General News
6 March, 2026
Storm keeps responders busy
The recent storms saw volunteer first responders hard at work keeping the community safe from downed trees, flooded roads, and car accidents.
A storm rolling across the Central Goldfields Shire meant a wet weekend for the community, and a busy one for local emergency services, who worked tirelessly to keep everyone safe.
The start of autumn was welcomed with a downpour saw Maryborough reach last month’s total rainfall in just three days.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology, February saw a total of 38 mm of rain compared to 49.8 mm already falling in March.
Monday saw the wettest conditions locally with 34.8 mm falling on that day alone.
Maryborough SES Unit Controller Rachel Mitchell said they received around 20 call-outs between Friday afternoon and Monday night.
While this was at the “lower end” compared to other units, with some receiving upwards of 150 calls, she said they were still kept busy.
“While we got quite a few they weren’t all coming in on top of each other. So we were able to just get over with one call and another one would come through,” she said.
“We’d be heading home and then have to turn around and go back.”
Their first call of the storm was for a branch which came down into a powerline along Maryborough-Dunolly Road near Lyal Eales.
Ms Mitchell said Powercor were contacted, local police set up diversions, and the CFA were called.
“What we actually found when we got there was the branch was down, it was all tangled up in the wires, but also the power pole had broken about a metre off the ground. It was replaced Saturday afternoon,” she said.
The weekend saw a couple of calls for properties, including trees damaging homes and blocking driveways, as well as around 15 trees down across the weekend.
The local SES responded to a report that a tree was down roughly every 50 metres on a track in Lillicur.
“I called Pyrenees as well as Goldfields shires just so they could check the full length of the road,” Ms Mitchell said.
“It took the shire four hours with heavy machinery to clear all the trees off the track.”
On Saturday night the local unit also responded to a road crash rescue where a person lost control due to wet conditions.
Later that night another person reported a tree down on the road after, Ms Mitchell said, driving over the top of the fallen branch.
“We’d just like people to take care on the road because you don’t know what’s around the next corner,” she said.
Five local SES volunteers were back and forth across the shire and into the Pyrenees throughout the storm.
Ms Mitchell said she hopes locals may consider joining so the unit can respond to even more jobs.
“We are still looking for more members so if anyone feels like they could handle doing stuff like that they are welcome to join us,” she said.
“We had a lot of people who were incredibly grateful to us which we really do appreciate.”