The storms that ravaged Queensland over the Australia Day weekend did not miss Eagle Farm. On the Monday morning the track was closed as the wind and rain pelted down from every direction at once making it unsafe for horses and riders.
The driveway off Nudgee Road was littered with fallen trees and large branches. Several fences were damaged and debris was everywhere. It certainly made us all look at the heritage listed gum trees in a different way.
Our walker did not fair too well as a huge gum tree completely uprooted and fell crushing the steel frame as though it was coat hanger wire. In a separate incident we had a huge limb crash down in the long yard out the back bending the steel cattle fencing. Thank goodness we had moved the horse out of the yard the day before as who knows what would have happened had she remained in the yard.
A few of our boxes in the main barn flooded so we had to shuffle a few horses around and accommodate them in neighboring stables. Danny worked tirelessly over the next few day to concrete the six boxes at the rear of the barn so hopefully in the future we will not have any more flooding issues.
The amusing little side note is that we have a concrete statute of a jockey holding his whip aloft (painted in the stable colours) and whilst all the plants around him fell he stood triumphant amongst the debris.
Our walker is also operational once again thanks to the swift action of the BRC. The BRC have also completed the construction of our tie up stalls and wash bay within the last week and this has made a huge difference to the efficiency of our team in the mornings.
Thankfully everything is drying out, the fallen trees have all been removed, the concrete is dry and we are back to business as usual at Falvelon Lodge.