Grants to help NSW flood victims rebuild

The latest wave of flooding in central western NSW has left at least $342m in damage in its wake, prompting the state and federal governments to offer recovery grants.

Eugowra resident Peter Jones, right, speaks to NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet on Friday. Picture: Getty Images

The latest wave of flooding in central western NSW has left at least $342m of damage in its wake, prompting the state and federal governments to offer recovery grants.

Most of the damage has been to crops, many of which are due to be harvested this month, leading to concerns the weather will further drive up the price of food on supermarket shelves.

But while some farmers have lost all or most of their crops and others are facing costly downgrades in crop quality, the agriculture sector is still expecting a bumper year, with forecasters predicting the fourth-biggest winter crop on record.

Flooding along multiple river catchments in western NSW has surged into towns and inundated paddocks, causing havoc for ­supply chains, farmers and rural economies. More than half of NSW local government areas have been affected by flooding this year.

Hardest hit this week were the Lachlan River towns of Forbes and Eugowra, about 300km west of Sydney. As of Thursday, the NSW government had received 773 reports through its landholder damage assessment survey totalling $342m in damage.

Of that, $228.2m was to crops and $63m to private infrastructure, but the damage bill is expected to be significantly higher.

Some farmers reported livestock losses, while others were able to move their animals to small islands of elevated land within a sea of floodwater. There were also concerns the mosquito plague birthed by the floodwater could affect stock welfare.

NSW farmers affected by flooding since September 14 will be eligible to joint federal and state government recovery grants of up to $75,000.

“Throughout the course of this year, primary producers and regional communities have been tested again and again by the excessive rain and catastrophic floods which have severely depleted production capacity,” NSW Agriculture Minister ­Dugald Saunders said.

“This onslaught has had a major impact on the incredible food and fibre that we see all year round and now we need to stand together and support the individuals and businesses that our state has become so reliant on.”

The latest inundation compounded months of continued riverine flooding across NSW and Victoria, with other states also bearing the brunt of the third consecutive La Nina, which is forecast to stay until early next year.

Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said some farmers had been flooded more than six times this year. “I’ve met with farmers and communities everywhere from western NSW to northern Victoria, northwest Tasmania as well,” Mr Watt said.

“And what they’ve all been telling me is that they’re suffering major crop losses and very significant damage to roads and infrastructure, which affects their ability to get product to market.”

Ahead of the grants being announced on Friday, NSW Farmers president Xavier Martin called for an urgent increase to flood support and for governments to quickly repair damaged roads and public infrastructure to enable farmers to harvest what remained of their crops.

Mr Martin estimated that the ­financial impact of the flooding was likely to exceed $3bn.

Rural Bank senior insights manager James Maxwell said flooding over the past month had led analysts to reduce the NSW winter crop estimate by 3 per cent since October, bringing the state harvest to 14.5 million tonnes, down 28 per cent on last year.

But NSW production is still expected to be 34 per cent above average, highlighting the positive impact the rain has had in areas not affected by flooding. He said the national total would be about 57.8 million tonnes.