Farmers hammered by further flooding

WITH many parts of the Campaspe River flooded after the heavy rains two weeks ago, the most affected people were farmers who live and work near its banks. 

Sandi Marsh lives halfway between Rochester and Echuca in the farming community of Strathallan. 

Ms Marsh said while their house, 50 metres from the river and purposely built a foot above recommended specifications, was safe, their crops, mostly Lucerne hay, were inundated with water and killed. 

“We’re lucky it doesn’t get in our house, but it’s your livelihood, you don’t get an income when you lose all your crops,” she said. 

“We didn’t get an income the last year, It’s a really hard situation.” 

While Ms Marsh acknowledged her property is located on at-risk land, she said the main problem is such events have been happening in much closer intervals in recent years. 

“We do live in that flood-prone area, so we do expect that you’re going to have floods, just not as many as we’re getting,” she said. 

“I grew up in this area and we had floods, just not as many as we’ve been having.” 

Ms Marsh said the town did not receive much financial assistance after the 2022 floods, and she hopes this time around more support will be offered.  

“We get flooded like eight hours after Rochester, but like a lot of the Strathallan people have been flooded,” she said. 

“Because you’re a small community you sort of get left out of what’s happening in Rochester and Echuca, so farming-wise, like 2022 everyone lost their crops and really there wasn’t much help for farmers. 

“You can ask for support, but it’s not what the Rochester and Echuca people got. We’re a farming community, and I feel like the Strathallan people have missed out a bit.” 

President of the Rochester Business Network, Tracie Kyne, said the group is aware of the situation in nearby towns like Strathallan and has extended its support. 

Ms Marsh said she was grateful for the backing. 

Back towards Bendigo, tomato and cereal farmer Bruce Weeks lives in the Rochester area and said at least 45 acres of crops were destroyed although the full impact was still unknown. 

“Tomatoes are a very high-input crop so it’s going to big quite a significant loss,” he said. 

“About 200 acres of veg and beans to finish harvesting, so we’ll be very lucky if they’re any good. 

Mr Weeks said crops only survive about two to three days underwater and it took about a week to pump away the water. 

He said it would take, “Quite a bit of work to get it back the way it was.”