By Vanessa Cavasinni, editor Australian Hotelier
Sydney’s Northern Beaches have borne the brunt of the weekend’s wild storms, with two Collaroy hotels suffering extensive damage.
Damage at The Beach Club Collaroy. Image via Facebook.
Collaroy Beach was continuously hammered with wild tides, gale-force winds and hammering rain, and homes and venues on the shoreline suffered the most damage – including The Beach Club Collaroy, and Public House Management Group’s The Collaroy.
Ben Varela, executive head chef of PHMG and The Collaroy, surveyed the damage to the hotel this morning.
“Ocean, waves, have washed away all of the sand. [The] beach swept a lot of [it] under the deck away. Car park is full of sand where the waves have crashed over.”
He also pointed out that the venue’s next-door neighbour, The Beach Club Hotel, was hit worse by the storm.
“The club next door copped most of the damage as their balcony has started to collapse – mostly a clean-up for the venue at the moment.”
As Collaroy residents were evacuated from their homes overnight, The Beach Club continued to get battered, with structural damage to their balcony and other parts of the hotel. On its Facebook page this morning, the following messages were posted:
“Due to severe structural damage from the storm overnight, we will be closed today & until further notice. Thankfully we had evacuated before this occurred.”
“So we lost a few ‪#kegs amongst other things during ‪#stormageddon overnight. The coolroom is just hanging in there! We are closed until further notice.”
At The Collaroy, which prides itself on being a community hub, the team would like to extend their thanks to the emergency services who helped out the area’s locals over the weekend, through a local initiative.
A release from the venue has welcomed these emergency services with drinks on the house, stating:
“The Collaroy Hotel would like to say thank you to the SES, emergency services and volunteers that helped our local community this weekend, by inviting them to enjoy one hour of free food and drinks this Friday, 10 June between 5:30 – 6:30pm. At The Collaroy in the upstairs cocktail bar.”