Blown away: Investigation and clean-up works continue at Portarlington Caravan Park on Wednesday. Picture: Tommy Ritchie 59742
Kim Waters
FALLING trees injured a camper and damaged 16 caravans and annexes when “freak winds” battered Portarlington Caravan Park this week, according to management.
Bellarine Bayside chief Tim Page-Walker said 62 campers evacuated the park after 95km/h wind blew down the 15-metre Cyprus pines on Tuesday afternoon.
Police patrolled the barricaded park on Wednesday to prevent looting while campers stayed in temporary accommodation such as motels, hotels and residential homes.
Mr Page-Walker said the wind damaged 30 other trees at the park.
Workers cut down two and arborists identified 14 others as “dangerous”.
Mr Page-Walker expected the park to reopen in a few days after workers finished cleaning up the site.
“We aren’t allowing any of the public to enter the site at the moment because it’s still not safe and we don’t know if more trees will fall.”
He said the caravan park had a “full arborist plan” for tree maintenance.
“They were only checked six months ago. It’s not a failure of us maintaining the tree assets that we’ve got.”
Mr Page-Walker was unable to rule out similar incidents in the future.
“It was a freak storm that’s caused the trees to fall and totally unpredictable.”
Bellarine MP Lisa Neville praised residents for “rallying” to support the evacuated campers.
“We really need to congratulate them for supporting each other and the tourists like they have.”
Ms Neville backed Bellarine Bayside’s management of the park.
“I understand they had very, very strong, unusually strong, winds that caused the Cyprus trees to be uprooted,” she said.
“I think they (Bellarine Bayside) acted appropriately and I know they do regular checks of their trees.”
