“BLOW , BLOW THOU WINTER WIND” wrote William Shakespeare in “As you like it”

But it wasn’t Winter and we didn’t like it!

Not this……….

And especially not this!

“ Blow, Blow Thou Winter Wind”

Late in the afternoon of Saturday 15th December 2018, a cluster of storms swept down from the Central Coast, and built in intensity into what acted like a ‘mini-tornado’, with a massive twirling action.

These severe thunderstorms brought down trees in north-western Sydney, cutting power and pelting some suburbs with large hailstones.

Whilst many adjacent suburbs suffered greatly from the effect of the powerful winds accompanied by torrential rain, with roads and properties littered with large trees and heavy branches, the golf course suffered a lot of damage.

Nearby Castle Hill Road and associated streets in Cherrybrook, Beecroft, Pennant Hills and Epping were blocked by fallen trees and branches and caused massive delays to all traffic.

The trees across the whole of the golf course suffered with many uprooted and many had large branches torn down.

Work on removing the fallen trees and branches was manageable by the extensive use of chainsaws.

However the worst damage was caused by a high eucalypt adjacent to the first span of the bridge at the 10th, which was uprooted and fell across the first span completely demolishing it.

10th Bridge span

The rest of the course had trees down everywhere.

Club member, Bruce Brown postponed a large job for his company, The Tree Cutting Company, to work 3 full days with his team at removing trees and tree limbs from around the course immediately after the storm. Due to his efforts the

Club was able to keep the course open to play the full 18 holes the weekend after the storm.

All who had seen the extent of the damage, which had been captured and put into a YouTube video for Club members to watch, were amazed at how much of the debris has been cleared by the combination of professional and volunteer effort over a few days. On Thursday after the storm, the tree that felled the 10th bridge was removed due to his effort.

The impact on members and the way they had to now play golf, with the 10th bridge missing, is detailed in the chapter 3 on the bridges.

The video of the storm damage is available for viewing on the Club website Club/History/ Storm Damage 15 Dec 2018.