FLOODS
PHOTOS: LUKE HELM AND BRETT ROBINSON. WORDS BRETT ROBINSON
10 floods, 14 months Meadowbrook Golf Club has experienced 10 significant flood events over the past 14 months. While they have been heartbreaking for course superintendent Luke Helm (CSTM) and his crew, it hasn’t broken their spirit.
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ou cannot help but admire Luke Helm (CSTM) and the crew at Meadowbrook Golf Club after what they have endured over the past 14 months. A crew of just six maintaining 27 holes across 88 hectares is challenging enough on its own, but having to contend with the hand that Mother Nature has dealt them in recent times only further amplifies the remarkable resilience they have had to collectively muster. Helm has experienced the full gamut of conditions in his four-year tenure at Meadowbook, his first as a fully-fledged course superintendent. Arriving there after seven years at Colonial on the Gold Coast, in his first year he had to nurse the course through an extended period of drought, receiving just 550mm of rain for the year. Since then, however, it has been the exact opposite. Helm reckons he has now experienced more than 20 major and minor flood events over the past three years, including 10 over the past 14 months. He had thought the worst of them had come last March, however, 12 months on and he and the crew found themselves cleaning up after the course copped one of its worst in its 34-year history. 22
You’d think having to reinstate your course that many times would be enough for any superintendent to consider perusing the job’s vacant column. True to his character, though, Helm has remained upbeat and together with his small yet dedicated crew has never been more determined to bounce back. Helm regularly keeps members updated on course operations through the Meadowbrook Golf Club Turf Management Facebook page and after their 10th and most recent flood event in late March, he was quick to reassure members they would be pulling out all stops to get the place back to its best. “Well, what a summer it has been at our club,” posted Helm. “For myself, certainly the
AN INLAND OCEAN
The floods deposited a giant clump of pampas grass onto Meadowbrook’s 22nd green
A victim of its location, Meadowbrook is one of a number of golf courses that reside on a floodplain within close proximity of the Logan River, just south of Brisbane. Slacks Creek, a tributary of the river, wends its way along the course’s eastern boundary. In late February and early March, south east Queensland and northern NSW were smashed by major rainfall events. In Meadowbrook’s case they recorded 610mm in three insane days, however, it was the significant falls further up the river catchment which proved the killer.
AUSTRALIAN TURFGRASS MANAGEMENT 24.2
most challenging in my career. The floods over the past six months have been devastating for our department, to work so hard to get the course back and then see it washed away again so quickly breaks our heart… “The support from everyone this summer has been amazing and means the world to myself and the boys. Although we are a little battered and bruised, our determination to provide you with the best golf course we can hasn’t diminished at all! We will get through this next chapter together and I’m sure one day look back at what has been quite a season in 2021/22.”