Hawkesbury Valley farmer Lee Etherington hit by five floods losing $500,000

A NSW man has spoken of his “nightmare” situation, that has seen him driven to the brink of total financial ruin.

The extreme weather that has battered Australia in recent years has seen Lee Etherington’s farm crushed by five floods resulting in a whopping loss of $500,000.

And it has left him in a “nightmare” situation.

The 46-year-old has been on his farm in the Hawkesbury region of NSW for close to two decades. He grows 1600 finger lime trees and other native plants – which he then transforms into a unique range of Australian gins and condiments, produced by his company Wild Hibiscus Distilling Co.

Despite the farm being located on a mountain, thus avoiding flooding on his land, to deliver the fruit to his distillery he must get it across a bridge – which has been flooded three times this year alone.

“It’s been particularly bad this year,” Lee said. “There was a double one in March that wiped us out from early March to March 13 or 14, and the second one biggest one in more than 40 years in July,” he told news.com.au.

“We have seven different varieties of finger limes and there are pink ones we use in the gin and green ones. But the pink limes ripen all at a once and have to be picked within a couple of weeks – and that coincided with a double flood.

“It was our biggest crop in 13 years and right when it started ripening we had 36 inches [90cm] of rain in two weeks, the bridge went under and fruit started dropping and splitting. We need to get it straight to factory when picked as we need to get the caviar out of the finger limes.

“But the bridge was out for three days and then out again, so we couldn’t pick the crop and it became worm food,” he said. “They enjoyed three tonnes of finger limes.”

Every time it floods, Lee said he loses between $100,000 and $150,000 in lost production and they have to “sit on their hands for a while”, which he described as “very frustrating”.

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Bells Line of Road over the Hawkesbury River earlier this year. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Monique Harmer

Some of the harvest he lost this year. Picture: Supplied

$2000 lost per kilo

Lee spent $600,000 and many years undertaking research into how to not only put the finger lime caviar into gin, but to ensure it was suspended throughout the alcohol so it did not just sink to the bottom.

He said adding this value to a product like finger limes means flooding is particularly brutal on the business.

“If I was a normal finger lime farmer, I would get about $30-$35/kg when selling them so that flooding was probably over $100,000 on produce lost,” he said.

“But if I take the process and use each kilo, it’s worth over $2000 when turning it into gin, so when you look at it that way it’s a huge loss.”

Lee said it had been a tough few years.

In 2019, he was stressed the farm would be destroyed by fire as flames came within 600m of his property. Then when Covid hit, the large exporting arm of his business was “cancelled overnight”.

“I thought we going to lose a whole hill of finger limes with fires and then it goes to a pandemic and then floods,” he said.

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The finger lime caviar is a native delicacy which Lee uses to flavour his gin products. Picture: Supplied

Two more floods hit in 2020 and 2021.

Last year he lost 30-40 per cent of the crop, adding up to $50,000 in losses.

“This year we have had three and almost four floods, so obviously something has changed,” he said. “Before this series of floods, we hadn’t had a flood for 17 years.

“This year with floods and disruption, the whole program has been completely interrupted. We were working on a new one and it’s got a blue finger lime caviar and we will probably release a new passionfruit gin with snowflower which grows in the mountains of Tibet.”

A $7 million solution

The dad-of-three has plans to combat the impact of climate change – but it will come at an eye-watering price.

“I’m planning to move the whole factory and distillery up to the farm so it’s all together on the one side of the bridge and that will solve those problems where we lose the whole crop,” he said.

“It will have a cafe and people can come and see the farm and see the trees and pick their own. But that will take a few years to build.

“We started building that this year so that’s how I am going to combat it; but it will probably be a $6 million or $7 million build.”

Lee Etherington runs the Wild Hibiscus Distilling Co, a family-owned and operated business since 1998. Picture: Supplied

But Lee said Wild Hibiscus Distilling Co remains a small family company with his youngest brother running the factory and his middle brother in charge of the warehouse and export.

He added he was happy he had followed his passion after consulting with distilleries, wineries and breweries for 10 years on using flowers to colour and flavour products.

It’s been a labour of love cultivating his 1600 finger lime trees with Lee revealing he has crawled underneath each one on his side, back, stomach and knees at least 60 times over the years.

“It’s a horrendous job. After picking the finger limes you look like you’ve been a fight with tiger as they are covered in thorns,” he said.

One of the most expensive gins

But his passion has paid off. His finger lime gin was a huge hit when he released his first product using the fruit. It was “Gingle Bell Gin baubles” – small bottles of flavoured gin designed to hang on a Christmas tree as boozy baubles.

“I found a way to convert the finger lime caviar so you get a burst of 40 per cent alcohol gin inside the balls and not just finger lime juice. Everyone was crazy about this ball so we had to work out a way to turn it into a big bottle,” he said.

The Gingle Bell Gin baubles where it all began. Picture: Supplied

The finger lime gin has the caviar suspended through the bottle. Picture: Supplied

Lee Etherington said he likes to stand out from other distillers. Picture: Supplied

As a result, he created his 750ml Finger Lime Gin bottles, which at $150 per bottle are one of the most expensive gins in the country.

His first batch of finger lime gin was launched in December 2019 and by February 2020, the gins were sold out with 4500 bottles offloaded.

“I think it’s so unique, it’s spectacular and if it didn’t taste good and worthy of its price tag people wouldn’t buy it again,” he said.

“We will never do a standard clear dry gin. There are over 400 distillers and they all do six versions of the same thing.

“We only do things that are unique to what I grow and that’s what makes us a bit different to distillers. We actually grow our botanicals and it’s not a couple of square metres of herb garden. It’s an 80-acre [32-hectare] farm and it takes a lot of space and time and care to actually do that.”