One-fifth of Maryborough crop impacted by flooding Maryborough growers are still counting the costs after fast moving floodwater tore through low-lying farmland in January, destroying crops, washing away soil and damaging farm infrastructure. The flooding began when ex-Tropical Cyclone Seth made landfall on the Fraser Coast on Saturday 8 January, before moving inland, dumping up to 600mm of rain in some areas.
but it won't be great. And we’ve got some farms with significant crop damage.”" Alan Otto's cane farm was one of the unlucky ones. Located in a low-lying area, known locally as The Pocket, the entire 60 hectare farm was inundated.
Authorities issued evacuation orders and even went doorto-door in some parts of the district as the Mary River rose, eventually peaking at 10 metres on the Sunday evening.
"The entire farm went under, all 60-odd hectares. It's very low and copped the full flow of the flood water," Alan said.
Tragically, three people lost their lives in the floodwaters, including 52-year-old Steve Bottcher whose family has grown cane in the district for many years.
"There's a lot of cane that's either dead or dying because it was fairly short when the water went over. That will have to be slashed back, so we won't get a crop from that this year.
"A lot of the low-lying, river flat farmland was flooded," CANEGROWERS Maryborough Chairman Jeff Atkinson said.
"It's still too early to tell if the stool has been destroyed too, or what the full extent of the damage is. It's just too muddy to get around a lot of the farm.
"And a lot of cane was impacted, probably about 2,000 hectares, which is a fifth of Maryborough's crop.
"We'll just have to wait and see what happens, but at this stage I'd say we've probably lost around 2000 - 2500 tonnes, and that's a conservative estimate."
"We're hopeful the majority of that cane will recover and we'll still get a good crop from it. Some of it, we might get a crop off,
"A lot of cane was impacted, probably about 2000 hectares, which is a fifth of Maryborough’s crop."
"We had a fallow crop in, but like the cane, it was fairly small and wasn't big enough to hold the soil. All of the trash we had in the paddock was washed away too." The latest setback comes on the heels of a tough year for Maryborough growers. "It's not a great start to the year, especially after the year we've just had," Alan said. "First the local mill closed down, then we
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