Bilpin tourism booms as Blue Mountains town bounces back after bushfires

After drought, fire and COVID, domestic tourists have rallied behind this tiny town in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, with 2020 proving to be a surprisingly good year.

Harvest is in full swing at Bilpin’s famous Fruit Bowl, the farm humming with visitors picking stone fruit as the summer crops come in.

It’s a sight that a year ago was hard to imagine for Margaret and Simon Tadrosse after the Black Summer of bushfires came to town.

The pick-your-own farm in the foothills of the Blue Mountains was reduced to a blackened mess last December, half its orchards turned to ash along with $3 million in infrastructure.

Domestic tourists have rallied behind Bilpin during the toughest year in memory, and even as recovery remains slow for some, 2020 has proved a surprisingly good year for this resilient town.

“Over the last 12 months, the fires have put Bilpin on the map,” said Margaret Tadrosse who has run the farm for 35 years. “Bilpin has just boomed.”

Margaret and Simon Tadrosse, owners of Bilpin Fruit Bowl, whose iconic produce farm was hit hard by the Dec 21 fire. Their recovery has been powered by the goodwill of visitors. Picture: Tim Hunter.

BLAZE OF DESTRUCTION

December 21 was a catastrophic day for Bilpin. A backburn, lit to contain the Gospers Mountain mega blaze, had breached its containment line days earlier. When it jumped the Bells Line of Road into the Grose Valley, it was unstoppable.

Residents had lived under red, smoke-filled skies for weeks, anxiously waiting for the fire to hit. When it did, it was devastating, razing the beloved Tutti Fruitti cafe and house next door to the ground, and destroying large swathes of orchards, outbuildings and farm infrastructure.

In a town of just 665 people, almost everyone was affected in some way.

“We’ve had fires come through here many times but nothing, nothing would ever come close to how this fire was that day,” said Margaret Tadrosse.

“I was trying to be brave, saying I’m not leaving. Then the fire came, and my husband just said get in the car and get out of here.”

A fire approaches the property of the Bilpin Fruit Bowl on December 21. Photo Jeremy Piper

Simon, their son and a family friend, stayed to defend the house. More than 7000 fruit trees went up in smoke.

“We were one of the worst hit farms in the area, we were right in the eye of the fire.

“My husband, he was in a really bad way afterwards,” Margaret said. “He said ‘that’s it, we can’t come back from this, we’ve lost so much’.

“But after 34 years of being here, I couldn’t just throw the towel in. I said ‘no, we’d get through it, not realising what the community was going to do’.”

James Tadrosse inspects burnt apple trees on his family’s fruit farm at Bilpin on January 17. The fire destroyed around 7000 fruit trees and hail netting. Picture: AAP

HARVEST RESCUE MISSION

KNOWN as “Land of the Mountain Apple”, where orchards and gardens thrive in its fertile soil, the devastation caused to Bilpin’s landscape by the fire left many locals in disbelief.

“It was very confronting driving back into Bilpin the day after the fire and seeing our beautiful green town just sticks in the ground,” Margaret said. “It was back to nothing, like moon rock, that’s what the ground was like.”

Amid the devastation, the Tadrosse farm was heavy with unpicked fruit on its unburned trees, as the fires had shut it down for most of the month. The family sells 100 per cent of their produce to pick-your-own tourists, that’s hundreds of tonnes of fruit a year.

A sign damaged by fire at Bilpin, Monday, January 13. The landscape was just ‘sticks in the ground’ after fire tore through the forest. Picture: AAP

After sharing what had happened on social media, on Boxing Day, they opened to the public hoping to salvage what harvest was left.

“We just got inundated. People were just going crazy wanting to come out and help,” said Margaret. “We thought we would have had to close our doors, shut the gate. But just the amount of people that came after Christmas was overwhelming.

“When (Simon) he saw that, it was a light bulb moment for him. To see all the people coming back and supporting us, it’s where he got his courage and energy to keep going.”

Margaret and Simon Tadrosse‘s orchard is again thriving and the family is close to where they were financially a year before the fires hit. Picture: Tim Hunter.

THE HEALING BEGINS

BILPIN’S recovery can be seen on the Bells Line of Road. The winding stretch can resemble a carpark on weekends as tourists pour in for farm gate visits and fruit picking.

A few locals grumble over the traffic but for those reliant on tourists, it’s a welcome inconvenience to the ghost town they lived in a year ago.

Steve Jones, who runs Bilpin Resort with wife Amanda, said visitor numbers even outside apple picking season and long weekends had been phenomenal.

“It was off the back of the bushfires, the Empty Esky movement, support for those affected by the bushfires, that was the start of it,” he said.

“Then with COVID because of that lack of ability to go interstate or internationally, people. once they were allowed to get out, they did, and because were just far enough but not too far away from Sydney … they’ve come up in droves.”

Steve and Amanda Jones, owners of Bilpin Resort, a sought-after wedding ceremony venue, in their 50-year-old pine forest known as the secret circle. Picture: Tim Hunter.

The Joneses faced a tense battle last December to save their ‘secret circle’, a 50-year-old pine forest used for wedding ceremonies that’s a big drawcard at the resort.

On December 23 after a week of battling spot fires, a large bush strip caught alight on the property heading towards the forest. It was a terrifying day.

Drought had left the land tinder dry, tank water was almost gone and electricity was failing. With no diesel pumps, and just an 1000L water cube on the back of a truck, Steve drove laps back and forth from their dam to fight the fire.

“It was horrific. The pine forest was full of pine needles on the ground and that pine fuel had been drying for ages and all you needed was an ember.”

The Grose Valley fire in the Blue Mountains area became unstoppable after it breached its containment lines. It hit Bilpin Resort on December 23.

Firefighters helped them save the secret circle, but it was a traumatic day.

“It was constant, no sleep, going to the dam, filling up the water cube, hoping the generator didn’t trip which it did constantly then the water stops coming out.

“It was just extremely stressful to the point where Amanda didn’t want to go back again because of the kids, you know she said we can’t leave them without parents.

“It’s only on reflection when you look back that’s when the emotions come in.”

The fires then COVID cost them hundreds of thousands in wedding bookings, but as visitors began pouring into Bilpin, they pivoted back to their accommodation roots and are managing.

“Once non-essential travel, we were surprised to see the bookings pick up fairly quickly.

“It’s been healing. So many small businesses depend on that traffic.”

Bushfire damage at Tutti Fruitti at Bilpin on January 13. The beloved business has finally been able to reopen this month. Picture: AAP

DESTINATION BILPIN

LIKE all fire-affected towns, recovery is patchy in Bilpin. Many farms are still recovering from the fires and challenges of COVID-19, and accessing grants and insurance money to replace fencing, irrigation and hail netting can be slow.

Bilpin RFS captain Sean Lonergan’s own burnt-out orchard remains years off production.

He lost 5000 trees and more than $100,000 in machinery and infrastructure when the fire hit his property on December 21.

Sean Lonergan, local Bilpin RFS Captain, says recovery is tough but he's pushing on with new plantings hopefully bringing fruit within three year. Picture: Tim Hunter.

“I could see the flames were 40ft in the air, above the trees, coming over the ridge. I actually had Fire and Rescue people there, the fire went past this property out the back, they left, and it had cut a swath through the bush.

“Then we had that southerly change and it brought it straight back in. Everything just started burning up.”

Conditions were extreme, a long spell of dryness and wind ideal for the spread of fires when the inferno hit Bilpin in December. Photo Jeremy Piper

Accessing tree stock especially apples has been difficult. He’s diversified his crop, planting cherries, apricots and plums and is considering pick-your-own option to boost his
cash flow.

“It takes a long time to rebuild,” he said. “The government’s been pretty good, they’ve done a supply grant so if you were selling agricultural products they’ll help you rebuild.”

In the meantime, he’s taken heart watching the town’s RFS brigade’s membership grow.

“It was a long campaign” he said. “It was tiring but it reinvigorated everyone, we got a lot of new members and they’re out training every weekend.”

Community-driven campaigns like Back To Bilpin, Spend With Them, and Empty Esky played a key role in reviving Bilpin’s tourism industry in the aftermath of the fires.

Sean Prendergast of Bilpin Cider has been enjoying a very busy year since the fires drove tourism in the town.

A first at Bilpin Cider -a queue outside Bilpin Cider’s farm gate in June. Picture: Bilpin Cider

RIPPER LOCATION

Bilpin Cider’s Sean Prendergast said the town was also fortunate to be 90 minutes from Sydney, making it a location people felt they could get out to and support.

And even with COVID lockdowns slowing things down in April, the visitors haven’t stopped.

“August is our slowest month in the mountains because it’s cold, there’s no fruit picking, but it was our biggest month ever,” Mr Prendergast said.

“People had nowhere to go, they had been locked up for months and they just got in the car and came for a drive. Our tourist traffic is extraordinary.”

Air BnBs and new businesses have bolstered Bilpin’s draw as a daytrip destination, and for the small towns along the way, there’s hope the benefits spread.

“We’re getting 4000 customers a month, that’s a lot of people for a small little country town with one road running through it,” he said.

“How that awareness is built, whether the bushfires have given us that attention … and COVID has provided people a reason to go somewhere other than Victoria or Queensland or overseas — we’re a ripper location to get out to.”