‘Once in 30 years’: Stanthorpe farmers deal with mass crop destruction, loss of income following hailstorm

An afternoon of hail has devastated growers south of Warwick, completely destroying crops and ruining thousands of dollars worth of produce, in an unexpected ‘once in 30 years’ weather event.

Southern Downs farmers have been dealt an “unlucky” blow following a devastating hailstorm which in the span of an afternoon saw the loss of crops, income and livelihoods.

The hail struck Tuesday afternoon, leaving growers in the affected areas cleaning up the mess and waiting to begin growing again next season.

For third-generation farmer Simon Gasparin, the weather event was a “bizarre … once in 30 year event” which wrote off 90 per cent of his tomato crop at Dalcouth.

“It’s pretty weird for February, we usually expect hail towards the end of the year, you’d get a bit of hail and you could pull through as it was not as severe, it was a once in 30 year storm,” Mr Gasparin said.

Third-generation grower Simon Gasparin with his dad, Terry, alongside destroyed crops (Photo: James Lister MP)

“I’m just hoping I can clean this block up and pull off the damaged fruit and hopefully it can reshoot and create a new fruit.”

Mr Gasparin estimates about 90 per cent of his tomato crop was lost in the event and an “incalculable” loss of income.

Volunteers in the local community have helped with the clean-up and recovery efforts, giving Mr Gasparin a much needed hand during this time.

“I guess we’re all pretty resilient, you never get used to it but you get past the weather and what happens in farming and you have to keep going,” he said.

“I still love what I do and I do it because I like it, but I have a young family and I know I have to provide for them and look after them.”

Bean farmer Tony Romeo among his flattened crop at his Severnlea farm, before the hail he was expecting to pack 15,000 boxes of produce (Photo: James Lister MP)

Severnlea bean farmer Tony Romeo said the weather event was “unlucky” and even hail netting would have been uprooted in Tuesday’s freak storm.

Mr Romeo was expecting to pack 15,000 boxes of beans before the hail hit, but was now out of income and jobs for his staff as the crop was a “complete write off”.

“Our farm is about 40 acres and we’ve probably lost about half of that, I haven’t got any income for the next eight weeks and it’s too late to plant any other crops,” Mr Romeo said.

Mr Romeo has been a “serious” farmer on the property for the past 15 years, which has been in his family since 1969, and said he hadn’t seen a storm like this during this time of year.

“It’s a normal weather event that was unexpected, we usually get hail in November and December, we know it does hail here and we just hope we don’t get it,” he said.

“We just have to cut our losses and hopefully we’ve got enough money left to start again next year, it is what it is.”

The Bureau of Meteorology’s Pieter Claassen said the event was relatively uncommon for the time of year, as it was usually normally too warm for hail to be produced.

“The area saw 4-5cm hail, which qualifies as large, almost giant hail, you’d be unlucky to be directly under the hail – it’s very destructive,” Mr Claassen said.

The loss of tomato crops at Simon Gasparin's property at Dalcouth have cost the family farmer thousands of dollars in unharvested produce (Photo: James Lister MP)

Southern Downs MP James Lister, who visited affected properties in the region, described the scene as “disappointing” but he was impressed by the stoicism and resilience of the farmers.

“The timing of the hailstorm event means that growers’ pre-harvest investment in expenses such as seedlings, sprays, fertiliser, fuel, electricity and labour have been maximised, with no produce to show for it,” Mr Lister said.

“This is a significant blow to the impacted growers who have already faced half a decade of drought and Covid-induced cost increases.”

Mr Lister said that to futureproof the industry the state government must invest in things like hail netting, which would be “much welcomed by local farmers”.

“The effect of the hailstorm was more akin to a business being flooded for a week, losing all of its stock, and being left unable to trade for the next 12 months,” he said.

“So I would like to see an event like the big storm on Tuesday automatically trigger the availability of disaster recovery grants – just like when householders in cities get assistance if their house floods.”

The member for Southern Downs has reached out to Agricultural Industry Development and Fisheries Minister Mark Furner in an effort to provide disaster recovery grants for affected farmers.

Originally published as ‘Once in 30 years’: Stanthorpe farmers deal with mass crop destruction, loss of income following hailstorm