farmers – Michmutters

Tag: farmers

Categories
Australia

Off-season native bee carers give macadamia farmer a pollination backup plan against varroa mite

Off-season native bee carers give macadamia farmer a pollination backup plan against varroa mite

“Foster parents” who take care of native beehives in their own backyards have helped a Queensland macadamia nut farmer develop a pollination backup plan should the invasive varroa mite spread.

Geoff Chivers started investigating using the small, stingless insects to pollinate his orchards, which were some of the oldest in Bundaberg, when varroa mite first started spreading around the world.

In five years, he has gone from five beehives to 150, which he said was made possible by a group of enthusiastic locals he called the “foster parents.”

“We need to have feed for those bees in the off-season,” he said.

“We actually host them out to families and friends in Bundaberg who have either large areas of native bush around them or backyards in the middle of town where there’s lots of flowering plants or vegetable patches.”

He was not looking for any new foster parents, with all of the beehives adopted and thriving in their host homes.

“We’ve found that the bees actually flourish in the urban environment because of the variety of flowers and other things that they can collect pollen from,” he said.

A mid shot of a man in a blue work shirt holding a small house-like native bee hive in front of a grevillia bush
Macadamia farmer Geoff Chivers has spent years researching and developing native bee hives for use in his orchard.(Rural ABC: Kallee Buchanan)

Macadamia trees have a short flowering window, and because orchards are large and surrounded by monoculture crops, the bees would not have enough food or variety without their host families.

“The foster parents love it, they really become attached to their hives,” he said.

“While we only need the hives for probably four to six weeks each year, they tell me they actually miss them when they’re gone.

“There’s a lot of people that just love to sit out and watch the bees come and go and just do what they do.”

Win-win for bees and community

All of Mr Chivers’ beehives currently have homes with foster parents like retiree Hugh O’Malley, whose wife Allison first suggested they get involved.

A wide shot of a white haired man resting his hand on a small native bee hive
Hugh O’Malley has been fostering native bees for three years.(Rural ABC: Kallee Buchanan)

“I’ve got a little vegetable garden and I’d had trouble with a lot of plants, like cucumbers for example, with pollination,” Mr O’Malley said.

“Since we’ve had the bees here, which we have for about three years, things like that are growing quite well.”

He said the bees were low-maintenance and easy to integrate into his existing garden.

“If they need any water they get it off a bit of dew off the grass and of course they know where to go for food,” he said.

“So I don’t have to do anything… I don’t use any sprays or anything like that, which is good for the bees.

“It’s nice to see them there, and they’re no problem because they don’t sting.”

It’s estimated about 90 per cent of the pollination for macadamia nuts is done by honey bees, but with the detection of the devastating varroa mite in New South Wales, farmers in Queensland have been considering their options should bee numbers drop significantly.

Patience pays off

Mr Chivers said it had taken years of experimentation and education to get the native bees working in his orchard, but he was seeing tangible results.

“We placed the bees around the outside of the orchard believing that they would move through the orchard,” he said.

“What we actually saw was around the outside of the orchard, we’re getting a much better nut set, but not so much into the orchard.

“We started experimenting [with] moving the hives actually inside the orchard… we put a grid pattern throughout the orchard so each hive is no more than 50 meters from another hive.”

In one of the oldest orchards in the district, he said kernel recovery — a measure of how much nut is inside the shell that determines what the grower is paid — had risen from 30 to 35 per cent.

A larger honey bee rests on a white flower beside a small stingless bee.
Native stingless bees (right) are not susceptible to the invasive varroa mite, which can devastate honey bee (left) colonies.(Supplied: Tobias Smith)

Some limits

While it was a success for his farm, Mr Chivers acknowledged there were limits to how much the bees could do in place of traditional honey bee pollination, particularly when it came to breeding and splitting beehives, which is a much slower process in the stingless varieties. .

“We couldn’t go out tomorrow and get enough hives to pollinate all the macadamia orchards or other farms around here, but we have enough now, I believe to pollinate, all our own farms,” ​​he said.

.

Categories
Australia

Mandarin sales in east coast markets helps South Australian Riverland growers

Ripe mandarins on the tree closeup, citrus orchard

Mandarins are providing a much-needed source of income for citrus growers in South Australia amid a tough season.

With flooding affecting many areas on the east coast, mandarins from the Riverland region have been filling supermarket shelves across the country.

Venus Citrus managing director Helen Aggeletos said demand had been outstripping supply.

“Mandarin volumes in general have been lower this year, both from Queensland and in the southern states as well, except for the Afourer variety,” she said.

“Basically we’re packing as much as we can.

.

Categories
Australia

Farmers concerned at potential foot-and-mouth spread as Australia and Indonesia tackle outbreak

Farmers concerned at potential foot-and-mouth spread as Australia and Indonesia tackle outbreak

Nathaniel Rose kept his shoes and sandals separate from his main baggage as he traveled home from Bali to Melbourne last week.

During his 10-day holiday on the Indonesian island, Mr Rose said he was aware of concerns that tourists visiting Bali might bring foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) back to Australia, including via contaminated soil on footwear.

“I did one trip to Mount Batur that could be considered rural. We walked through the village along the dirt track,” he said.

As per Australian government advice, Mr Rose thoroughly cleaned his footwear before he got on the plane.

“There were foot-and-mouth disease signs at Denpasar Airport,” he said.

“When we got off [the plane] there were biosecurity officers and we had to walk on a disinfectant mat.”

a man smiling close up wearing a glasses
Nathaniel Rose took precautions to ensure he did not bring the disease from Indonesia to Australia.(Supplied)

An outbreak of FMD could devastate Australia’s livestock industries, cost the Australian economy around $80 billion, and lead to many animals being slaughtered to control the disease.

Those potential consequences are why the agriculture industry here has been begun on tenterhooks since an outbreak in Indonesia in May, with some calling for a travel ban.

Farmers and authorities in Indonesia are working hard to contain the virus’s spread, while the Australian government this week committed $10 million towards biosecurity measures in Indonesia to tackle the outbreak.

FMD is a highly contagious animal disease that affects all cloven-hoofed animals and is carried in many ways, including by live animals, in meat and dairy products, soil and untreated hides.

It is commonly spread between animals through inhalation, ingestion and contact with infected animals, but is not to humans, including by eating affected meat.

The virus is different to hand, foot and mouth disease common in children.

Local farmers implement strict controls

FMD Greenfields Farm East Java
Greenfields Indonesia own the biggest dairy farm in East Java.(Supplied: greenfieldsdairy.com)

The outbreak in Indonesia is the biggest since 1990 and is estimated to be costing the local economy $200 million per month.

Since May, 479,000 animals have been infected with FMD in Indonesia.

More than 9,000 animals have been killed to try to control the virus’s spread, while another 5,189 have died from the disease.

The province of East Java currently has the highest number of infections, with a mix of farms in that area, including smaller traditional farms and others run by large companies.

East Java’s biggest dairy farm is owned by Greenfields Indonesia, a company established by a group of Australian and Indonesian entrepreneurs.

Map of FMD cases in Indonesia
The provinces in Indonesia with the most foot-and-mouth cases.(ABC News graphic: Jarrod Fankhauser)

The farm, with 16,000 cattle, has implemented strict biosecurity measures, despite no cases of the virus being detected there.

Richard Slaney, from Greenfields Indonesia, said the company’s cattle underwent frequent health checks and were being vaccinated against the disease.

Mr Slaney said there were also strict controls to clean workers’ dirty clothing and footwear, vehicle tires and animal feed.

“No outside visitors are allowed to come [to the property],” I added.

He said vehicles were sprayed from “top to bottom”.

“All vehicles have gone through an additional cleaning process and very strict controls are also applied to the milk tank transport vehicles,” he said.

Small farmers can’t afford vaccines

a man is feeding his cows in a shed
Robi Gustiar says some farmers are having trouble accessing vaccines.(Supplied)

Robi Gustiar is a cattle farmer and the secretary-general of the Indonesian Cattle and Buffalo Breeders Association that represents small farmers who have between five and 30 cattle.

He said smaller farmers were also doing what they could to control the outbreak.

“For farmers who have up to five cattle, they spray disinfectant in locations around cattle pens and on vehicles.”

He said some farmers were still waiting for vaccines from the government, while medium and larger traditional farmers were proposing to purchase vaccines independently to access them faster.

FMD Greenfields Cows East Java
Larger farms, like the Greenfields farm in East Java, have better access to vaccines.(Supplied: greenfieldsdairy.com)

Mr Gustiar said small farmers could not afford vaccines and distribution was not easy.

“Indonesia is an archipelago country, so transportation is a problem. They [need to] make sure the vaccine is still active when it reaches the cattle,” he explained.

Australian government support for Indonesia announced this week included supplying more vaccines to Indonesia as well as protective equipment, training and expertise.

Agriculture Minister Murray Watt said $4 million of the $10 million dollars allocated was for vaccine purchasing.

“This is on top of support already announced for Indonesia, which included 1 million doses of foot-and-mouth disease vaccine and almost half a million doses of lumpy skin disease vaccine already committed by the Australian government,” he said.

Disaster authority bolsters Indonesia’s response

a man vaccinating a cow in a shed.
Indonesia has procured 3 million vaccine doses to tackle the disease.(Supplied: FAO Eko Prianto)

According to Indonesia’s Foot and Mouth Taskforce, more than 1.2 million doses of vaccine have been administered to animals.

Spokesperson Wiku Adisasmito said he hoped that the outbreak would be under control by the end of the year.

.

Categories
Australia

Raw milk cheese deal with UK set to please foodies, but not all local producers

Raw milk cheese deal with UK set to please foodies, but not all local producers

A dozen raw milk cheeses from the United Kingdom have been approved for export to Australia in a deal likely to please cheese lovers, but not necessarily local cheesemakers.

Paul Appleby from the West Midlands region of England said the “exciting” deal was a win for English cheesemakers, who make the semi-hard cheeses on-farm from fresh cow’s milk.

He makes two cheeses on the list: Appleby’s Cheshire and Double Gloucester.

“We’ve been selling out to America for quite a while but Australia is certainly a market we’d love to be in,” he said.

“I think we probably pasteurized our cheese about three times about 15 or 20 years ago, and never really had a lot of success with it.

A thick wedge of semi-hard cheese sits on a large wheel of cheese.
Appleby’s Double Gloucester cheese is one of 12 raw milk cheeses approved for importation into Australia from the UK. (Supplied: Appleby’s Dairy )

“But it is a constant source of worry. Obviously TB’s [Tuberculosis] an issue still in this country, so we still have to be very wary of that.

“Pasteurizing may be something we may have to do at some point, but we certainly wouldn’t want to.”

‘Fantastic for consumers, raw deal for farmers’

For international cheese specialist Will Studd, who first applied to import English raw milk cheeses 18 years ago, the decision is a dream come true.

“These cheeses used to be imported to Australia 40 years ago,” Mr Studd said.

“When I first started in the cheese industry we used to import and sell these cheeses, no problem.

“The idea that they were banned for the last 20 years on some sort of health grounds is absolute nonsense — it’s a story peddled by Food Standards Australia for no good reason, it’s all linked up to this great free trade agreement.”

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) did not respond to Will Studd’s “health ban” claims when contacted by the ABC.

A man in a peak cap sitting on hay bale in the green Tasmanian countryside.
Will Studd, who lives near Byron Bay, wants a fair go for Australian cheesemakers.(Landline: Fiona Breen)

While Mr Studd has welcomed the deal, he says it is not fair to local cheesemakers.

“It’s fantastic for cheese choice, for consumers and lovers of great cheese, but … it doesn’t allow Australian cheesemakers to be able to make the same cheeses, and that is just wrong,” he said.

Mr Studd said the whole purpose of his application in 2004 to import raw milk cheese varieties “was to allow consumers a greater choice not just of imported cheese but of local cheese”.

However, he said, since that time “almost 70 per cent of our small farmhouse producers have disappeared.”

“Milk is cheaper than water in Australia.

“Do we want to have small family farms anymore? They’re not allowed to produce cheese with an authentic taste to place, something that tastes different, something that … genuinely reflects the landscape like the great benchmark cheeses of Europe.”

A woman and a man reach from opposites of a table to hold an official document, two other women sit on the wooden table behind.
Natalie Browning, first secretary (Agriculture) at Australian High Commission London and Dr Robert Irvine, deputy chief veterinary officer, UK’s Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affair (DFER) joined by Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade counselor (Economic) Carly Stevens ( back left) and DFER policy advisor Nelly Brewer (back right).(Supplied: Australian High Commission London)

Bilateral trade to ‘level playing field’

However, the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) said the UK cheese deal was separate to the free trade agreement between the two countries.

DAFF’s director of imported food Tania Martin said there was a “level playing field” as Australian cheesemakers could make the same cheeses locally.

“The requirements are exactly the same whether they’re being produced domestically, or whether they’re being imported, we’re assessing the cheeses to exactly the same requirements,” she said.

She said Australian raw milk cheesemakers must meet the requirements in the Food Standards Code, Standard 4.2.4 – Primary Production and Processing Standard for Dairy Products.

A man in a white jacket with a white hat and a man wearing a green jacket laugh together in a room filled with cheese wheels.
English cheesemaker Jamie Montgomery, with Will Studd, says it’s brilliant news his cheddar has been approved for export to Australia.(Supplied: Will Studd)

Since DAFF started accepting applications in 2016 from eligible countries, those free of foot and mouth disease, it has received this one from the UK and one from France.

“So with France they had previous permission to export Roquefort to Australia, so Roquefort cheese has been coming in since 2005, and then France also applied for an additional cheese which is Ossau Iraty and that was finalized last year,” she said.

Tough regulatory regime ‘too difficult’ for NSW cheesemakers

In Australia, local production is regulated by state-based food authorities.

Burringbar cheesemaker Debra Allard said the regulatory process to make raw milk cheese was too difficult and not worth it.

A middle-aged man and woman, smiling, and standing in a dairy shed.
Jersey cows ready for milking in Debra and Jim Allard’s dairy at Burringbar.(Rural ABC: Kim Honan)

“I only pasteurise at 65 degrees and that’s still within the legal parameter, commercially it’s 72 degrees, so my cheese is fine,” she said.

“I’d rather not have to bow and scrape to the NSW Food Authority.

“You do a lot of extra testing for raw milk cheese, and that’s an extra cost that you tend to wear.

“People don’t want to pay for an expensive cheese and they don’t want it to go off quickly either.

“My cheese is awesome, it tastes like a French-made cheese because of the way I make it and the fact that we’ve got Jersey milk is an awesome product.”

A box of artisan cheeses.
Debra Allard produces a range of artisan cheeses on her farm at Burringbar.(Supplied: Debra Allard)

The NSW Department of Primary Industries said raw milk cheesemakers must complete a form describing the steps used to make it.

“The pro forma can demonstrate to the Food Authority that the production process used is effective in reducing the numbers of L.monocytogenes to a safe level,” a spokesperson said.

“There are several steps and scientific trials that cheesemakers wishing to manufacture raw milk cheese must go through in order to demonstrate compliance with food safety standards.

“The maturation of the cheese must meet certain time, temperature and water content requirements, a process which has a similar effect to pasteurization in reducing pathogens.”

High entry barrier for Aussies

That process took Pecora Dairy at Robertson, in the Southern Highlands, two years.

Pecora Dairy was the country’s first raw milk cheesemaker and remains one of just two dairies making the product, according to owner Cressida Cains.

She said the milk from Pecora’s East Friesian ewes was taken straight into the vat to make cheese.

“What we’re doing, which has got no heat treatment at all, really allows a complete expression of the indigenous microbes that are in the milk when the animals have been milked to be expressed through the cheese,” she said.

A woman with short brown hair smiles while sitting on a log.
Artisan sheep cheese producer Cressida Cains from Robertson.(Supplied: AgriFutures)

Ms Cains said there was quite a high barrier for Australian cheesemakers to be able to make raw milk cheese.

“In many ways that’s fair and right for Australia because we need to make sure that our cheesemakers really fully understand the process,” she said.

“It’s a science — raw milk cheesemaking isn’t sort of a hit-and-miss and let’s-see-how-we’ll-go [process].

“We still need to test every batch of raw milk cheese, which does make it a very expensive process in Australia.

“So the information, as I understand it, is that we are on a level playing field with these cheeses that are coming into the country but I genuinely do hope that that’s the case.”

[Landline raw milk cheese]

.

Categories
Australia

Agriculture Minister to release first National Biosecurity Strategy as disease threat looms

A man in a protective bee suit holds a frame from a beehive with bees on it.

Australia’s ability to protect itself from pests and disease is at the center of a new national strategy agreed to by federal, state and territory ministers.

Addressing the National Rural Press Club in Canberra today, federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt will release the first National Biosecurity Strategy.

“The biosecurity risks we’re facing as a nation are closer and they’re more threatening than we’ve ever seen before and that’s partly as a result of climate change, shifting trade and travel patterns, different land uses,” Senator Watt told the ABC.

“There’s a range of factors we’re dealing with now as a country that we haven’t seen before and that is increasing the risk of biosecurity [issues] for our farmers and their products.”

The risks include the threat of African swine fever, lumpy skin disease and foot and mouth disease, which are currently spreading through nearby Asian countries.

Senator Watt said the new strategy would ensure governments and industry worked together to protect Australia.

“By aligning all the key players, we can ensure that everyone [is] working together to counter the biosecurity threats we face,” he said.

“Australia’s biosecurity system is a critical national asset and shared responsibility, and this strategy is for all Australians.”

According to the strategy, Australia receives 115 million parcels through its mail centers each year, with 2.6 million shipping containers arriving at the country’s ports.

Call for sustainable funding model

The strategy sets out six priority areas for governments, including “shared biosecurity culture, stronger partnerships, highly skilled workforce, coordinated preparedness, integration supported by technology, research and data; and sustainable investment”.

“We will ensure funding and investment is sufficient, co-funded, transparent, targeted to our priorities and sustainable for the long term,” the strategy states.

.

Categories
Business

Ballarat potato growers ask McCain Foods for 78 per cent price increase

Ballarat potato growers ask McCain Foods for 78 per cent price increase

Potato farmers in the Ballarat region are demanding a pay rise for their produce, claiming McCain Foods does not pay a fair price for the popular mealtime vegetable.

Last season McCain Foods paid growers an average of 33 cents per kilo of potatoes delivered to the local processing plant, a figure that farmers said was well below the rising cost of production.

A farmer, who asked to remain anonymous, said the local growers’ association had approached the processor on Monday asking for 59 cents per kilo, a 78 per cent price increase.

The requested price rise reflected the current cost of production and rising input costs, such as increased fertilizer and fuel prices, and also allowed the farmers to turn a profit.

The farmer said eleven factors such as weed and pest control, irrigation, harvest, labor and transport were considered it cost approximately 51 cents to produce a kilo of spuds leaving producers running at a loss.

In January, storms also damaged a large portion of this year’s crop, which meant some farmers lost more than a third of their yield and reduced the Ballarat region’s potato harvest by 20 per cent.

mccains chips
McCain Foods’s processing plant in Ballarat turns out potato chips for supermarkets and fast food chains.(Rural ABC: Jane McNaughton)

McCain Foods has previously been investigated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) over allegations of unconscionable conduct towards growers.

A McCain Foods spokesperson said the company engaged in constant dialogue with growers throughout the course of the year.

“We cannot provide details on our confidential pricing discussions with them,” the spokesperson said.

“We are proud of the continued investment we have demonstrated in recent years and will continue to support our customers, our people, our growers, and the hundreds of people within our communities who depend on us for their livelihoods.”

In Tasmania, farmers have recently rejected price offers made by food manufacturers Simplot for their potato crop this season.

Loading form…

.

Categories
Australia

Melanomas are rising rapidly and older men in rural and regional Australia are most at risk

Farmer and melanoma survivor standing by a gate with cattle in the background

John Seccombe had regularly checked his skin and even had small cancers on his face removed, but nothing prepared him for the moment when the right side of his face went numb.

He was a fair-skinned boy who grew up on a farm.

Later in life, he managed a cattle station and a feedlot at Gurly Station, south of Moree in north west New South Wales, before becoming the chair of Casino Food Co-op, the largest meat co-op in the country.

He was aware of the danger of skin cancers, regularly went to the dermatologist, and had a squamous cell carcinoma removed in his 30s.

But the disease returned, and this time, it was a “rampant” cancer that was heading into his brain stem, crushing a facial nerve.

According to his doctors, it was a death sentence.

“I had to under go radiation for two years, at the end of that it was still growing and they gave me 12 months to live and said ‘go home and hug your children’,” Mr Seccombe said.

Farmer standing in a paddock with land in the background
Skin cancer death rates for farmers over 65 are double that of other Australians.(Supplied: John Seccombe)

That was 22 years ago.

Mr Seccombe was saved by radical experimental surgery that involved three operations on his face.

“I had to have three lots of craniotomies, where they enter your face through the skull base,” he said.

“They removed as much damaged tissue as they could but it left my right eye left in a precarious position so I had to have another one, removed my eye, and I basically lost the right side of my face.”

Check your skin

Images of different melanomas
Melanomas can be extremely serious, but there are ways of identifying them.(Supplied: Melanoma Patients Association)

Mr Seccombe is now living on a farm on the north coast of New South Wales and is the chairman of Melanoma Patients Australia, a charitable organization that advocates and supports people diagnosed with melanoma.

He is urging men in regional and rural areas to check their own skin.

That is because the statistics in those parts of Australia, often a long way from the beach, are shocking.

The death rates in farmers over 65 from skin cancer are more than double the rate of other Australians, while the total disease burden rate in remote Australia is 1.4 times as high as in major cities.

And it is expected to get worse.

About 8,000 Australians in regional areas were diagnosed with melanoma last year, and that is forecast to rise to over 11,000 annually by 2030.

That is because the population is ageing, and men are twice as likely as women to die of melanoma due to complacency about sun safety, according to the Cancer Council.

Early detection is critical.

.

Categories
Australia

Farmers reeling from ‘preventable’ summer bushfires demand inquiry

A man, wearing a blue work shirt, leans on a fence.

It has been six months since a devastating bushfire ripped through WA’s Wheatbelt region, and impacted farmers are still counting the cost.

The Shire of Corrigin, 220 kilometers east of Perth, was among the regions hardest hit.

About 45,000 hectares of land was burned, four homes, and dozens of buildings destroyed, and more than 1,000 livestock perished after a prescribed stubble burn reignited in what authorities labeled “catastrophic conditions”.

One farmer caught in the fire’s path was Steven Bolt, who estimated millions of dollars in losses from the February blaze.

Mr Bolt is deputy chief of Corrigin’s Volunteer Fire Brigade and said the fire, which engulfed his property, could have been prevented.

“We all knew the risk coming that weekend, and for a permit to be issued is absolutely staggering, and the fire should never have happened, and the permit should have never been issued,” he said.

A farm's shed and machinery burns.
A shed burns in Corrigin during the February bushfires.(Twitter: Ashley Jacobs)

The neighboring Shire of Bruce Rock permitted the stubble burn several days before the blaze started on February 6.

An investigation by the WA Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) found the authorized burn-off was reignited in 43-degree temperatures before it spread rapidly in strong winds.

No total fire ban was in place at the time, but Mr Bolt contacted authorities with his concerns.

He said his pleas were ignored.

“I told [them] this was going to happen and now it has, and we need all the resources we can find, particularly air support, because we were never going to stop that fire,” he said.

‘We don’t like coming out here anymore’

Correcting farmers Tim and Shannon Hardingham look at a shed with clouds behind them
Tim and Shannon Hardingham survey the damage on their property.(ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Sam McManus)

Tim and Shannon Hardingham run a farm 10km east of Corrigin.

Between paddocks of vibrant yellow canola crops now lies a metal scrap yard.

The Hardinghams said the past six months had been the hardest of their lives, and much of the recovery was still ahead of them.

“People who haven’t been through it have a lot of empathy, but there’s a daily struggle in what to do next because there’s just so much to do,” Ms Hardingham said.

“The single biggest cost that is shocking to us is the asbestos clean-up, which we’ve been quoted around $250,000 to clean up.”

Bushfire damage on the Hardingham's property in Correction
More bushfire destruction on the Hardingham’s Correcting property.(ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Sam McManus)

The couple now avoids coming out to the farm and have chosen to keep their kids away.

“It doesn’t even resemble the same farm,” Mr Hardingham said.

Please for answers

The burning permit that led to the fire was issued by the Shire of Bruce Rock, which declined to comment on the issue.

Shire president Stephen Strange said it had been a difficult time for the region, but praised the work of local authorities, volunteers, and the state government.

“The recovery will be ongoing for years and years to come… the farmers themselves have done a good job getting the landscape back into pretty good condition,” he said.

“The communication has been very good between affected landholders, community members, and the shire.”

In a statement, DFES acting deputy commissioner Jon Broomhall said the Bruce Rock Shire was within its rights to grant the burning permit, and an “after-action review is currently underway, focusing on the four bushfires that occurred across the state that day.”

Correcting farmer Steven Bolt with one of his sheds destroyed by bushfire
Mr Bolt with one of his sheds destroyed by bushfire.(ABC Midwest & Wheatbelt: Sam McManus)

But local farmers and firefighters said they had so far been left in the dark.

Mr Bolt was calling for a separate investigation into the Correcting fire.

“This needs to be a standalone inquiry. The issue of the permit being given is different to what occurred in the other fires,” he said.

“We haven’t even come close to being able to discuss the issues that have led to this catastrophe through this area,” he said.

Law firm Hall & Wilcox has been engaged by insurers representing impacted landholders, with inquiries still in the early stages.

Ms Hardingham said a thorough investigation could help prevent similar incidents in the future.

“We don’t find ourselves privy to much information about what went wrong,” she said.

“It would be nice to think it will never happen to anyone again and that people could learn from our loss and what we’ve gone through.”

.

Categories
Australia

Pacific farm workers who breached visas by working for wrong employers fight to get them back

Pacific farm workers who breached visas by working for wrong employers fight to get them back

A group of Pacific workers who breached their visa conditions are fighting to get them back, although advocates say it should never have reached this point.

The 24 workers in Bundaberg “absconded” from the Pacific Australian Labor Mobility (PALM) scheme by getting jobs with a non-registered employer when working on the farm they were at dried up.

A spokesman for the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) said officials had met with the employees to discuss their individual cases, but solicitor Dana Levitt said they should have helped sooner.

She said the workers were brought to Australia by an approved employer but there were issues with pay and conditions.

“These workers were faced with overheads that they couldn’t meet because they weren’t getting sufficient work,” Ms Levitt said.

“Unable to make ends meet, these workers were very open and vulnerable to inducement from other employers who were not approved employers in the scheme.

“These workers went with that non-approved employer, fell foul of the program and their visa conditions, and have been trying to navigate their way back into the PALM scheme ever since.”

Reluctance to complain creates vulnerability

The PALM scheme allows Australian businesses to hire workers from nine Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste for seasonal work or longer engagements of up to four years, under certain circumstances.

.