IF A $600,000 write-down on their table grape, mango and avocado crops from last summer's deluge wasn't enough, Mundubbera fruit growers Chris and Sue Allan have now had their netting destroyed by a ferocious hail storm.
The Allans own Weemillah, a 20-hectare orchard at Mundubbera, and lease another 20ha orchard, the nearby Auchenflower. They grow about 2800 Kensington Pride and R2E2 mango trees, 1000 Shepard, Hass, Wurtz and Sharwil avocado trees and almost 30,000 table grape vines.
They built Weemillah from scratch 25 years ago after careers as primary school and preschool teachers and Mr Allan said it was tough to see their beloved orchard hit by natural disaster twice within 12 months.
The hail storm last month not only caused about $300,000 damage to the hail netting, it wiped out the entire crop of Midnight Beauty table grapes and an expected crop of 12,000 trays of mangoes on Weemillah. Mr Allan said their lease orchard on Auchenflower was largely spared.
The Allans have been able to claim the loss of the mango crop on insurance which they almost didn't renew but they will have to absorb the cost to replace the hail netting.
"Because we had a harder season last year, when the insurance premium came up to pay we thought maybe it would be better off wiping it," he said. "We had been paying the premium for five years and had not had any hail damage ... we thought it might have been better if we just waived it. Lucky we paid it."
The table grapes were largely spared from the hail storm, but the Allans harvested a crop of only about 9000 trays this season well down on their average of about 25,000 trays.
Mr Allan said this lower yield was a direct result of the extraordinary rain they received last summer, which saw them harvest just 11,000 trays. Weemillah last year received an astonishing 429mm of rain during the main picking month of December.
"We couldn't pick grapes the conventional way where we have our pickers and trolleys in the paddock," Mr Allan said.
"We had to invent wheel- barrows with black crates on them, and we had people in rain-coats going up and down the rows cutting the grapes off and bringing all the fruit back to the shed.
"It was an absolute bloody nightmare. The grapes just couldn't handle it. They had so much rain on them and melted away."
Some consolation is the fact the decreased supply of early-season table grapes has driven up prices. Provided they don't experience any more adverse weather events, Mr Allan expects table grape yields to return to normal from next season.
Weemillah Orchards market their grapes through CostaExchange Grapes to Woolworths, Coles and markets across Australia under the Vi-Vita premium brand, and the Nutris brand.
They grow Flame Seedless, Menindee Seedless, Midnight Beauty and Black Muscat table grapes.
Thanks to plenty of sunshine and comparatively low rainfall compared to last year, Mr Allan said the vines looked fantastic.
"Our rainfall has dropped back, we've had a lot more sunny days and the cane that's developed in the vines is fantastic," he said. "We are all predicting that it should be a pretty good one next year. The cane is big and healthy and strong and has got over its stress."
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