Synthetic turf recovery for resilient grass-roots football club
Suburban sporting clubs. They’re an intrinsic part of local communities.
Grass-roots organisations that offer opportunities for all levels of ability in a supportive social environment where friends are made and children and adults reap the mental and physical benefits of sport.
With more than a century of involvement in its local community, Mitchelton Football Club has forged a truly special bond with the area’s residents.
Boasting around 1,400 active players, the club prides itself on inspiring, developing and providing opportunities to all, irrespective of age, gender or ability.
But like so many members of the community it serves, Mitchelton Football Club is vulnerable to the impacts of natural disasters as evidenced in February 2022 when major flooding caused extensive damage to the club’s facilities.
When nearby Kedron Brook broke its banks, raging floodwaters destroyed the club’s synthetic playing surface, lifting and rippling the rubber underlay and sand ballast.
Additionally, club equipment was lost and many of the playing fields needed major rehabilitation.
The extent of the damage defied belief and was heartbreaking for the club’s players, coaches, volunteers and officials.
But the club has rebounded, aided by $2.97 million in recovery funding provided by the Australian and Queensland Governments under the joint Community Recreational Assets Recovery and Resilience Program, and an additional $1.2 million from Brisbane City Council.
In a clear demonstration of the resilience of the club’s members and supporters, work swung into action after the floods to rebuild the club better than before.
Major works included replacing the clubhouse roof and installing a new synthetic pitch that included gluing and pinning the surface to lock-in the edges and seams to make it more resilient to future extreme weather.
Mitchelton FC is now focused on the 2024 football season kick-off and is in better shape than ever to continue scoring goals for the local community for the next 100 years and beyond.
Repair works at Mitchelton Football Club are part of $193.5 million in joint disaster recovery and resilience funding delivered in response to the major flood and rain events experience across SEQ during the 2021-22 storm season.
This package is fuelling reconstruction at 198 sites across 20 local government areas, with 82 projects either under construction or completed already.
The recovery work is focused on building back better and ensuring infrastructure is more resilient to future extreme weather events.
Because although we can’t stop extreme weather from arriving in Queensland, we can reduce its impacts by strengthening built works throughout communities.
