A year after a freak hailstorm, farmers in parts of South Australia are still counting their losses.
Key points:
- Farmers say they were given little warning of the intense thunderstorm cell, which affected parts of SA, Victoria and Tasmania
- Reported crop losses range from 20-100%
- Total damage to crops and infrastructure estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars
The October 28 storm cell last year was declared an “insurance disaster” by the Insurance Council of Australia, with more than 60,000 claims in three states.
Heathvale Wines owner Trevor March said he lost 100% of his Eden Valley harvest almost instantly.
“I lost about $120,000 in seven minutes…and we don’t insure against hail – it’s prohibitively expensive,” he said.
While initially trying to smile and put up with it, Mr March said he later realized the disaster had shocked him.
“It had a mental effect [on me],” he said.
“And then that afternoon we had these high winds. Everything that had been bruised in the morning broke in the afternoon.
“It looked like someone ran through a combine harvester and just ransacked the place.”
slow recovery
Laughing Jack Wines owner Shawn Kalleske said he was still repairing his property in the Barossa Valley a year after hailstorms wiped out 50% of his crop.
“We kind of hobbled for the last 12 months,” he said.
The sixth-generation farmer said he was bottling wine when the storm hit.
“I thought to myself, ‘Is this hail? Surely not. I was not aware of any forecast,'” he said.
Riverland producer Ryan Arnold would rather not remember the day 150-mile-per-hour winds left the nets of his family’s citrus orchards in Pyap “ragged like Halloween cobwebs “.
“It pretty much went through the center of our property – I was just sitting in the office watching it unfold,” he said.
Mr Arnold said he was grateful the state government had provided funds to help with the cleanup.
“It happened pretty quickly, which was really helpful,” he said.
“I was also able to access the anti-hail net grant, with a co-contribution.
“It certainly helped lighten the load, but it was a significant cost to our business.”
But Mr Arnold said hail damage and having his fruit exposed while awaiting rethreading reduced the quality of his oranges by around 20%.
Century Orchards managing director Brendan Sidhu said it took a few weeks to clear the Loxton almond orchard after it was hit by golf ball-sized hail.
“The trees really looked like they had been beaten down, but it was also a very stressful time for management and staff,” he said.
However, Mr Sidhu said he was more optimistic about returns this year than he was then.
“We thought we had lost around 50% of some of our orchards, but I think it’s more likely around 20%,” he said.
Mr Sidhu said he planned to claim hail insurance to help cover the loss, it would not be an option in the future.
The ABC contacted the state’s Department of Primary Industries for comment.
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