The extreme heat that scorched East Gippsland last Friday has had a devastating affect on produce grown at The Fruitfarm in Johnsonville.
Elaine and Graeme Jenkins, who own the farm, said as the temperature climbed into the 40s, fruit on their trees “literally boiled”.
“It was 47.6 degrees here and what it’s done to our fruit and the trees is just monstrous,” Mrs Jenkins told the Advertiser.
The couple has farmed apricots, plums, peaches, nectarines, cherries and apples on 25 acres of land at Johnsville for the past 30 years.
They can’t recall a time when a high temperature day has had such a catastrophic effect.
About 50 percent of The Fruitfarm’s crop has been decimated.
“It’s also killed a lot of our trees,” Mrs Jenkins said.
“It’s unprecedented,” Mr Jenkins says.
In anticipation of the extreme temperatures, the Jenkins rose early last Friday at around 4.30am to begin their work, covering trees with towels and watering.
“It didn’t matter what you did the ambient temperature was that hot, it was like being in a microwave oven,” Mrs Jenkins said.
“It was just boiling the fruit.”
“The skin was holding it, but inside the fruit had stewed,” Mrs Jenkins says in exasperation. Most affected were the plums, which were due to be picked from their trees on the Monday.
“They were completely stewed, it was an absolute mess.”
Apples and apricots also bore the brunt of the sweltering heat while peaches and nectarines also got burnt, but not as badly as some of the other fruits.
“The green apples got terribly sunburnt,” Mrs Jenkins said.
Mr Jenkins worked in the heat for about four hours to try and salvage what he could before his wife, fearing he too might stew, convinced him to come inside.
As early evening approached the Jenkins’ inspected the damage and were gobsmacked by what they saw.
The leaves on many of the trees were severely burnt while others had died.
Mr Jenkins explains that “the heat wouldn’ t have been such a problem if we’d had a normal winter and spring.”
“But you can’t put the amount of water on the trees to replace the water you’d normally have,” he says.
Mr Jenkins says because of the drought wildlife have also been attacking the plants “because they’re hungry.”
“So we’ve really been fighting everything,” he says shaking his head.
“We’re a small orchard, really we’re just living hand to mouth,” Mrs Jenkins says, estimating the damage bill from last Friday’ s heat at $50,000.
“Despite us being a 100 per cent farming enterprise, there appears to be no subsidy for rates either which is a real concern.”
Mrs Jenkins says a call to the East Gippsland Shire to inquire about a rate rebate had been met with a brick wall.
The State Member for Gippsland East, Tim Bull, has this month written to the Premier, Daniel Andrews and Agriculture Minister, Jaclyn Symes, requesting urgent intervention regarding the provision of rates relief for drought affected primary producers.
PICTURED: Graeme and Elaine Jenkins with some of the decimated fruit that was destroyed in the sweltering heat.
