When their insurance company left them high and decidedly soggy after the floods last year, the Gympie Indoor Bowls Committee were scratching their heads on what to do.
Around a metre of water swept through the interior of the Graham St hall, ruining floors, special bowls mats, tables and doors, curtains and more.
All the lower cabinets in their kitchen were destroyed but the worst of it was it meant the hall wouldn’t be able to be booked for around 8 weeks.
With overheads of around $11,000 and a large part of that their worthless insurance, the pressure was on to get help on a practical and financial level.
Right after the water receded, the group put out the call on Facebook for volunteers to help with the clean-up.
“The community was wonderful,” said Secretary and Treasurer of the committee, Phillis Kerr.
“We just asked for some big burly blokes and people turned up with hoses and buckets and cleared everything out,” she said.
The February floods took the group by surprise, because the water had never got high enough to get inside the hall before.
“It’s been here 50 years and it’s never got in before,” Phillis said.
But never ones to rest on their laurels, the group sort out grants and assistance money where-ever they could find it, to pay for tradesmen and materials to fix their beloved hall, and now, more than 14 months later, they are starting to see an end to it but hurdles still remain.
To date Phillis thinks the group has successfully applied for more than $170,000 to affect repairs and replacements to the hall, but they are hoping to get grants for some of the most important items to be replaced yet – new indoor bowls mats.
“We were really lucky a Buderim club gave us theirs, but they’re starting to wear a bit thin,” Phillis said.
They also hope to get enough money together to improve the carpark next to the hall, which is currently a dirt lot surrounded by a patch of grass.
In recent months since the flood and the reopening the venue has hosted the Energy and Wellbeing Expo, Night Markets on the first Friday of each month, and next weekend will be the venue for an orchid show.
It also regularly holds martial arts and tai chi classes and other sporting groups such as the Table Tennis club.
But the group is keen to attract more tenants to help them pay for the vast floor to be sanded and polished.
They also would like to add new bowlers to the group, so if you would like to give indoor bowls a go, head along on Monday afternoons from 12.30pm or there is a Tuesday night group that meet from 7pm at the hall.
“When I first started, there used to be lots of indoors bowls clubs, but now there’s only a few,” Phillis said.
Anyone looking to hire the hall can call Phillis on 0428 826 015.
