IT’S game over for the Mildura Lawn Tennis Club’s summer season and its signature Pro Tour event after authorities revealed that heavy flooding is inevitable on their grass courts for most of summer. Flood levels are expected to reach the 1974 height later this month, in another major blow to the club following the lengthy pandemic shutdowns,
Men’s captain Aaron Wilkie said the latest flood advice from the State Emergency Service was bleak for the 54-year-old club on Hugh King Drive.
“They think it’s going to come up to about a metre-and-a-half on our courts, with the peaks in the next two to three weeks,” he said.
“The SES thinks it’ll take two months for the water to recede and then we’ll have a big clean-up job.
“It means our whole summer season will be wiped out, along with our Pro Tour tournament.”
Mr Wilkie said the club had been advised by Mildura Council that “they’re not going to protect the courts because the levee bank’s going to be too high to build”.
“It’s a privilege to play on these courts, but they are not classed as essential, which is understandable,” he said.
“But the council said they are going to protect the clubhouse as best they can.
“The flood is going to start coming up our drains before it gets over our levee bank at the front, so the council is going to block off the drains.
“We’ll be holding a working bee before tennis this weekend to move stuff out of the ground level to higher ground.”
He said the club had let Tennis Victoria know it wouldn’t be able to hold its regular Australian Pro Tour event in late February.
“We just won’t have enough time for the courts to recover to the levels we’ll need them to host an event like this,” Mr Wilkie said.
Asked if the club had been advised the grass would die off after two waterlogged months, he said: “They’re not sure at this stage because it’s not just water but there will also be a lot of mud on the courts.
“In 2016, the river level didn’t get as high as what’s expected later this month. And we don’t have anyone at the club who was around in 1974 when it was really bad.
“I just can’t imagine that the courts will bounce back very well.”
He said the Red Cliffs Lawn Tennis Club had offered MLTC a number of its courts to play on while the Hugh King Drive facility was out of action.
The Bureau of Meteorology’s latest flood warning shows the Murray River at Mildura Weir may reach the major flooding level (38.50m Australian Height Datum) by the end of November, with “further rises possible”.
The bureau said the river level at Mildura may exceed the moderate flood level (37.50m AHD) between November 21-25.
It said the Murray River at Boundary Bend may exceed the major flood level (9m) on Friday.
“The river level may reach near 9.10m around November 13-15, with major flooding. Further rises are possible,” it said.
“The Murray River at Euston may exceed the moderate flood level (9.80m, 51.60m AHD) around November 13-16 and may reach the major flood level (10.30m, 52.10m AHD) around November 18-22. Further rises are possible.
“The Murray River at Wentworth may reach the major flood level (33.88 m AHD) around the first week of December.”
