Jandowae farmers on the Western Downs show their resilience in face of shattering loss
In a matter of minutes, the retirement dreams of a Western Downs farmer were decimated when his $250,000, crop was shredded by a massive storm that caused widespread damage across Jandowae.
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When Jandowae farmer Doug Wunsch looked out over the area where his barley crop had once stood, his heart sank.
With plans to retire and move to the Sunshine Coast, Mr Wunsch had planted one final field of Barley and in just 10 minutes the $250,000 crop, along with his retirement dreams, were wiped away by this week’s devastating storm.
“I have been listing the property for sale as I wanted to retire and do some things financially for my children and this has really shattered the old boots,” he said.
“I am devastated by the loss of the barley crop, I thought what ‘a good way to go out with an income of $250,000’. Prior to that in January I had planted the same block with mung beans and then two days later after having my tools stolen from my work truck there was eight inches of rain which fell and destroyed the crop.
“It hasn't been a good run for me …”
Jandowae, Chinchilla and surrounding areas received the brunt of the severe thunderstorms on Wednesday afternoon and were severely impacted by supercells and hail storms from around 3.30pm.
On Wednesday afternoon Mr Wunsch and his brother-in-law headed up to their barley crop to begin harvesting, warily keeping an eye on the brewing storm in the distance.
With hopes that the storm may slip to the south and miss them, they got out to the truck to begin harvesting, but it was too little, too late.
“We got the truck out of the shed and on the way back I checked the radar on my phone and I could see it was brewing and the rain was coming in behind me. As I backed the header in the shed the rain was falling densely, but not overly heavy,” he said.
“All of sudden this tornado type wind came in from the southeast at a horizontal direction, the rain started getting more intense and then the hail came.
“I couldn't see 10 feet in front of me, the crop which is 40 feet from the shed wasn't visible to me but I knew within two minutes of the hailstorm it would be over.
“It hailed for 10 minutes solidly, I couldn't hear myself think from the intense noise on the roof, then the rain settled, the clouds moved away and all I looked at was a disaster knowing full well there would be nothing left from the crop.
“As we walked out to the crop I was upset and cursing because I knew I wasn't insured and I had a quarter of a million dollar crop loss.
“When we came home the storm had also hit the farm. It picked up half a roof off the large shed and sailed it over my sister’s van and pierced a hole in the house.
“I just thank God no one was harmed in the incident and I hope all the people around town and the other farmers are insured.”
Mr Wunsch said following the crushing loss his retirement plans were up now up in the air.
“It's just another downfall for me and farming and crop loss and it plays with any farmer’s nerves,” he said.
“It was giving me an easy start to retirement, I could put it towards helping my children, it would've been a goodbye present for me.
“Now the crop is gone and there is no interest in farm buying so I don't know whether I stick with it and keep farming until I’m 90. I’ve got a pack of cards here and I don't know which one to draw out to see if it is a good one.”
Five minutes north Col walks through the remains of his property, sheet metal strewn hundreds of metres away from where his new shed had once stood, frozen hail and rubble lining the kitchen floor, sunlight beaming through where is roof used to be.
“Bad time to try to quit smoking” he sighed, rolling a cigarette.
Col was in his living room when the storm travelling southwest at what he predicted was 150 mile an hour collided with his home.
With nothing he could do Col stood in the safety of door frame and watched as his roof was ripped apart and his pot plants were flung across his property.
Hugging his partner who was away at the time of the storm and returned to the devastation Col walks around his property, assessing the damage.
“It sounded like a bloody freight train coming, the wind was swirling and that’s what ripped the roof off, it was catastrophic,” he said.
“My almost brand new shed is totally destroyed, the back wall is blown out and collapsed, half the roof is gone, trees over fences, my cattle are out, I think it's going to cost around $200,000 and will take about three months to clean up.
“This is the worst storm I’ve ever seen around this area, probably the worst ever, you can see the strip where it went through there’s no leaves on any trees it’s pulverised it, I think we got about six inches of rain.
“The next morning the cats came out wide-eyed wondering about the new renovations.”
Stoically walking around the remains of his house Col leans over to shift a large block of still frozen hail pinned under his veranda wall, revealing tins of Great Northern.
“Got to keep the beers cool somehow” he said.
In the town centre butcher Clint Nelson watched from his store as the wild weather ripped the town apart, uprooting trees and flooding roads.
“I’ve never seen anything like this, not here, the volume of trees on the ground is just unbelievable, we had one gauge broken with 95mm in it and the other one is just shattered,” he said.
“It was so quick, the hail just shredded trees, it twisted off young and old trees six foot off the ground, it blows my mind.
“We weathered the storm here and it was the roughest storm I’ve ever seen in town and when I followed it home to go and get the generator because we’d lost power I caught the back of it and realised we had it easy in here compared to out there.
“It wasn't a very wide band and it only lasted for about half an hour but it was intense.”
Mr Nelson said the town’s resident were now banding together to support each other and begin repairs.
“Everyone in town is coming together and pitching in, my phone hasn't stopped from 5.30am this morning with people wanting to know if anyone needs anything and trying to find out where they can get to.
“I’m just glad no one was hurt.”
See the impact of the storm here
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