Carnarvon food bowl back in business after floods, but some growers left counting costs of damaged crops

Carnarvon pumpkin and melon growers watched whole crops be washed away by once-in-a-decade floods at the weekend, but banana growers are breathing a sigh of relief after their plantations emerged relatively unscathed. Carnarvon Growers Association manager Nic Cuthbert surveyed the damage today and said flood waters from the Gascoyne River — which peaked at 7.1m — brought advantages for some and losses to others. Small areas of pumpkin and melon crops, planted outside the usual winter growing period, were destroyed. Mr Cuthbert said the area west of the Bibbawarra road — typically used to grow tomato, capsicum and eggplant — bore the brunt of the floods, and any crops would be a write off. “Fortunately, it is outside the main production period. If this had happened a few months later in the season, the amount of damage would have been far worse,” he said. Phil Frzop, who is west of the Bibbawarra road, said a one hectare patch of butternut pumpkins, which were due to be harvested this week, was washed away. He said the crop was not insured because it was not viable to cover vegetable crops against flooding. “It’s disappointing as we have put a lot into it — infrastructure, seed, planting, wages and we won’t recoup that,” Mr Frzop said. “A bigger impact is that we have lost a lot of topsoil. The erosion means we will have to replace soil and are unlikely to get our next crops in the ground in time so there’s a big loss to future income.” Sweeter Banana Co-operative executive officer Doriana Mangili said while a big clean up was needed, there was little damage to banana plantations. Most growers were breathing a sigh of relief and had started picking again. The packing shed had been reopened, roads south of Carnarvon had been repaired, power had been restored, and supplies should reach Perth as normal. Three of the 18 growers in the Sweeter Banana Co-operative — which represents half of Carnarvon’s banana production — can’t yet access their properties and won’t resume harvest until later in the week. “If water remained in the plantations for any period of time they would cause some rot but most of this has gone already,” Ms Mangili said. “In pockets where there are still plants under water, our growers are hiring pumps.” She said a few bunches were lost to 80km/hour winds but this paled in comparison to damage from severe winds in May following ex-tropical cyclone Mangaa. Ms Mangili said flood mitigation measures along the Gascoyne River — installed in 2013 — appear to have worked. “It’s unbelievable to have these floods and then be back in production within a day,” she said. “Some growers think this rain will bring more good than bad. Bananas are tropical plants that love rain. We have a solid river flowing, it has recharged bores and the aquifer and secured our water supplies for the next 18 months.” Nationals MP Vince Catania said he toured plantations on Sunday and 80 per cent had little or no flooding. He hailed the success of the $65 million Royalties4Regions flood mitigation project, which prevents a rush of water flowing back into the river and causing significant damage. Mr Catania called on the State Government to provide support for affected growers.