Well after a monumental two weeks we made it and I can't believe what has been achieved in that time.  Players tomorrow will find the courses in pristine condition, with all but a few pockets of rough not mown.  The only downside is the 200+ stumps that are out there!!  There's still grinding of the green waste that was stockpiled over near 6R to go and that will continue for a few days then it's the stump removal to come.

It couldn't have been achieved without the efforts of CTHGC grounds crew and the awesome contractors who all pulled together and worked in sync as a great team.  To Graham Dewitt and his awesome team from GDE Tree Services, Chicka and Trevor King and Pete McConnell, a heartfelt thanks from me for coming to our aid when you could well have gone anywhere else following TCAlfred.  Thanks also to the great group of volunteers early this week and to the members for putting up with just 9 holes while we went about the works.  Also thanks to the Club Board and Management for their support.

And while it doesn't quite match the lyrics of Jackson Browne's ''The load out"" song, it seemed an appropriate thought as Graham's crew packed their gear up to head on home to Brisbane and beyond after spending two weeks of their lives at Coolie Tweed.

The load out - packed up and heading home.  Thanks again!!

 

Another half a dozen trees have ''popped'' meaning their root ball has been exposed which quite possibly happened in yesterdays gusty southerly change.  To be honest I thought some more trees would have come down in that wind but there were no more on the ground this morning.  I did an audit of stumps today with our main tree contractor and there were 192 so we will top 200 comfortably.  

We are progressing very well and thanks to the member volunteers the West course will tidy up very quickly.  We just have to pick up the literally 100's of piles they left for us which is a huge bonus so thanks again.

Just one of the piles from the vollies!!

The carpark is certainly getting full and we started transporting the mulch off property today and did a little grinding of the massive amount of green waste and logs that have come off the courses.  It's been a great team effort between our staff and the contractors and there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel. 

First load of mulch being loaded.

 

If you had told me last Saturday that there would be 9 holes open for play tomorrow I would have laughed out loud.  

The effort by the crew and contractors this week has been nothing short of extraordinary.

I just hope players appreciate that when they play this weekend.

 

Let's not forget that this is where we were 4 days ago with over 100 huge trees on the ground.

Just 4 days ago.

 

Another good day and the goal of opening the front nine River on Saturday will be achieved.  1 and 9R are still very wet but you wouldn't know anything else happened on the rest of the holes.  We have no irrigation water which I am hoping will be resolved tomorrow.  If we don't resolve the issue and have no water over the weekend, then we will not be mowing greens to save that stress on the plant.  But at least you will be playing some golf.

We built a temporary road across the start of 16W fairway so the heavy machinery can access the course.  Depending on what it looks like after we have finished, we may even leave it there as this is a much used access point to the courses.

Not quite the M1 but it will work.

Another issue that has happened with the trees is that some of them have ''popped'' meaning they have started to fall and their roots have come out of the ground.  This means they are unsafe and need removal.  That means a further 25 trees thus far, so at this stage we are approaching 150 trees down.  And none of them are small.  The top photo shows the root of this one exposed and also the slant of the tree and the bottom photo shows a close up of the tear in the root  

The slant of the tree and raised root are evident.

The arrowed area above.

 

 

Another productive day on the Alfred clean up with some safety issues being addressed in addition to the continued clean up.  The group of trees on RHS 2W tee that came down were caught up in neighbouring trees some 5 - 10 metres off the ground, which is a serious safety hazard.  There are a number of these around the courses and several of those were dropped to ground level today.  The photo below shows the group of trees before and then a short video of them crashing safely to the ground.

RHS 2W tee caught up.

 

Coming down.

Down.

At the start of the week our goal was to get the front nine of the River course in play by the end of the week and we will achieve that by Friday night which has been a monumental effort by the crew and our contractors, who have simply all gone above and beyond.  Not so sure of a timeline for the back nine River though, as 15, 16 and 18R have some of the biggest material on the ground of the whole property.  As previously mentioned due to the weight of the machines they need to be on a hardstand surface and there's precious little hardstand anywhere on the back nine River.

A really good day today with an incredible amount of material moved and mulched.  Two of the biggest trees to come down to the RHS 4W tee were among those done today.  Due to the weight of the machines they have to stay on hardstand areas and we ferry the trees to them for processing through the wood chippers.  We are also carting some material away when it is quicker to dump the material.  We have created 3 new dumping areas, one of which is in the main carpark and this material will be mulched after we finish on the courses.

The carpark traffic flow will be altered to allow us enough room to use the area as a dump site so please take care and follow signage when driving through the carpark.  There will be tippers of all sizes accessing the area so please also take care when they are in the area.

Two of the biggest to come down gone.

 

We do still have a golf course to maintain even though it's not being prepped for play.  Some of the crew got back to some greenkeeping today and that will continue over the coming days with the crew split between storm clean up and course maintenance.  It took 4 crew most of the day to get the greens clear of debris post TC Alfred and ready for their first mow for a week tomorrow.

All greens on both courses blown off today.

 

We only had 3 contractors on site today working on the tree program which was pretty good given life has barely returned to normal following TC Alfred.  It will vary day to day depending on prior commitments that they have had which sometimes have been booked for months. We are lucky to have such loyal companies that come to us first when we need them, as you could imagine there is a lot of work out there. Tomorrow we should move a lot faster with 6 contractors onsite but it is going to be a very, very long road, taken day by day.

The photo below shows the tree that was uprooted but leaning against other trees on RHS 3W, which was removed today.  This particular type of removal is slow and painstaking and potentially dangerous.  One contractor group concentrated on these today and removed 5 of them.  The other contractors worked on LHS 9W in front of our maintenance facility so we have access to the courses.

 

Uprooted but dangling.

 

RHS 3W down.

Given how wet the courses are following the rainfall associated with Alfred, they probably would have been closed for a week due to the flooding and it is now difficult to get the required heavy machinery around the courses.  The first goal we have is to try and get the front nine of the River course cleared and playable ASAP.

Just a quick update as I'm a little busy at the moment. 

The photos really don't do the tree damage justice.  There are now nearly 100 trees uprooted.  There are probably another 100 with crown damage which will most likely need removal and at least 50 that have started to lean and the root ball is exposed so they are going to come down at some stage so will need to be removed.  And that's without doing a proper assessment tree by tree which will be needed.

The first contractors were on site yesterday and others are arriving today to start the mammoth clean up.  214mm of rain in the 24 hours to 9am Monday hasn't helped and there will be a lot of turf damage as we complete the clean up.  We have now had 632mm since it started raining last Wednesday.  The river has come over but that was only just on this mornings high tide.  The internal flooding remains as the water just has nowhere to go.

11R fairway Monday morning.

1 & 9R fairways Monday morning.

 

 

Once again I trust all blog followers have survived TC Alfred.  The system was certainly erratic with the distribution of damage but our local community seems to have been some of the worst hit.  I was speaking with Murwillumbah Course Super Brian Cox this morning and he said they barely have a branch down, but are within 30cms of flooding.  Luck of the draw I guess.

Out on the golf courses and the only positive is that all infrastructure is still in place at the moment.  The clubhouse, buggy shed, 1/2 ways, Pro Shop and our maintenance shed are all in tact and seemingly secured.

The same can't be said for the courses.  A further 50 trees were uprooted overnight adding to yesterday's 40.  Yes you read that right.  And I am not talking small trees either.

There is still a lot of internal water on the courses that can't drain off and the river was still well below breaking its banks this morning.  But to be honest the water is the least of our concerns.  How we are going to move these trees is a mind boggling problem given the sheer scale of the task.

The first contractor will be onsite Sunday morning to clear Davey Street so we can access our shed and then look at the Clubhouse access road.

 

LHS 9W near sand bins.

RHS 3W green fell toward 4R fway.

Another "hanger" RHS 3W.

Rear 1W green.

RHS 18R was down yesterday but this shows the enormous size of it.

RHS 16W tee near entry road.

Fr LHS 11W tee.

LHS 13W fway just past access track.

RHS 9W fway looking toward 4W tee.

 

 

 

 

I trust followers of the blog who are located in the path of TC Alfred are safe and sound as we wait out the final 18 hours or so.....hopefully that's all that's left.

I got to the course this morning and I don't really know what word is best to describe what I saw.  Carnage, comes to mind so I think I will stick to that.  I was able to get to almost all the property and it is just unbelievable.  There are 40 trees totally uprooted and none of them are small.  There are probably another 100 that are damaged to the extent that they will need to be removed.  There's a few photos below to show the magnitude of what happened.

On a positive note, all club infrastructure as far as I could see was still there and seemingly undamaged.  All roofs seem in tact and although the clubhouse lost power for a time this morning it was restored quite quickly.  Energex had a crew there clearing branches off power lines on the entry road and Tweed SC were in to fix a ruptured 100mm town water main.  It all happens at once it seems!

There is a lot of water on the courses but the River was about a metre below where it normally first comes over on this mornings ''low tide''.  Unfortunately tonight's forecast rain and wind may present an even worse scenario tomorrow.

RHS 9W not quite down yet.

RHS 2W tee.  There's actually 3 trees here.

Rear 11R tee.

LHS 5W fway.

Same photo as above but with another massive one arrowed behind.

Between 4 and 10W.  3 down here too.

 

RHS 7R tee just missing still functional old irrigation controller.

 

Some of the photos don't really do the size of the trees justice so here's one that's down RHS 4W tee.

 

They're huge!