NSW bushfires: Batlow apple farmer Malcolm Skein in tears over scorched orchards
Apple farmer Malcolm Skein, 74, broke down in tears yesterday pondering the fate of his 10,000-tree orchard at Batlow and his 250 head of cattle while he waits to return after evacuating to his son’s Tumut property ahead of Saturday’s mega blaze.
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“If they’re wiped out, I’m finished. I liked fruit growing, and I didn’t want to go out like this.”
Apple farmer Malcolm Skein, 74, broke down in tears yesterday pondering the fate of his 10,000-tree orchard at Batlow.
After evacuating to his son’s Tumut property ahead of Saturday’s mega blaze, he has been unable to return to check if his fruit and livestock survived.
“I’ve got about 250 head of cattle, I haven’t got a clue where they are,” Mr Skein told The Daily Telegraph.
All roads into the town remain closed as emergency crews use chainsaws to clear fallen trees, repair broken power lines and clear masses of dead sheep and cattle.
It takes five years for an apple tree to grow back and the Department of Primary Industries estimates the damage bill could run into the tens of millions of dollars. “It’s going to cost a lot of money to replace, and I’m not quite up to it,” said Mr Skein, who has been farming for 50 years. “I didn’t get a wink of sleep last night, just worrying.”
His wife Rhonda, who has been selling their fruit at weekend farmers markets in Canberra for 15 years, said: “There’s damage done, I just don’t know how much.”
Batlow produces around 10 per cent of Australia’s apples. Up to 60,000 bins of fruit, weighing 400kg each, are grown over 950ha.
The cost of establishing a new orchard is more than $150,000 per hectare including protective netting and irrigation.
“Even without access to Batlow I know there’s quite a lot of netting damage from embers,” DPI temperate fruits development officer Kevin Dodds said.
“It could be up to $10 million just for that. That’s not talking about tree and irrigation damage.”
Firefighters worked tirelessly to defend Batlow but about 25 houses were lost, along with the service station, a backpacker hostel and an abandoned factory.
Batlow families are worried the fire could break the town if residents and businesses decide not to rebuild.
Snowy Valley Council mayor James Hayes said recovery would be hard.
“Whether people replant their orchards is going to be an issue because some of them were marginal as it was because of big supermarkets squeezing them,” he said.
“Sure they’re putting their hand in their pockets and giving out free biscuits now, but it’s pretty tough for us.”
Mr Hayes says Batlow copped a double whammy because “the timber industry was the big hit for us”.
“There’s possibly 30,000ha of softwood gone, that’s in excess of $10,000 a hectare,” he said.