Australia Weather News

Perched on a ridge, encompassed by the rolling hills and lush forests of South Gippsland, is the little town of Mirboo North.

Located 150 kilometres east of Melbourne, with a population of about 2,400 people, the town is bursting with charm.

Residents fill bustling cafes, bespoke retail shops line the main street, and almost everyone has a smile on their face.

As a visitor, it feels like you have stepped back in time.

But flash back to February 2024, and this charming bush community was completely unrecognisable.

In the space of just four minutes, a huge storm cell ripped through the town, destroying houses, tearing down power lines and redefining the landscape.

Trees that were hundreds of years old and reached many metres into the air were torn from the ground and smashed to pieces.

Telecommunications were cut, and farmer Bruce Manintveld tragically lost his life while attending to his cattle.

The Bureau of Meteorology is yet to formally classify what type of weather system struck Mirboo North on that fateful day, but residents likened the destruction to a bowling ball rolling through the main street.

However, rather than waiting for help to arrive, locals were able to get on with the job of rebuilding, thanks to the Mirboo North and District Community Foundation.

"The storm came so suddenly, and it had such a lot of impact,"  the foundation's executive officer, Ruth Rogan, said.

"It was clear from the very beginning that we needed to help with the response and recovery."

Community fund fast-tracks recovery

The community foundation was established in 2010 following the $5 million sale of a town-owned aged care facility.

The proceeds from the sale were put into a long-term investment account and, over the past 15 years, the earnings have been distributed through the community in the form of grants, programs and events.

"We hold funds that the community has raised, or come from the sale of community assets in our case, that we then put back into the community through grants or supporting different projects," Ms Rogan said.

This also meant that in a time of great need after the February storm, the town had the resources it needed to immediately respond.

"The first thing we did was offer the building we have here on the main street to the South Gippsland Shire to use as an emergency relief point," Ms Rogan said.

"And we were also doing little practical things, like getting a whole set of gas-fired showers on site, because we had no power."

As news of the scale of destruction spread, people far beyond the town's boundary were also eager to help.

The foundation became a central point for incoming donations.

Without this, many residents and businesses would still be in recovery mode. 

"We received $90,000 in donations and we immediately started to put that back into the community," Ms Rogan said. 

'It was unbelievable'

For the town pool's lifeguard, Hayden Barnes, memories of the deadly storm are as clear as day. 

"It was unbelievable," the 18-year-old said. 

"I couldn't quite believe the damage that had been done.

"There were power lines everywhere, trees everywhere, roads blocked, trees on cars … ridiculous."

Visitors at the community pool — one of the town's prized assets — were literally hanging on for dear life as the wild winds whipped through.

"People were pushed up against walls … children were being sucked out near the entry, lifted into the air.

"Luckily, our staff at the time and a few parents were able to grab them and bring them back inside before they could be sucked away."

Stacey Harriage was at home with her husband and two children when the once-in-a-generation storm hit.

Their entire property was transformed, and their eight-week-old baby was lucky to survive.

"He was in his cot five minutes before the storm hit," Ms Harriage said.

"We went back in when things had settled down a bit and there was a shard of glass right through the mattress that he was on.

"We were very lucky that we'd woken him up and we'd got him out of the cot."

World-class facilities

The funds of the Mirboo North foundation are tied to the town's original Bush Nursing Hospital, which became an aged care facility in 1994, before the site was sold in 2008.

Ms Rogan said that after the sale,it was up to the community to decide whether they should put the funds into a long-term investment account or immediately build a medical centre.

"They eventually decided on a long-term approach," Ms Rogan said.

That long-term approach paid off.

Thanks to careful financial management of the funds, Mirboo North now has a medical centre alongside a host of other world-class facilities and projects. 

"It was really nice, 10 years later, to be able to build a medical centre in Mirboo North using our capital, and still have $9 million in investments to put back into the community," Ms Rogan said.

The Mirboo North pool is another community facility that has been aided by the foundation. 

When the closure of the pool was suggested in 2011, the foundation donated more than $500,000 to help keep the gates open.

"It is like our community superannuation fund, and it allows this community to dream its own dreams and implement those dreams with independence from government," Ms Rogan said.

A model for other towns?

The post-storm power outage, which saw Mirboo North go without essential services for days, helped residents realise the importance of future-proofing the town.

It has since backed a proposal for several businesses along the main street to be fitted with changeover switches to help keep the lights on during emergencies.

A changeover switch is an electrical device that allows you to switch between power sources.

Mirboo Country Development Incorporation (MCDI) president Kelly McCarthy said it would be a game-changer for businesses during blackouts. 

"It means you can really easily switch over from main group power to generators," she said.

MCDI has received funding from both the foundation and AusNet Power to complete the installations.

"We've really looked at what we needed post-storm and what helped the community have a sense of normality," Ms McCarthy said.

"Our food businesses lost thousands and thousands of dollars' worth of food during the storm recovery … and this project ensures that won't happen again."

One of the businesses impacted by the power and communication blackout was the popular cafe Jimmy Jambs on the town's main street. 

Cafe owner Alan Nicholls said the financial devastation caused by the outages was still being felt today. 

"It probably cost us close to $15,000 with all the time and all the wasted stock, so yeah, it's significant," he said.

More than one year since the storm, Ms McCarthy said Mirboo North was in a much better position.

"It reassures me to know that the businesses in town would be able to flick over a switch and keep their stock in place and be able to keep that daily contact with the community," she said.

For Ms Rogan, the lightning-quick ferocity of last year's storm should be seen as an example of why other small towns need to explore establishing their own community foundations. 

"Community foundations are local, they're responsive and they really help to bring people's ideas together quite quickly," she said.