The lights are on and fridges are keeping milk cold in households across the Hunter but for dairy farmers in the less-visited parts of the Valley, recovery will not be so simple.
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Third-generation Duckenfield dairy farmer Grahame Peacock watched his green pastures swallowed up by the rising tide. It was six days before he could leave his isolated property. In that time he was forced to dump 12,000 litres of milk.
“Before it started it looked like a picture but the fields became a lake and then the river overflowed,” Mr Peacock said.
“It was the quickest I’ve ever seen and I think that’s why people got stuck.”
After losing power and phones on the first day of the superstorm, Mr Peacock pulled out an old generator to keep the automatic milking systems working on his 150 head of cattle.
However, without anything to power the refrigerators, the entire yield was wasted. At 60 cents a litre, his loss came close to $7200.
“It’s been a big loss for us, very difficult,” he said.
Fences, feed and even a calf were swept away while the Peacocks moved cattle and equipment to higher ground.
“My wife pulled two calves out of the water but it wasn’t until [the water] went down that we saw one calf that didn’t make it,” Mr Peacock said.
“She was upset because she thought she’d done so well [to save the calves].”
The view from the south side of the Peacock property shows green pastures, refreshed from the rain that drained down the valley. The north side shows brown acres, a wasteland of deoxygenated grass where the river receded more slowly.
Looking ahead, Mr Peacock said recovery hinged on securing grants that would allow him to pay for the clean-up and supplies so he could resume operations immediately.
