South coast storm clean-up underway
Posted
The clean-up after this week's wild weather on Western Australia's south coast has begun, with farmers reporting hundreds of dead livestock and ruined crops.
Salmon Gums farmer Andrew Longmire says he is lucky only a few sheep were killed when thunderstorms swept over his property on Wednesday afternoon, knocking over trees and pelting crops with golfball-sized hail.
He says hundreds of his neighbours' sheep drowned as paddocks flooded.
Another farmer, Michael Magagnotti, says the storm has devastated crops in the region.
"I've been farming for a while I suppose, but not seen anything like this, no it's a bit of a freak of nature, and to get it in such a small strip that comes over your property - it's a bit scary really," he said.
The WA Farmers Federation says south coast farmers have been hit very hard by the storm.
The federation's Garry Hine says it may reduce the region's harvest to one of the worst on record.
"It's quite a blow. The major blow is the loss of income, especially when you drop from malt barley down to feed you get over $100 a tonne less for it, so it has a major impact on the returns of the crop," he said.
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