Sporting organisations made the decision to cancel play on Thursday, October 13, including Campaspe Tennis Association, Goulburn Murray Cricket, and Campaspe Playing Area pennant competitions.
In essence, continued flooding throughout the region forced the cancellation of nearly all community sport, but in that absence the sporting community rolled up its sleeves to assist wherever they could.
Calls for assistance around Echuca, Moama and surrounds were answered by determined players, supporters and volunteers from basically every club in the region, joining massive sandbag-filling efforts at Kerford St and the old Echuca South School as well as helping to stack sandbags in various spots around Echuca Moama.
And where we often see some of our favourite sports unfold, these sites instead became the scenes of sandbagging stations — or were submerged by floodwaters.
Echuca Basketball Stadium, regularly the scene of Echuca Pirates basketball games and scheduled to get their season underway on Saturday night (October 15), was turned into a relief centre for those displaced by floods in surrounding areas on Thursday (October 13).
Across the Murray River, Jack Eddy Reserve became a sandbagging station with Moama joining efforts to barricade from floodwaters.
By Sunday morning, the Campaspe River had flooded Echuca College’s oval, one of the area’s cricket grounds.
With the flooding situation expected to extend into this week, it remains to be seen when sport might resume as floodwaters begin to subside and the debris settles.
But taking the field has become a lesser priority as the sporting community continues to pour its efforts into helping where they can.
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