Gippsland floods: Almost 500 livestock deaths, crops and farm fences destroyed

Hundreds of livestock are dead, crops and vital farm fences destroyed. Now, the clean-up effort needs volunteers. Warning: Distressing images

Back roads of Sale in Gippsland were cut by floodwater. Picture: David Caird

Victorian farmers are counting the cost of serious storms and floods, which destroyed crops, pastures, fences and sheds.

In Gippsland, farmers have reported 492 stock losses, 258 hectares of crops lost, 5496 hectares of pasture loss, 622km of fences destroyed, and 91 structures lost including sheds, pumps and farm buildings.

Phone coverage and power were also out for days across the region.

As for what this means for the food on supermarket shelves, Victorian Farmers Federation president Emma Germano said prices largely would not be affected.

“Dairy and livestock farmers were most impacted and any interruption in supply can be met through other sources, including interstate,” she said.

“While many horticulture farms have been devastated, it is a very small proportion of Australian production and the areas hit were not in peak production.”

A dead sheep lies beside a walking track at Traralgon after being caught in floodwater. Picture: David Caird

Disaster-aid charity BlazeAid will set up bases at Heyfield and Yinnar to help farmers with their clean-up and is in need of volunteers.

Almost 40 farmers have registered for help so far, with BlazeAid president Kevin Butler saying it was “only the tip of the iceberg”.

“It’s another bloody disaster they’ve got to handle,” he said. “Life on a farm is tough enough as it is without any disasters.”

Mr Butler expects there is months of work to be done and encourages anyone willing to lend a hand, even if it’s for a day or the weekend, to come forward.

“We’ve got tens if not hundreds of kilometres of fences that have been smashed, including internal fencing.

“A lot of these people are dairy farmers so they need their internal fences back up. We’ve got one fella who got his calf pens all smashed by the floods.”

BlazeAid, founded by farmers Kevin and Rhonda Butler, will set up two base camps in Gippsland. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Mr Butler said there was “so many good people” who were helping co-ordinate getting the base camps up and running at Heyfield (starting Wednesday, 23 June) and Yinnar (starting Monday, 28 June).

BlazeAid has been at both areas before to assist with bushfire recovery.

“It’s just an honour and a privilege to work with these Gippslanders. We will get them back, we’ll help them recover,” Mr Butler said.

“If volunteers can come up with van, tent or sleeping bag … they’ll get out of it more than what the farmers will, I’ll guarantee you that. They’ll be so chuffed that they can help a farm that’s been smashed.”

Meanwhile, the Victorian Government has announced its own support systems for farmers affected by the wild weather, including a dedicated agriculture recovery manager.

Agriculture Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said her department was working with property owners in affected areas, including the Central Highlands and Yarra Ranges, to receive the help they needed, whether that be financial or otherwise.

“Storms and floods over the last weeks have hit our farmers hard, along with the flow-on impacts of power and telecommunications outages and road blockages,” she said.

“We’re supporting affected communities, including specialised work with our agricultural community, providing landholders with advice, referrals and impact assessments.”

The work of the agriculture recovery manager will include providing technical advice for issues including stock health, nutrition and feed budgeting, fencing, pasture recovery and grazing management, soil erosion and dams and waterways.

WOORI YALLOCK FARMER HIT HARD

Len Rayner from Rayners Orchard in Woori Yallock had his power out for eight days last week, despite not having a lot of damage at his property.

“We had a pretty miserable week,” he said.

“For two of those days we had no communication at all — you couldn’t do anything and it virtually shut our business.”

Rayners Orchard owner Len Rayner said he had a tough few weeks without power. Picture: Andy Rogers

Mr Rayner said he was grateful he was able to get back to his local farmers market, after recent struggles in selling his produce.

“Our tourism business was so good for a while there we would sell out, but since the lockdown we’ve been wasting fruit,” he said.

“On top of the two weeks of lockdowns and then another week of having no power we’ve had three weeks of hell.”

“In those three weeks we had 10 customers in total — on a bad day we have 10 a day,” he said.

HOW TO GET AND GIVE HELP

BlazeAid

Contact BlazeAid to register your farm for help with rebuilding/cleaning up fences or volunteer to help a farmer in need.

Victorian Government

Landholders can call Agriculture Victoria on the VicEmergency Hotline [phone] for advice on horticultural, livestock and other agricultural issues.

For more information about available assistance, flood or storm-affected farmers can visit agriculture.vic.gov.au/floods.

Farmers can also contact the Rural Financial Counselling Service on 1800 686 175 for support and advice.