Three weeks on from a multi-day frost event across South-east Australia, producers are still assessing the impacts. The unseasonal weather has destroyed grape, grain, and legume crops, leaving growers uncertain about what the rest of the season will look like. Farmers say the damage has been unprecedented, with some calling for the event to be treated as a natural disaster in order to trigger urgent government assistance.
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00:00Grape growers across many Australian wine regions are no strangers to severe frosts.
00:09But even with 55 vintages under his belt, nothing could have prepared Barossa Vigneron
00:14Michael Keyes for an event like this.
00:17I would sum it up as devastating.
00:19I mean it's devastating not only for us but everybody else.
00:25The fifth generation grower says at least 80% of his Barossa Valley vineyard has been
00:30destroyed.
00:32And as you can see the frost just burns it off.
00:34Just burns it off.
00:35It's like somebody's gone along with a blowtorch.
00:38A series of overnight freezing temperatures hit large parts of the country in mid-September
00:44with the damage extending from Kangaroo Island through the Mallee and into central west New
00:49South Wales.
00:50It struck at a critical time when buds on vines had started growing early due to dry
00:56conditions.
00:57Mr Keyes is hopeful that he'll still be able to yield a smaller crop but he's not out of
01:03the woods with frost known to occur up until the end of November.
01:08We may get one bunch on that secondary bud instead of two so we might get a crop that
01:13is 30 to 40% of a normal crop.
01:17That's what we're hoping and praying for.
01:21For other growers whose supply grapes, waiting for secondary buds may not be viable unless
01:26wineries reveal their prices early.
01:30This is a disaster and it's actually, like I said, it's pretty well a national disaster.
01:36It's the latest blow for an industry which has been grappling with trade, oversupply
01:40and farmgate price issues.
01:44More than 60 growers came together in the Riverland last week, desperate for solutions.
01:51There is a lot of people at the moment that are feeling very, very depressed, contemplating
01:57on what they're going to do, what's next, because we've just come off of three really
02:02bad years and this was just another nail in the coffin.
02:08Wine isn't the only sector reeling from losses.
02:12Wine crops in the Adelaide Plains have also been wiped out by frost after one of the driest
02:17seasons on record.
02:19So we're sitting at about 150ml for the whole year and we're about 350ml average here so
02:25it's been very tough here.
02:29With a strong harvest now unlikely, Nathan Parker has made the tough decision to cut
02:34his weed paddocks for hay.
02:37We aren't hay growers, we don't normally do hay so we don't actually have the gear to
02:40do hay or the storage for it so there's a lot of cost getting contractors in to do that
02:46and then trying to find markets when you don't normally have a market for it.
02:49This is a large weather event that is going to impact the state's economy by billions
02:54of dollars, not just thousands, not millions, but billions.
02:58Governments have historically provided financial assistance in the wake of natural disasters.
03:03Here in South Australia grants were offered after hailstorms in 2021 and the River Murray
03:08floods a year later.
03:10But frost isn't included in national emergency disaster plans, raising fears help won't be forthcoming.
03:16There's a number of different thresholds that need to be met and different types of assistance
03:21that's available under the federal disaster.
03:26I guess there's always an opportunity to look at those again but at this stage it's not covered.
03:32On a state level, the Minister says it's still too early to know the full extent of the damage.
03:37She hopes satellite imagery will provide more data but that could take weeks.
03:43In the meantime, consumers are being urged to be patient and to show their support by
03:47visiting local winemakers.
03:50It's a very hard mental toll to take but all I'd say is there is going to be something
03:55good come out of all this somewhere, somehow, someway.
03:58I know there's going to be something good come out of this.
04:02Trying to make the best out of a devastating situation.