By Marcus Uhe
Last week’s wild weather that wreaked havoc across the Cardinia Shire and surrounding areas saw Emerald Cricket Club play a key role in the recovery process.
On Wednesday morning Worrell Reserve in the heart of the leafy town was opened by the Cardinia Shire Council as a relief centre for those picking up the pieces of yet another damaging storm.
The facility, one of two used by the cricket club, offered somewhere for people to access basic services that in times of need almost become luxuries, such as hot showers, power outlets to charge personal electronic devices and a barbecue, along with access to critical information on the unfolding situation.
Clinton Marsh, president of the Emerald Cricket Club, was proud that they could be part of the solution.
Marsh likened the storm to those the region experienced in late 2021, with the region no stranger to mother nature’s wrath.
The club itself did not escape unscathed, with Chandler Reserve losing power, but that paled in comparison to what some in the community were enduring.
“I’m glad we can offer that up and be part of the community and help them out with hot showers and places to charge their phone,” Marsh said on Friday.
“They’ve got a barbecue there and the oval, people can take the kids up there and have a shower, something to eat, drink, kick the footy or play cricket on the oval.
“I think it’s going to be until next Wednesday that Emerald and the surrounding areas won’t be with power.
“These little things, they just help people get through day-by-day, which is really how you have to live at the moment.
“They need the rooms more than we do – we just moved the cricket games.”
The lack of internet and mobile phone coverage, however, added a layer of difficulty to the ability to inform the community of the services available at Worrell.
Marsh took matters into his own hands, by door-knocking and communicating with people at supermarkets and town hotspots to ensure they were aware of the services on offer.
On a cricket front, training on Thursday was more of a chance to check-in on one-another and offer support, rather than fine-tune the cover drive or perfect the yorker, while a handful of games were altered through a change in venue or format, due to the lack of power at
Chandler Reserve.
Previous experiences with similar events meant products destined for the canteen and Thursday night meals are not all housed at the club, but rather fostered to club members, to minimise the losses caused by power outages in fridges and freezers.
While for the players, Marsh expected Saturday’s contests to offer a relief from the stresses and somewhere free their minds.
“For a lot of the guys, the ones that aren’t affected and can get out of the house, it’s going to be a nice change,” he said.
“They’ll probably driving up the hill and enjoy having some electricity and phone service for a few hours while they play cricket.
“We’re part of the community; it’s our job to open the doors and help people where we can.
“We want to give people a game or cricket, that’s our first thing, but we’re also a larger part of the community and one good deed returns another.
“Hopefully the community can get around us at some stage as well.”
