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Farmer killed in extreme weather posted video of storm hours before he died
By Angus Livingston and Alex Crowe
The Victorian farmer killed in this week’s severe storms posted a video of the gathering storm and a screenshot of a weather map showing the rain front about two hours before he died.
Bruce Manintveld shared a video showing cows in a pasture and dark clouds on social media platform X on Tuesday afternoon. The images were accompanied by one word: “Incoming”.
A screengrab from a video posted on Twitter by Mirboo North farmer Bruce Manintveld two hours before the storm that tragically killed him.Credit: Twitter
Manintveld died after extreme winds picked up a large sheet of metal and sent it towards him, killing him and several cows he was herding on his quad bike.
The Mirboo North dairy farmer, 50, was working when storms ripped through South Gippsland on Tuesday night. He posted the video just after 4pm – Worksafe Victoria said he was killed at about 6pm.
Manintveld’s wife, Fiona, was involved with the Ferntree Gully Falcons basketball club, which paid tribute to him.
“It is with great sadness that we share the news of the sudden passing of Bruce Manintveld, who was tragically killed during the recent Victorian storm on Tuesday,” the club posted on Facebook.
“Bruce was married to Fiona, who played all her junior domestic basketball with the Ferntree Gully Falcons and representative basketball with the Knox Raiders.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the extended Baker family in this difficult time.
“In memory of Bruce and to show our support to the Baker family, we would ask that all Falcons teams wear black armbands for their games this coming Saturday and Sunday.”
On Wednesday, Premier Jacinta Allan announced the farmer’s death in the storms.
“Our thoughts and also, too, our support are with the family who have lost a loved one. And also the broader community,” Allan said.
The extreme winds flattened transmission towers, brought down lines and knocked out Victoria’s largest power station. More than 500,000 homes were without power on Tuesday, but that had dropped to 24,433 by 5pm on Friday.
The clean-up in Mirboo North is continuing after the storms.
Mirboo North was described as unrecognisable after Tuesday’s storm.
“At this point in time, we know around about 16 properties have been identified as uninhabitable, but we do expect that number to grow,” SES chief officer Tim Wiebusch said about Mirboo North on Friday.
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