Australian bushfires: Batlow apple growers slowly assess damage

Batlow apple growers are waiting for smoke to lift to fully assess the damage inflicted by the bushfire that tore through the region on Saturday.

AUSTRALIA’S apple capital was one of the hardest-hit regions when a bushfire tore through on the weekend, but one of the nation’s biggest growers has been spared the worst.

Only “minor damage” was inflicted on Montague Fresh’s 75ha of apple orchards in Batlow when the 318,000ha Dunns Road fire ravaged through the Snowy Mountains foothills on Saturday, reducing property, machinery, orchards and thousands of animals to ash.

The Victorian-based company’s managing director Scott Montague said: “it is with great relief and gratitude that we announced only minor damage to our apple orchards in Batlow due to fire over the weekend.”

Only about 5000 apple trees on the Montague property’s boundary were damaged out of a total of about 200,000 apple trees.

“Fires were largely contained to areas outside of orchard blocks,” he said, adding all staff were evacuated before the fast-moving fire hit.

Mr Montague said some orchards and buildings in the Batlow area sustained severe damage, and the company was working with other growers to estimate crop yields for the coming season.

“The Montague team will be working with the local industry to repair any damage and focus on producing a great crop of apples in the coming season,” he said.

“While these losses will have an impact on apple supply there will be a significant crop of high-quality apples from the Batlow region available for sale across Australian in the coming season.”

Batlow resident Brad Harvey said about 12ha of his father’s apple orchard was lost in the fire. The fitter and turner returned to his father’s property on Sunday morning to assess the damage. Fortunately the remaining 30ha of the property was spared, along with their cattle and house, he said.

“We fared pretty well. It went all around us. It went right up to the boundary, up the power lines to our house and just stopped.”

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Brad’s father Peter grows apples for Batlow Apples.

Mr Harvey said it was difficult to get a handle on how much damaged had been inflicted on apple orchards in the region until thick smoke had lifted.

The fire passed through Batlow on Saturday but continues to burn out of control. The NSW Fire Service said there may still be active fires and unburnt areas and was urging residents to monitor conditions.

Nearby areas including Tumbarumba are on alert for embers and spot fires.