The devastating NSW floods occurred in March 2021, with the forecast in the lead up being of “minor to moderate flooding,” but never major flooding. The amount of rain that did come, caused utter destruction. Areas of the Hawkesbury Valley west of Sydney and on the NSW Mid-North Coast were the hardest hit, with over 2,800 hectares of turf production severely impacted. The flood peaked around 9pm on Friday 19th of March. Turf growers were left in a state of emergency and their families and businesses were turned upside down overnight. There would be a long road ahead, with significant emotional, physical, and mental challenges to overcome.
Floods are not new to the Turf Industry, but until this year’s flood in March there hasn’t been a major flood on the Hawkesbury-Nepean for more than 30 years, with the last comparable one occurring in 1990. Long-term Sydneysiders, however, will remember that twelve major floods occurred during the 40 years before 1990. Five of these were larger than this year’s flood in height, but the damage is always comparable. The big one Windsor and parts of the North Coast saw this year has been called many things. A “once-in-50 or 100-year flood”, “unprecedented” and “chaotic”, regardless of whether it was or was not as big as others in history for some areas, one of the most damaging factors to the Turf Industry is the time of year it came.
Whilst all floods are incredibly damaging, having one this late in the growing season is somewhat rare, with a much longer lasting effect. Silt, sadly is a result of all floods, and it can take months of good growing weather to recover crops even partially effected from the impact of silt. The other major floods in the past 35 years all came much earlier in the season. In 1986 it was August, in 1990 – February and in 2016 it came in September.
A flood in late March means that silt covered crops must enter winter and wait for more than six months for favourable growing conditions to return. What this means in short, is root rot, very heavy and brittle turf for months with huge increases in wastage and transport costs due to weight increases for months to come. In a normal year, this causes a turf shortage. This year it was more of a perfect storm, with the biggest building boom, the largest flood, and the largest demand for turf in 30 years, creating turf shortages we have never experienced before.
Earl’s Turf is a Lawn Solutions Australia accredited turf supplier based in Taree on the Mid North Coast of NSW. Owner and Manager Earl Stanley said, “the farm looked like it had been hit with a tsunami. All the fences were ripped out, all gravel roadways ended up on paddocks, tonnes of flood rack were strewn across all the paddocks.”
Many of Earl’s paddocks were inundated with up to 300mm of silt. One paddock surprisingly even had a Nissan X-Trail on it and numerous bales of silage from surrounding farms. Three of their travelling boom irrigators were mangled with some also losing their hoses. One Hardi spray unit was found 40km away on Tuncurry beach, with another being found on Dumaresq Island and a third found at Manning Point, 20km’s away. Thanks to the power of social media the Hardi spray unit was found on a Buy Swap Sell. ‘One very disappointed seller he ended up being!’
“At the time of our worst drought ever three years ago we thought things were tough, but we now know what tough is. A flood has proven to be far worse than any drought.” said Earl Stanley, Earls Turf
The turf industry was able to unite, along with their local communities and began the clean up as soon as the flood water receded. Growers from different areas helped supply machinery and banded together to rebuild and recover what they could.
With many turf suppliers impacted by the floods, supply was significantly reduced in the regions effected. Some growers lost entire paddocks, some hoped to save 50% of their turf in production, with the impacts of the flood being felt across their entire farms. Some growers had farms located on higher ground and were able to recommence supply within weeks. Others were not so lucky.
Green Life Turf is based in the Hawkesbury region of NSW in Freemans Reach. Green Life Turf are fortunate to have a farm in Singleton as part of a flood proof plan for their business. This allowed them to continue to supply their regular customers. The biggest challenge they have faced with reduced supply is the timing of matured stock effecting the overall availability. Managing the timing of mature stocks, the extra logistics required to transport turf from singleton, combined with the added demand of turf this has immense pressure on their team.
The damages Green Life Turf incurred included erosion to riverbanks, drainage systems blocking and failing, pump sites being washed away, broken fences, damaged irrigator infrastructure, damage to sheds, offices, cool room, and the loss of crops.
“As soon as the flood waters receded and we could get access to our properties again, we started to wash and broom out all the silt from our sheds and offices. We then started to focus on fixing failed drainage in our paddocks to help them dry up, allowing us to start salvaging the crops that we could,” Joshua Muscat from Green Life Turf said.
This has been a long and ongoing process for the Green Life team. They started by fixing things that were important for supply first and are continuing to work towards finding time to fix other things, like the fences.
“We keep on doing what we do best. Growing and supply the highest quality turf possible.”
Joshua Muscat, Green Life Turf
If it wasn’t for the resilience, quick thinking and innovative nature of the modern turf farmer that saw flood clean ups at record speed, using new flood recovery and silt removal techniques, the current turf supply crisis may have been a lot worse. We are now seeing the turf quality and supply chains starting to return to normal, which is possibly the quickest we have seen in history.
Earl’s Turf would like to thank Geoff Hatton from Cobbitty Turf for helping them out, providing valuable knowledge and giving them the use of their Blecavator to help rebuild the farm.
