Loddon farmers call for more road repairs

Six months after widespread flooding in central Victoria, local farmers are still repairing their properties and facing damaged roads.

Central Victorian farmers are calling for more support to rebuild “terrible” roads and repair

damaged farms six months after widespread flooding.

Tandarra farmer Eric Hocking said the majority of his 800ha property was covered in water, with some paddocks under water for months last spring.

“We were down on yields and quality of the grain because it didn’t finish,” he said.

“Some canola was flattened to the ground and the seeds fell out, while some of our wheat was used as feed wheat.

Tandarra farmer Eric Hocking post floods.

“But the floods also destroyed the roads and that has made it hard to carry the grain.”

It was estimated the flood damage across Victoria and NSW would total at least 10 million tonnes of crops valued at up to $5 billion.

Mr Hocking said while some of the roads in the Loddon shire had been repaired not enough was being done.

Serpentine farmer Prue Milgate agreed the state of the roads in the Loddon Shire was “appalling”.

Damage on the Bendigo-Pyramid Hill Rd.

“The council and the state government got the roads open and operational for harvest, but they are terrible,” she said.

“It’s government roads and council roads, they are cactus.”

Mrs Milgate said her farm suffered significant lucerne loss along with the majority of the wheat crop, which looked like it may have yielded five tonnes to the hectare.

She said they had been able to access government funding and were in the process of replacing shed bases which sank, and farm tracks that were washed away.

“We have received more than 40 deliveries of gravel and so we are about half way done repairing those,” she said.