Amid severe weather and an unprecedented amount of rainfall, Darkes Glenbernie Orchard is staring down the barrell of losing thousands of its apple trees and potentially half a million dollars worth of damage.
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Darkes Forest has copped 455 mm of rainfall in four days, one of the highest recordings in the Illawarra amid severe weather warnings.
Owner of the orchard, Jo-Anne Fahey, said the Darkes Forerst farm has been there since 1939 and has remained in the family for six generations. She believes the recent rains are the worst the farm has ever seen.
"We've got a fair bit of experience in terms of the weather here. And this weather we're seeing is exceptional," Ms Fahey said.
The farm is on top of a mountain, so the water drains into the Georges River and on the other side, to the Woronora catchment. However, the grounds have remained soaked since the last severe drenching, when Darkes Forest copped 794 mm of rain across March.
"The water does drain away, but it doesn't stop the ground from soaking it up," Ms Fahey said.
"We've had this constant rain which has filled up the ground like an overflowing sponge, and it had only just started to dry out over the last few weeks with the big winds we've had.
"We'd only just started to play catch up with repairing the damage."
Now, Ms Fahey is sitting tight to assess the next lot of damage, which could be catastrophic depending on whether dam walls break.
"The water is actually spilling over the dam wall and not the spillway - it's that full," Ms Fahey said.
"I'm crossing my fingers the walls don't break because that would do a lot more damage on the farm.
"In the last lot of rain, we had six rows of trees with apples on them fall flat on the ground with the 100km/h winds. We managed to pull them back up, but the effect is most of those trees will die with these rains drowning them.
"We may have lost 2500 trees but we won't know until later, maybe 12 months time whether they survive long term."
We could be looking at more than half a million dollars worth of damage right now to our farm.
- Jo-Anne Fahey, owner of Darkes Glenbernie Forest
Meantime Jamberoo Valley Milk farmer, Ken Osborne, moved 120 of his dairy cows across Frys Creek on Friday night. Since then, Jamberoo has copped 500 mm of rain.
"I was lucky enough to get them across the creek ... because now it's a raging river," he said.
Jamberoo Valley Milk launched last month, and sales have been going well, Mr Osborne said. But the rain has meant milk production has dropped by 10 per cent.
"Let's just hope the rain stops soon," Ken said. "Because if it doesn't, I'm in big trouble. The cows are already bogging up the paddock and sitting in a muddy mess."
Ms Fahey said there are other factors making this weather event particularly challenging for farmers, including the lethal varroa mite that has thrown NSW's beekeeping sector into disarray, which impacts polination of crops.
"We're staring down the barrel of potential problems across the state with pollination. Crops are under threat because bees are in lockdown," Ms Fahey said.
"Australia-wide, we've also seen problems with food security. We're getting a concentration of growing particular foods in one place, and when they are hit by devastating storms or a bushfire, people aren't able to eat. And we've seen that recently with lettuce."
With La Ninas and weather disasters becoming more frequent, Ms Fahey said other farmers have taken to investing in rain covers to protect their crops and prevent even further damage.
She has considered rain covers, given her trees have been lashed by consecutive severe storms, however, it would come at a massive cost to cover 100 acres.
"That's a lot to be trying to put a roof over the top of. And with rain covers, you have to pull them over and retract them over and over again to cover a massive space. It's not a simple fix," Ms Fahey said.
"And the water still would have to go somewhere."
Despite the ongoing challenges, Ms Fahey remains positive.
"Farmers are very resilient people. We do tend to find that glimmer of hope and cling to that no matter how small it is. And we know that this won't go forever."
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Grace Crivellaro
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
Court reporter for the Illawarra Mercury.
