Venue counts cost of storm
Musos to back recovery effort
IT was like being in another world.
That is how The Billabong Kuranda owner Jake Pelling described the scenes looking out on to his property last Wednesday night as heavy rain tore apart the iconic events venue.
“I’m still trying to come to terms with it,” he said.
“I was there at midnight while it happened and I saw everything getting bent and twisted by the water and the wind.”
He said he hadn’t even had time to look beyond the immediate damage done to the buildings.
“I’m still trying to quantify things,” he said.
“We do weddings, music events, four wheel drive tours, so we have a lot of ground, but we haven’t looked out to the track yet.
“Right now we’re just emptying mud from the buildings.”
But despite the grounds being “closed indefinitely” Mr Pelling is staying positive.
“It’s just another day in the bush,” he said.
“I’ve never seen anything that extreme. I reckon the water was 2m higher than our previous worst floods, but we just have to soldier on.
“It’s mother nature, so you’ve just got to roll with the punches. A lot of people are worse off than we are.”
Cairns musician Mitch Sullivan of the band The Taste said the local music scene would back Mr Pelling and the rest of The Billabong’s team as they got back on their feet.
“It was devastating to see the impact the floods had on The Billabong,” he said.
“It’s a truly unique venue and I have been lucky enough to perform there numerous times as well as see many great gigs up in Kuranda over the years.”
He said the entire Cairns music scene would feel the loss of one of the region’s premier music venues.
“Its loss will definitely have a huge impact on the local scene and I can’t imagine the pain the owners and operators would be going through,” he said
“I hope one day that the venue can open again as we at The Taste have had so many fond memories there.”