for nearly 15 years and I’ve never seen it that bad,” he said.
“The council had said they were going to have a look at it today to see what they would have to do in terms of getting a clean-up underway.
“It is tough to see but a lot of people have had their houses affected so some footy fields going under isn’t as bad and it isn’t the main priority right now.”
Other clubs such as Coolum Beach, Pomona-Cooroy, Kawana and Noosa have also closed their grounds until further notice.
Football
Football Queensland confirmed on Sunday February 27 the postponement of all junior and senior fixtures and carnivals in South East Queensland that were scheduled to be played between February 28 and March 6.
Woombye Snakes president Andrew Kinden said the club was hit without warning.
“Basically we got hit twice as we were inundated on Wednesday following the rapid downpour on Tuesday which flooded the fields, the clubhouse and the canteen,” he said.
“It flooded about two inches of the clubhouse and got the merchandise and other things like that.”
Kinden said there was nothing they could do once the floods began.
“We’re used to it because we are on a flood-plain but it just caught us unaware so we weren't able to get up any netting so it’s the debris that has destroyed things like the goal nets and fences,” he said.
“I couldn’t even give a guesstimate figure at the moment as it’s just been some rainwater channelled through the clubhouse and the main damage coming to the fields.
“We’ve got our working bee clean-up set for tomorrow afternoon with a free sausage sizzle to anyone that is able to come down and help out.”
Maroochydore Swans players, parents, members and spectators joined forces on Monday to help begin a clean up.
Club president Colin Towle said he hoped to be back and training by the end of the week.
All Sunshine Coast clubs have closed their fields and stated that they will re-evaluate the grounds conditions on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Kawana Football Club were holding a working bee of sorts on Tuesday afternoon to kick-off the clean-up after floodwaters inundated their facilities.
Cricket
A number of main fields have been affected ahead of the Sunshine Coast senior cricket finals on March 5.
The Caloundra and Tewantin-Noosa grounds were seen to have received the most amount of rainfall on and around the outside of the oval but Tewantin-Noosa vice president Jason Toohey said the pitch will be right to go come Saturday.
“Apart from our grounds being soggy we have no real damage to the club,” he said.
“We had some kids do a bit of damage and some wind bring in some unnecessary stuff but once that eased it’s not too bad.
“Our groundsmen got to work today and we’ll be ready for our semi final this weekend.”
Rugby Union
All Sunshine Coast rugby union grounds and school ovals will also remain closed until Wednesday.
‘Bikies thumbing their nose’: LNP promises more cops on the Coast
The LNP has promised a boost to policing numbers amid a spike in bikie activity on the Sunshine Coast, while Labor downplays the threat of organised crime.
‘Free lunch for the little criminals?’: Voter lets fly at Miles
A seething Townsville retiree has unloaded on Steven Miles and the Labor party for their handling of the youth crime crisis and school lunch plan.