{"id":536552,"date":"2026-03-12T23:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T23:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/536552\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T23:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T23:32:11","slug":"sunraysia-and-murray-valley-farmers-seek-disaster-declaration-after-deluge-during-harvest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/536552\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunraysia and Murray Valley farmers seek disaster declaration after deluge during harvest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunraysia and Murray Valley districts primary producers, across multiple industries, are seeking financial support as they recover from unexpected flash flooding.<\/p>\n

A deluge struck Victoria and New South Wales at the start of March, dumping close to 150 millimetres of rain in 36 hours<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It came at an inopportune time for the region’s almond, melon, table grape, dried fruit and wine grape producers, who have had to delay harvest.<\/p>\n

Loading…<\/p>\n

Some of the more perishable horticultural items will be lost due to the event, while other products will survive at the expense of the producer.<\/p>\n

It has prompted calls for the rain event to be declared a disaster under the state and federal government-backed Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements.<\/p>\n

Similar intense rain led to widespread flooding in 2011<\/a>, and disaster relief payments were arranged.<\/p>\n

Memories of 2011<\/p>\n

Tim Milner owns Milner Grapes, a table grape farm with a cool storage facility in Irymple.<\/p>\n

He said the response at the time was “great”, but criticised a lack of communication and action following this year’s event.<\/p>\n

\"Grape<\/p>\n

Grapevines in Merbein were inundated during heavy rainfall on March 1 and 2. (Supplied: Shannon Doyle)<\/p>\n

“Any relief that has been offered, either through debt deferral, through council or through Lower Murray Water, it’s really not even close to encompassing what we actually require,” Mr Milner said.<\/p>\n

“At the moment, huge expense has gone out on just getting access onto our properties.”<\/p>\n

Mr Milner said a disaster declaration would acknowledge the hardship growers were facing, and assist with clean-up decisions.<\/p>\n

“Because we’ve got no direction, we don’t know if we should invest money on trying to pump [the water] out \u2014 because it’s going to cost us a lot to try and do that \u2014 or whether we just walk away from it,” Mr Milner said.<\/p>\n

“We’re losing time by having to concentrate on these patches that are underwater, whereas we should be focusing 100 per cent of our time on harvest at the moment.<\/p>\n

“Instead, now we’re half on and half off the chair, and we don’t know which way we’re going to fall.”<\/p>\n

Split fruit and threats of mould<\/p>\n

Murray Valley Wine Growers chief executive Paul Derrico said heavy rainfall and stagnant water at this time of year created a dire outlook for the wine grape industry.<\/p>\n

\"Flash<\/p>\n

Heavy rainfall at harvest time can dilute the flavour of wine grapes and risk disease. (Supplied: Shannon Doyle)<\/p>\n

“Wine grape growers are limited as to what chemicals they can use and there is basically nothing at this time of the year that can stop mould [in the event of heavy rain],” he said.<\/p>\n

“The growers are relying on reasonable weather and that’s in the lap of the gods at the moment.<\/p>\n

“There will be significant crop losses across the region.”\"A<\/p>\n

Unexpected heavy rainfall has put pressure on crops and infrastructure in Sunraysia. (Supplied: Shannon Doyle)<\/p>\n

Mr Derrico said the losses would be felt right through the supply chain.<\/p>\n

“The financial impact does not stop with growers,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s all the suppliers and the broader community, the shops in town. With the losses that industries incurred that will be felt right throughout the region.<\/p>\n

“Growers need assistance, but the broader community will certainly need support as well.”<\/p>\n

Almonds to shake off rain<\/p>\n

Almond Board of Australia chief executive Tim Jackson said almonds were better poised than most harvest-ready crops to cope with what he described as “biblical rains”.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Tim Jackson said crops should still be salvageable, though potentially with a quality downgrade. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n

“We don’t want wet almonds. It’s possibly the worst time of the season to be having wet almonds,” he said.<\/p>\n

“When you take it to a huller and sheller you need to have the kernel at less than six per cent [moisture content] to be able to have it admitted for hulling and shelling.<\/p>\n

“Anything above that means that it’s got to be dried out, so it’s an extra expense, it’s extra time and impost on the grower, and potentially a quality downgrade depending on how wet they are.”<\/p>\n

He said crops should still be salvageable.<\/p>\n

“It’s way too early for us to be describing this as a disaster,” Mr Jackson said.<\/p>\n

More news from regional VictoriaLocal, state and federal responses<\/p>\n

Mildura Rural City Council chief executive Martin Hawson said the council had been approached by several grower representative groups for support and the impact of the event warranted a disaster declaration.<\/p>\n

“We are surprised that the rain event has not yet been declared by the [Victorian] government,” Mr Hawson said.<\/p>\n

“There is evidence that the impact of this event warrants such a declaration and we would encourage this process to happen sooner rather than later.”<\/p>\n

Member for Mildura Jade Benham said her office had not received requests for support or advocacy from any individuals or local growers’ groups.<\/p>\n

“I would be very happy to advocate on their behalf and liaise with emergency services agencies and Mildura Rural City Council to discuss the parameters of a potential application for a disaster declaration,” Ms Benham said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sunraysia’s wine grape growers have had troubled accessing their vines following the floods. (Supplied: Paul Derrico)<\/p>\n

Federal Member for Mallee Anne Webster said she was ready to assist should the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangement appear to be failing local residents.<\/p>\n

The Victorian government, responsible for triggering the disaster declaration, was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunraysia and Murray Valley districts primary producers, across multiple industries, are seeking financial support as they recover from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":536553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,266123,266125,75,266124,128,6079],"class_list":["post-536552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-disaster-declaration","tag-disaster-recovery-funding-arrangements","tag-environment","tag-murray-valley","tag-science","tag-sunraysia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=536552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/536552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/536553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=536552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=536552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=536552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}