Growers in the Hills, Barossa and Adelaide Plains devastated by hail and storm damage

Vineyard owners have lost entire vintages, while growers say their fruit looks like it was smashed with a “hammer” after Thursday’s destructive hailstorm, which caused about $100m in damage.

Growers and vineyard owners are reeling after Thursday’s freak, destructive hailstorm, which has caused an estimated $100m in damage to fruit crops, wiped out entire vineyards and collapsed and flooded buildings.

In the Barossa, some vineyard owners say they’ve never seen such a widespread event, with reports some lost their entire vintage.

Nets were able to save many fruit trees from large hailstones that fell across the state in Thursday’s destructive storms, but Kym Green’s apples and cherries weren’t so lucky.

The Lenswood-based grower, who runs Ellimatta Orchards with his brother Peter, said the hail struck his farm about 11.30am and lasted less than two minutes.

“So the trees had to sit there and wear it,” Mr Green said.

He said many of his trees filled with apples looked like they had exploded.

“You can see an apple about a half inch across, and it’s smashed, like you’ve hit it with a hammer,” he said. “It’s a kick in the guts … it’s disappointing.”

Already hit by bushfires that devastated the region in late 2019 – costing his orchard 11,000 trees – Mr Green was only just getting back on his feet when the hail hit.

His son-in-law Shayne Boyle was also burnt in the blaze.

“It’s not tomorrow that you get going again, it’s months to get over it, and that’s tough going,” Mr Green said.

Kym Green with neighbour Graeme Green at Graeme’s hail-damaged pear orchard at Lenswood on Friday. Picture: Tom Huntley

While many cherries were split and bruised by the hail, Christmas stock would not be impacted, he said.

“There will be plenty of cherries around, there will be plenty of apples around, it’s just the farmer has to work pretty hard to get good ones to the public, that’s what it amounts to,” he said.

AUSVEG chief executive Jordan Brooke-Barnett said he predicted the damage bill for growers across the Adelaide Plains would be in excess of $100 million.

“It's a $500 million farmgate horticultural produce region … conservatively 20 per cent (has been damaged),” Mr Brooke-Barnett said.

“It’s uninsurable, you could not grow a crop with the insurance, they could theoretically give you insurance but you’d probably not make any money, if not lose money on the crop.”

Exact losses would not be known for some weeks, he said.

“It’s a very distressing event for our industry.”

Massive hailstones as storms hit SA

VIEW GALLERY

He urged retailers and consumers to understand some vegetables would be damaged by storms.

“I’d hope that the retailers would come to an understanding that some of this is going to be slightly lower quality, some of it will be unblemished, but some of it will be unmarketable,” he said.

Felicia Nguyen. president from the Vietnamese Farmers’ Association said many Vietnamese farmers in Virginia had been devastated by the storm.

“A lot of our Vietnamese farmers have a bit of damage, some of them have lost all of their crops,” Ms Nguyen said.

“It’s not a very good time at the moment, because we’re just coming out of Covid, it’s going to be a very hard Christmas and new year.”

She hoped to meet with local MPs and council members in coming days.

“We want to highlight the extent of damage and see if the government could provide assistance to help them (growers) cope,” she said.

Kit, Elaine and Michael Xuan, among the broken glass inside just one of their glasshouses in Buckland Park, SA on Thursday, October 28, 2021. (The Advertiser/ Morgan Sette)

One of the destroyed glasshouses at the Xuan Nguyen Family farms in Buckland Park. Picture: The Advertiser/ Morgan Sette

Marketing manager from the SA Produce Markets, Penny Reidy, said the fruit nets were a saving grace for many farmers.

“You’ve got apple and pear growers, and a lot of them have netting in place … because the hailstones were really large, they’ve (the nets have) done their job to save the produce,” Ms Reidy said.

She said the extent of damage would not be transparent until picking season early next year.

Craig Anesbury, from Anesbury Cherries said though his fruit was not damaged, about 120m of netting was ripped in the hailstorm.

“I’ve got a bit of a race with the birds, so I’ll be madly stitching this weekend,” Mr Anesbury said.

Barossa Valley examines the damage

Residents and grape growers in the Barossa Valley are counting the cost after the freak hailstorm ravaged their homes, vines and buildings.

Barossa Mayor Bim Lange said it was too early to tell how widespread the damage had been but he’d heard reports of some vineyards losing everything.

“I’ve heard that some of the losses in certain areas are a total vintage lost as far as their income for this year, others have various degrees of damage,” Mr Lange said.

“It caught everybody off guard. We were all shocked with the amount of impact and veracity of it – the hail with the amount of rain.”

Mr Lange said as well as fruit losses, Barossa residents were today checking the damage to properties and homes.

“There‘s been a lot of damage to many houses – I’ve heard of the ceilings collapsing with many of the buildings.

“It was that combination of rain and hail, given that a lot of old buildings still have box gutters, once the ice solidifies in the gutters, it blocks up.

“It was a freakish event and many people who have lived here for a long time have never experienced anything like this.”

Mr Lange said ice was still being cleaned up well into Thursday evening in Tanunda, but other areas such as Nuriootpa largely missed the downpour and hail.

Gomersal Wines owner Barry White said the storm was unlike anything he’d seen in 22 years in the area.

He estimated it would cost him around 40 per cent of his grapes.

“Hail damage to our fruit is quite significant – all the shoots have been knocked off, all the buds and bunches haven’t developed. But we won’t know the outcome of that for quite some time.”

Mr White’s cellar door was flooded after gutters filled with ice and cascaded inside on to equipment, causing about $30,000 worth of damage.

“It’s not a good event for the valley, I’ve never seen anything like this in 22 years.”

A grape grower in the Gomersal district, Will Holmes, said the valley had never been hit by such a widespread hailstorm.

He could only sit back and helplessly watch as his crops were belted.

“There’ll be some significant damage and some blocks that’ll have to be written off,” Mr Holmes said.

“This couldn’t have come at a worse time, everyone’s vines are pre-flowering crops, they’re probably at their most vulnerable stage to a hail event.

“Insurance really isn’t available for anything like this, they wont cover a vineyard for damage.”