Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
ABC News
ABC News
National
ABC Rural reporters

Victorian farmers fear the worst as flooding leaves crops 'flattened' and threatens livestock

Animals are in danger and valuable crops have been inundated as flooding continues to affect farms across Victoria. 

Troy Stephens from the Yulong stud at Mangalore, north of Seymour, has made a desperate plea for help to evacuate almost 200 horses from the property. 

"It's a pretty devastating emergency," he said. 

"If anyone has any boats or horse floats we would appreciate it — we needed them three hours ago.

"The waters are still coming up, it's pretty swift … it's a matter of trying to get as many horses [as possible] to safety at the moment.

"There is a possibility we could lose horses in this — it's very bad."

The stud is well known in the racing industry.

Earlier this year one mare from the stable sold for $800,000.

"Whether they are worth $500 or $500,000 we treat them the same," Mr Stephens said.

"We want to get them to safety."

'Like a train coming'

Pizzini Wines owner Alfred Pizzini has lived on the King River for more than 60 years.

He says this is one of the worst floods he has seen on his property, which is one kilometre from the river.

"In the early '80s we had one flood very similar, where the river had broken its banks in a number of places, and another in 2010 — but I think this one is bigger," Mr Pizzini said.

"Just by the looks and sounds of the river, it's a bigger level and a faster river.

"It sounds like a train coming — it's incredible.

"You can hear the stones rolling in the water.

"It reminds me of the flood in the '70s that broke the banks, took out pumps and just about took away some of the big powerlines."

A major flood warning is in place for the King River.

The King Valley received about 70 millimetres of rain on Thursday.

With the banks broken, parts of Mr Pizzini's vineyard have flooded, but at this time of the year the vines are at bud burst and he hopes there will not be too much damage.

"It won't affect the vines so much, but it'll be the debris that will washed in — all the trees, logs and rubbish that gets caught up in the canopy," he said.

"It'll be interesting to see what it looks like when it goes back to normality.

"It'll be a very different river to what I was fishing in four day ago."

Laanecoorie Reservoir on the Loddon River overflowing(ABC Rural: Luke Radford)

Crops 'flattened'

At Bridgewater, on the Loddon River north-west of Bendigo, Gary Collins says his son's family has evacuated a farmhouse on the property.

Mr Collins said the house had not been threatened at all since he bought the property in the 1970s.

"I'm standing at my back gate and there water about one to 1.5 metres deep across my back paddocks," Mr Collins said.

The water is coming from the Bullock and Spring creeks.

The nearby Loddon River is expected to peak today at similar levels to the 2010-11 floods.

Mr Collins is worried about his livestock and crops.

"We got massive oat and canola crops this year — these have been flattened," he said.

"But we will have to strip and harvest them, so that will be an issue later on."

Melissa Doyle farms near the spillway in Axedale, east of Bendigo and said she has been watching her fences wash away.

"We've got all of our sheep on higher ground and have pumps, which we thought were high enough but no, it's well above the 2011 flood line," she said.

"We spent most of yesterday wet, rushing around, as we own land on the other side of the Campaspe." 

"We farm about 2,000 acres [810 hectares] and we've lost a couple of crops now because Mosquito Creek is also near us."

Ms Doyle said she also has a property in Elmore but has not been able to access the farm to check its condition.    

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.