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.
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