General News
12 January, 2026
Historic building bears the brunt of storm
On January 9, McKenzie Creek farmer Neville McIntrye was awakened in the early hours of the morning by the sound of building iron twisting and trees being uprooted and crashing from the destructive wind that tore through his property.
"The roar of the wind was unbelievable; it sounded like a mini tornado," he said.
Fortunately, the homestead was not damaged, but the roof of the historic stables on the property was torn off, and several of the original posts were broken.
The force of the wind scattered the contents of the stables.
"It roared through the property on about a 400 metre frontage and took everything with it," he said.
The stables were built in the 1880's, when the farm was first settled, and originally had a straw roof; this was replaced in 1960 with a corrugated iron roof.
Apart from that, the main structure was original and had been in constant use on the generational farm.
To rebuild the stables will be expensive, but Mr McIntrye said he will do so because of their historic value.
"I will rebuild it simply because of its history," he said.
"We lost some iron from other farm buildings too, so I'll have to repair those, but we were lucky the house wasn't affected."
Sadly, the same could not be said for the trees surrounding the house and the dam, which were mostly uprooted or smashed, destroying years of growth.
Mr McIntyre said he hoped the weather, particularly the wind, would abate so he could begin the cleanup and assess the extent to which the structural integrity of the historic building had been affected.
