Marysville phoenix rises from Black Saturday ashes
Bushfires are usually a force for good in the universe. Nature’s own way of preparing the woods for new life as the old, charred and burned, returns to the soil whence it came.
On the 7th of February 2009, the bush in the state of Victoria, Australia, was ignited by a series of fires that culminated in the largest wildfire loss Australia had to heap to date. 173 people died with another 414 injured from fire related
causes.
John Brumby, premier of Victoria State at the time said in a press release following the natural disaster:
"It's just as bad a day as you can imagine and on top of that the state is just tinder-dry. People need to exercise real common sense tomorrow. It was the worst day [of fires conditions] in the history of the state".
Despite three million SMS messages being sent to the residents of Victoria and Tasmania, about two hundred people were already dead and thousands others bereft of their homes.
Marysville, a small town a mere two hours’ drive from Melbourne central, was also a causality that fateful week.
The biggest loss, besides the people and wildlife, was the damage done to the picturesque Marysville golf greens.
The course was once heralded by Inside Golf (which is, according to a recent survey conducted by Sports Marketing Surveys (SMS), Australia’s leading golf magazine in terms of readership for the third straight year) as a “surreal experience”.
Some of the greens were elevated so when you stood on them to tee, you saw a perfect, scenic view of the Victorian countryside below and, to a little distance off, Melbourne city.
Black Saturday ensured none of that survived, of course. However, what is heartening to know is that if one were to visit Maryville today, there are no visible signs of the inferno.
One can walk the fairways, have a go about the greens, putting up the slopes and drive the treacherous club-hugging dog legs, just as before.
No frames of houses standing in a distance, no charred trees, no patches of blackened earth as black as the pits of the very fire from h**l itself! Nothing of the sort.
Rob Christie, the local greenskeeper there at Maryville Community Golf and Bowls Club, has done a wonderful job manicuring the green and bringing it back to its past glory before that fateful February day in 2009.
Christie and the lads have worked tremendously hard in bringing the 17 lost greens back and puting Maryville back on top in Victoria’s go to places for a week’s golfing getaway.
Although not as many tourists visit as there had once been, with events like the Marysville Sparkling Wine Festival and the construction of the $28 million Hotel and Conference Centre, things will look up. Out of the ashes, hope will rise.
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