On Saturday, February 26 the Capalaba Greyhound Club sank beneath two metres of water as one of the worst floods hit Brisbane.

Weeks later, the club is still closed to racing, but busy getting infrastructure back so that racing can start.

Here is how club president John Catton describes the recent weeks:

“It is heartbreaking. That is the only term you can use. Especially for the staff who work so hard to present great racing week-in, week-out.

The water was a metre higher than the worst flood that I have seen in my long association with the Capalaba Club. All of our electrical gear is cooked and fried. Everything has to be replaced.

We are just working our way through it and we should be up and running in three or four weeks time (mid-April).

“We are hopeful to be racing by then. The place will take a while to tidy up again. Our motors have arrived back. The lures and the drive motors,  we were able to get work done on them pretty quickly, so we should be testing by next week and that is when most things should be up and running.

Track Operations manager Erin Cameron is amazing. Her and her team have just done so much work … just incredible.

Erin and Track Manager Trevor McSherry and the staff are just working so hard to get the place back up and running so we can race again. We have had a lot of support from club members, participants and supporters. Many have out their hand up and come down and did their bit to help out. Every bit helps.

We are so grateful that everybody does band together at Capalba when things like this happen. They all just want to see the club up and racing because everyone loves coming to Capalaba.

The track has come through so far, really well. Trevor and is working daily with our horticulturalist. It does not appear to have any funguside or bugs in it. The track is recovering really well and we think the next couple of weeks – as long as we don’t get too much more rain and it continues to heal well –  – it will be in good condition.

That is the beauty of having a grass track.

Flooding is not new to Capalaba. We know where the flooding comes from and we know what to do to minimise damage.

But this one was just so unexpected. We did not realise it was going to reach the height that it did. So we are making changes to so that the next time it comes through the damage will not be as significant.

You learn something when things like this happen and then you just have to be as well prepared as you can be.”