Huon, Derwent Valley storm December 2021: Recovery grants available

Five months after a freak storm which cut some Tasmanian producers to ‘smithereens’, wiping out millions worth of produce, a support package has been unveiled. HOW TO CASH IN >>

Growers in Tasmania’s Huon Valley have told The Mercury they are still reeling from a freak weather event last December which wiped out millions of dollars worth of produce.

It comes as the state and federal governments unveil a support scheme, offering $10,000 grants to affected producers in the Derwent and Huon valleys, while concessional loans of up to $100,000 have also been made for applicants across southern and central Tasmania who can show themselves to be in “urgent and genuine need of assistance”.

Home Hill Winery

Financial support under the joint Commonwealth-state Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements to the flood-affected Central Highlands, Derwent Valley and Southern Midlands local councils will also be made available to “cover the costs associated with clean-up operations and the restoration of essential public assets”, Minister for Emergency Management and National Recovery and Resilience, Senator Bridget McKenzie, said.

“In late October, high river flows, intense storms and heavy rainfall caused flooding, landslides and damage to roads and farming operations across central Tasmania,” she said.

“Southern Tasmania was then hit by storms, flash flooding, damaging winds and large hail in early December.”

Fruit Growers Tasmania chief executive Peter Cornish said his organisation worked particularly closely with six growers in the Huon Valley who between them lost a combined $4.5m worth of apples and cherries, as well as sustaining nearly $1m worth of damage to infrastructure.

“Some of that damage will have been insurable, crops of course weren’t,” he said.

“Some (damaged apples) can go to juice, but compared to first-grade fruit they get nothing.”

Andrew Griggs, who runs Lucaston Park Orchards in the Huon Valley, said normally about 10 per cent of his apples go to juice, with the remainder first-grade fruit – but the December hailstorm inverted that figure.

Home Hill Winery

However, the “juice price has plummeted” because of the oversupply of damaged fruit and he is now exploring new markets for his juice – Lucaston Park has its own plant – on the mainland to help recover some of his losses.

Lucaston Park Orchards owner Andrew Griggs with storm damaged apples. Picture: Chris Kidd

Much of his fruit, though, remains in storage sheds “waiting for something to come up”.

While he and other producers “don’t make habit of asking the government” for handouts, he would use the $10,000 towards replacing netting which tore under the weight of ice.

Meanwhile, the true extent of the damage is still yet to be counted at Home Hill Winery, owner Terry Bennett said.

Home Hill Winery

“That first week in December cut us to smithereens, we picked a little bit last week, but we’re down at least 90 per cent, we’ll be lucky to get five to six tonnes of pinot this vintage,” he said.

“We’ve potentially lost $1m of income.”

However, the damage to the vines – Home Hill cane prunes, rather than spur – is yet to be fully revealed.

“A lot of them have split, they were hard and green hadn’t solidified yet, so until the leaves come off and we can get a good look, we don’t know,” Mr Bennett said.

Originally published as Huon, Derwent Valley storm December 2021: Recovery grants available