Liam Durkin
I’VE honestly never seen anything like it.
One drive into Mirboo North last week would have had you convinced you were in the 2007 film I Am Legend.
The usually familiar sight of tall trees lining the Strzelecki Highway as you enter Mirboo North were gone, while branches protruding over the town’s welcome sign perhaps gave a cruel indication into just how strong the storm event was.
The superstorm of Tuesday, February 13 left a trail of destruction, which was still ongoing when this writer visited the scene on Friday.
Walking one of the fairways at the golf course, large branches were still falling – the sound of bark snapping and trunks crashing to the earth below from a great height was enough to make your heart skip a beat.
Locals have said pictures don’t do the damage justice.
Seeing it first-hand, albeit without the added burden of being directly impacted – that is absolutely the case.
The scene at the Mirboo North Recreation Reserve is indeed hard to fathom.
Just driving up the hill alone toward the ticket-box, a huge tree lies to the side of the road allowing vehicle access.
It is an eerie, almost haunting walk toward the toppled goal posts at the scoreboard end, behind which is home to countless fallen trees and branches.
Both goalposts are lying flat facing straight back down the ground. At the other end, they are bent at right angles over the fence.
To think this is the same ground local footy legend Tim Traill kicked more than 100 goals on countless times, or where Essendon premiership player Bill Snell cut his teeth way back in the 1940s.
The mere thought of even playing football in that moment is so far removed from this scene.
As a football team that became famous for performing supernatural deeds over the last decade, even Mirboo North was powerless in the wake of the storm.
These on-field deeds however have correlated strongly to a never-say-die attitude.
Such a notion is perhaps in keeping with something that appears engrained in the Mirboo North psyche.
Those reading the Mirboo North Football-Netball Club notes in the Mid Gippsland Football-Netball League Spectator during winter will notice each week, without fail, the phrase ‘refuse to lose Tigers’ concludes each submission.
If this mentality extends beyond the football field and netball court, there is no doubting Mirboo North will rebuild.
Mirboo North FNC has set up a GoFundMe page to help recovery efforts.
Those wishing to donate can do so via gofundme.com/f/mnfnc-recovery
The view from behind the goals at Mirboo North Recreation Reserve following last week’s storm. Photos: Liam Durkin
