Emergency services still battling blaze that engulfed Gisborne Golf Club, local RSL on Daly St
A popular golf club and local RSL sub-branch in the Macedon Ranges has been completely destroyed after it was engulfed in flames early on Wednesday morning.
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A popular golf club and local RSL sub-branch north of Melbourne has been completely destroyed after a fire took hold of the clubhouse early Wednesday.
Emergency services responded to a fire at the Gisborne Golf Club on Daly St about 2.45am where crews discovered a 50 x 30m structure engulfed in flames.
As many as 17 CFA units alongside FRV, police, paramedics and Powercor crews also attended.
The blaze was deemed under control two hours later, about 4.22am.
Gisborne Fire Brigade Incident Controller Jordan Whitefield said the cause of the fire was undetermined but fire investigators and Victoria Police were investigating.
“Due to the size of the building and its material it was moving quite fast when crews arrived ... the building is completely destroyed and it will be a massive loss to the community.
“There was a minor grass fire out the back that was taken care of pretty quickly, it was minor and there’s no buildings nearby to have any effect on.”
He said at the height of the incident there was 20 appliances and 80 firefighters, crews will remain on scene most of Wednesday to put out any hotspots.
Crews drafted water from the dam at the golf course, about 100m from the club house to supply their appliances.
CFA commander for the Macedon Ranges Darren Eenjes wanted to clarify an earlier determination of the fire being suspicious was misunderstood and said as of noon it was still undetermined.
Investigators and crews will remain at the scene for most of Wednesday but the golf club is confident members will be able to tee off tomorrow.
Gisborne Golf Club general manager Brett Campbell said the club, which was more than 100 years old, had lost a lot of history but vowed to the community they would come back stronger.
The club hosts a number of community groups from the RSL, the school graduations, funerals, trivia nights and has more than 900 members connected to the golf club.
“We’ve got almost a thousand members that will be impacted by this, but the course will reopen tomorrow for play, fingers crossed, nothing wrong with the course still in great condition,” he said.
“I was pretty shocked, few tears in my eyes to tell you the truth, the club just celebrated its centenary in 2021,”
“there’s a lot of people who had grandmothers and fathers who have been here since the beginning and they had names on all the honours boards that are now lost.
“I guess everyone has lost a bit of themselves in this, but we’ll come back stronger.”
The golf club is also home to the Gisborne RSL.
Sub-branch President Darren Grevis-James said the incident had left the community “absolutely devastated” and revealed some of the precious items lost in the blaze were “irreplaceable”.
“The Golf club and RSL are the heart and soul of this community, and this is a terrible loss for the community but hopefully we’ll find a way out of it,” Mr Grevis James said.
“We have lost all our memorabilia, and it’s all irreplaceable, there were photos, boards, all sorts of things and we can’t get it back,”
“Critically, we’ve lost a place where we hold our meetings so now we nee to go to the community and council to see what we can do to continue sub-branch meetings.
“I had a phone call early this morning about 6.30 that was the first I heard about it but I slept through, I live nearby but I slept through the fire sirens,
“I was just like, is this happening, is this real, so coming up here now and looking at the devastation the reality has come that we’ve lost our home.”
The RSL has about 50 members including many veterans who were out in the community at the moment selling ANZAC appeal badges.
The RSL would still hold its Anzac Day ceremony at the Hamilton St cenotaph next week and he was hopeful there would be a big turnout from the community.
Mr Grevis-James said a message was sent out to members and the group had already received dozens of messages from the broader community with support and offers for help and the RSL was “buoyed by that”.
“The community is out there, they know what they have lost, what we have lost and they’re there to help us.”
Macedon Ranges Shire Council Mayor Annette Death offered her sympathies towards the Gisborne community.
“Council was saddened at the news of the fire impacting the Gisborne Golf Club building, which we know is an important community asset in also being home to the Gisborne RSL Sub Branch and used by a number of other groups.
Our thoughts go out to the Gisborne community and all those impacted by this incident.”
Ms Death said the council would do anything it can to help both clubs.
“Council has reached out to both the golf club and RSL directly to see if we can practically support them in any way, particularly ahead of Anzac Day for the RSL.”
Insurance teams and a demolition crew were also in attendance on Wednesday morning to assess the damage.
Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or make a report at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.
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