All hands on deck as Newbridge begins flood recovery process again

THE Newbridge community was out in force on Sunday as clean-up work on the flood-ravaged Riverside Park swung into action.

The Newbridge Football-Netball Club put a social medal call out on Saturday for a working bee on Sunday and Maroons' president Andrew Friswell was overwhelmed with the response in the wake of the town's third biggest flood.

"There's people here that I don't even know; the community has just been fantastic and that's what it's all about," Friswell said.

"We've got people here with bobcats and different machinery and they are all donating their time, which we are very appreciative of."

It's the second time in 11 years the Maroons are recovering from a flood that has wreaked havoc on their home ground at Riverside Park, which sits alongside the Loddon River.

The previous was in January of 2011 when the sporting precinct was wiped out and had to be rebuilt.

The water that ravaged Riverside Park on Friday wasn't as high as what the 2011 levels reached, but the club was caught off guard having been initially advised by Goulburn Murray Water to prepare for "moderate flooding".

The 2011 flood peak was measured at 2330mm above floor level, with this latest flood disaster on Friday reaching 1900mm above floor level in the club's social room that had been officially opened in May of 2013.

The new social room was part of a multi-purpose pavilion that also included a bar, change rooms, umpires room, office, medical room and public toilets.

"The building is structurally sound and hasn't moved," Friswell said.

"Basically, it's gone through the building at that height (1900mm), so anything below that is going to have to be fixed.

"We've got a lot of structures still okay, but things like the scoreboard... we'll have to rip out the electronics and replace the electronics and that could be $50,000."

Among those leading the way at Sunday's working bee was Ron Trimble, who became the face of the club's recovery 11 years ago as the president who led the Maroons in the aftermath of the 2011 floods.

"It's hard having to go through this again, but you can see with all the people who are out here today that the support has been really good," Trimble said.

"I guess with a flood it's very different to a fire. With a fire you can do some preparation work in the months ahead and be ready for it, but with a flood, when it comes, it comes.

"We sandbagged here on Friday, but we had misinformation in regards to being told (by Goulburn Murray Water) to prepare for moderate flooding.

"The previous Saturday was moderate flooding and we never got hurt at all, but you can see the level that it has ended up going through.

"What it ended up as was the third largest flood here in white man's occupation behind 1909 and 2011."

The historic 1909 flood in August followed the collapse of the Laanecoorie Reservoir Weir.

The sight of the community banding together at Riverside Park to begin the clean-up was in stark contrast to the bleak aerial pictures of the facility on Friday that showed the maroon roof of the community pavilion swamped by flood water.

"In comparison to 2011 we're miles ahead in that we've got the building still here," Trimble said.

"When you look around at the infrastructure damage, we've lost one coaches box and we've lost the tennis court netting.

"The rest of the damage is water damage... plaster, insulation, electronics. Nearly everything electronic that we own is shot and there is massive cost in that equipment.

"Back in 2011 basically everything was gone with the exception of the netball courts, which we hadn't yet finished constructing at that stage. It took out the fence of the netball courts, but didn't take the surface out.

"We re-built this to a level where it is just a magnificent community centre and the community comes here and uses it regularly.

"The football, netball and tennis clubs all use it and there are various other organisations who come here to use the facility.

"And there's quite often 10 caravans here on a weekend and on a big weekend 40 or 50 caravans - and up to 100 during the Easter break - and those people all use the facilities, such as the showers and toilets, and enjoy the river.

"It's fantastic for our community and our community has responded today. We put a message out on Facebook yesterday and have had a brilliant response.

"If you had have seen this (the inside of the pavilion) this morning and what we had to face to where it is now some five hours later, you can't comprehend just how much work has gone in.

"There was 30mm of mud throughout, but we've been able to suck it all out and had people on brooms and squeegys and we've had a loader in here removing all the carpet... it was like a human train going out the door.

"It's a hard time and we'll be back, but there's no doubt that we're going to need support.

"We'll need our local government support, which we've been pledged, and I'm sure we'll get support at state and federal level.

"We've had talks already with our local representative (Loddon Shire councillor Linda Jungwirth) and she is all for supporting our recovery."

Trimble believes an early estimation of the cost of the damage at Riverside Park could be around $1 million.

"I think $1 million would be the starting point; now whether it ends up over or under that, I don't know," Trimble said.

"But there's a lot of stuff that won't be evident is buggered today that will become evident when it becomes time to re-kit the pavilion and re-use it.

"Take for instance that unit there (pointing to a stove); we may be able to clean it and replace some parts and it can be used again, but if we can't then there's probably $30,000 to replace it.

"I'd be confident we could get something like that going again, but you just don't know.

"Then there's the changerooms down the other end where all the plaster will be buggered.

"Every door in the facility will be buggered; potentially floor coverings in the changerooms at the northern end; damage in the trainer's room.

"And then there's all the little hidden things that take time to be accounted for.

"We may well have $5000 worth of medical equipment that is stockpiled for next year, bandages, tape and so forth that you just don't know about."

Following the 2011 flood the Maroons were forced to spend all of that year playing away from Riverside Park.

The club utilised YCW's Backhaus Oval as its 2011 home ground before returning to Riverside Park in late April of 2012.

But there are no concerns that this latest flood damage will force the Maroons away from home next year.

"Absolutely, in one way shape or fashion we will be playing footy and netball here next year," Friswell said.

"There's nothing wrong with the ground and with a bit of a clean-up the netball will be okay, so 100 per cent, we will be playing here next year."

Added Trimble: "If we can get early support and early funding it will definitely help us.

"If we can get people in the right places to recognise where we're at and how important this facility is to the community, the volunteers will come together and make it happen.

"After last time we understand how hard it can be to get the funding, but we understand the channels we need to go through... sometimes the cog turned slower than we would have liked.

"But at the end of the day, there is the potential that we could still get another flood yet. We're not out of the woods yet considering we're still in this La Nina weather system and there are predictions of a wet summer. The last time we flooded was on January 14, so who knows?"

As well as Riverside Park, another of the Loddon Valley Football-Netball League's grounds, Malone Park at Marong, was also inundated with floodwater following last week's deluge of rain, with a major clean-up operation taking place on Saturday.

"On behalf of the user groups, I'd just like to say a big thank you to all of the volunteers that came down to Malone Park this morning," Marong president Danny Tyler said on Saturday afternoon.

"We had a huge turn out and have been able to remove the majority of the debris from around the oval, bowling club and courts.

"It was great to see Newbridge jumpers among the crowd, with their own massive clean up effort scheduled for tomorrow (Sunday)."

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