Football field destroyed: high tide turns football pitch into a landscape with waves

It’s a sight of devastation. The reason: flooding destroyed the $1.5 million artificial turf field at Mitchelton Football Club. People are battling flooding in parts of Queensland and New South Wales after the Brisbane River burst its banks. “In a word, it’s devastating,” says Joe Fenech, groundsman at Mitchelton Football Club in Brisbane. The 102-year-old football club was due to start its season last weekend, but now the groundsman reckons the footballers won’t be out for another five or six years We’ll be back on the pitch in a few weeks. Not only was the pitch itself destroyed, all the club’s equipment has also disappeared.”We spent all the budgeted money on equipment, footballs, sticks and jerseys – everything. We have everything stored in a container, and that container just swam away under the bridge,” says Fenech. The club has started a fundraiser on gofund.me to fund the club’s rebuilding. Meanwhile, helpers tried to salvage the equipment from the damaged container. Some could probably be reused. Nevertheless, the cost of reconstruction should amount to 1 million Australian dollars.