Carbrook Golf Club still feeling the effects of Cyclone Debbie

The effects of Cyclone Debbie are still being felt at Carbrook Golf Club where they are still cleaning up after the devastating floods.

In late March, Cyclone Debbie swept across the coastline near Airline Beach and poured down rain across south-eastern Queensland; some places received 1,000 mm in 24 hours.

About 1000km south, Carbrook Golf Club received just 150mm soon afterwards, hardly enough to cause much trouble. But the rains that had fallen up north had to end up in the ocean and much of it its way south and eventually flooded down the Logan River. Flooding Carbrook Golf Course in the process.

The golf course (and the front gates) flooded with water very quickly and left behind a thick layer of stinking mud on many of the fairways and greens. The response from members and locals (some who don’t play golf) was incredible but the golf course is still very much in recovery mode.

Carbrook Golf Club’s General Manager Scott Wagstaff wrote this great piece for Golf Australia on the devastation and it’s well worth a read.

By about 7am the Logan River started to burst its banks and we stood on the 11th tee watching what at the time was a bit of a novelty. It was about 30 minutes later we started to realise that this was going to be something big.

By 10am the entire golf course was inundated and it was time to evacuate. Within a matter of 20 minutes our driveway had gone from dry to 2 feet under and the staff and members left at the Club needed to drive through almost 2 feet of water to get out. One car didn’t make it and had to be rescued.

Also, check out the chat with Wagstaff on Golf Australia’s new podcast ‘Inside The Ropes’ below (~1:18:00 mark).

Carbrook is known for the bull sharks which found their way into one of the water hazards after flooding many years ago. Wagstaff is yet to confirm if the sharks are still in the dam or whether they have been washed away back out to sea.