FLOODING has left the newly-revitalised Fremantle Buffalo Club damaged and scrambling to raise funds to fix its historic quarters.
It wasn’t quite a biblical deluge, but complications from a burst water main on High Street last month, which flooded the club’s ceiling and caused it to collapse. A stage below was also damaged and is in need of replacement.
The social club’s volunteers immediately set to work repairing the decades-old building using materials donated by members and the community.
Club convenor Zane Wayman says they were able to stay open thanks to the efforts of the volunteers, who “shuffled everything around” to keep operations and events functioning at the club without its downstairs stage.
• The Buffs didn’t fair well from the burst water main, losing part of their ceiling and the downstairs stage.
“Every now and then someone comes in with tools… someone’s roof joists have ended up being a bench, a committee member has donated plywood and stud wall… my father-in-law has donated a bunch of hardwood for the stage too.
“At the moment, the club is viable because of in-kind support and the amount of volunteer energy keeping us functioning.”
The club will be hosting a ‘floodraiser’ today (Saturday, January 11) with over 10 bands, musos, and poets performing.
Acts will include Kestrel, Moya Moya, Salary and more.
Since the club’s building is so old, the repairs “need to be sorted now” so left-over moisture doesn’t leave lasting damage, but it has come at a tricky time for the newly-revitalised Club.
“January is a quiet period because the club’s venue booking slow down,” Mr Wayman said.
“Our insurance isn’t coming through quickly enough for us to actually use it, and there’s always questions about insurance anyway, so we’re kind of getting pinched on both sides.”
The Club’s revitalisation is going “really well” according to Mr Wayman, but lack of investment in arts-sector organisations like social clubs means it’s “completely reliant” on bookings to keep it going.
“We are getting a handle on being a bigger operation,” he said.
“It’s a lot of work, but we’re really interested in having our members know how the place works and how to get involved.”
It’s an ironic incident, given the original Buffaloes were founded as the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes – Antediluvian referring to the period “before the flood of Noah”.
“The joke of the gig, now that we’ve had another flood, is that we’re thoroughly Postdiluvian now,” Mr Wayman says.
The Postdiluvian Buffs Flood Raising fundraiser will be hosted this Saturday, January 11, from 6pm. Tix from Humanitix.
by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER