‘I’m trying to push mothering ewes through’: Flood plain farmers reflect on emotional and financial impact of floods

One year on from flooding which devastated communities along the River Murray, the emotional and economical impact is still being felt by those who live and work the land. 

On January 7, 2023, when floodwaters spilled over the state-owned levee and inundated her property, Alexandra Westlake was nursing a three-week-old baby.

Located at Long Flat, near the regional centre of Murray Bridge, her family is no stranger to extreme weather events. 

The Murraylands farm that has been in her family for generations had survived the Millennium Drought by diversifying from dairy to beef cattle and sheep.

But nothing could prepare her for the “isolation” of a year that would see her property flood twice. 

“It was an extremely anxious time for us, and we still are living out the remnants of that anxiety now,” she said.

“I was recovering from birth and just learning how to be a mum, which is hard enough.

“There was an initial shock of water pouring over the land, [which] was beautiful to see but the disbelief was real that what we had been preparing for was coming true.

“You just have to remain as positive as you can and take it one day at a time as we continue post-flood.”

The initial flood saw her property under water for three-to-four months.

Ms Westlake and her husband Mark finished pumping water off the paddocks by May, and started reseeding the grass for spring.

But on September 8 the same levee overtopped again, flooding her property as well as her parent’s property, with devastating consequences. 

This time, her sheep were lambing.

“Unfortunately, we had a situation where we had a high river and high winds, and an ill-fixed levee bank,” she said.

“It was the most devastating time when I’m trying to push mothering ewes through [flood] water.

Ms Westlake said one ewe and five lambs were lost that day.

“I didn’t have one sheep loss for the first flood because we were prepared,” she said.

Counting the cost upstream 

Meiqing Lin is still looking for signs of life among his vineyards, which were inundated by floodwaters when a private levee broke on December 5, 2022.

That day, the old levee crumbled under flows of more than 155 gigalitres, submerging his vines and irrigation equipment in 1.5 metres of water — and remained so for months.

“More than 80 per cent of the vineyards are dead,” Mr Lin said.

“It’s almost all destroyed. I think the whole block is damaged.”

The wine grape grower brought his family out to Australia from China in 2012, before later purchasing an 80-hectare vineyard and 300-tonne winery at Renmark in South Australia’s Riverland in 2015.

With his wife and son living in Sydney, Mr Lin dedicated his time and money to his business dream — developing a farm experience and growing his wine sales in China.

Before China introduced high trade tariffs on Australian products including wine in 2020, he was exporting more than two million bottles of red per year.

Already under “heavy financial strain” from the loss of that market, Mr Lin feels helpless as he looks down the barrel of a second vintage without a crop to harvest. 

“For the 2023 vintage, I still had strong demand for the white grapes and white wine, which was going to help my financial situation significantly,” he said.

While Mr Lin received a $45,000 flood recovery grant from the state government, he said he was facing a multi-million dollar bill to rebuild his “vineyard, business and life”.

“I think [it will cost] over two million [dollars],” he said.

“But that’s just to replant. To clean it up will cost maybe even more.”

Mental health of the flood-affected

University of South Australia researchers have been interviewing people like Ms Westlake and Mr Lin to fill a gap in research about how to better support the mental health of farmers who experienced the 2022-2023 floods.

The research is being led by award-winning clinical psychologist and ifarmwell founder Dr Kate Gunn, who grew up on a farm at Streaky Bay on the Eyre Peninsula.

She said compared to studies about farmers’ experiences of droughts and bushfires, the impact of flooding on livelihoods was less understood. 

“Farmers are believed to be at increased risk of adverse psychological outcomes, and to face unique challenges, compared to general flood-affected populations,” Dr Gunn said.

“This is largely because farmers generally live and work in the same place — to have both your home and business affected in one hit is extra challenging.”

Listen to landholders 

In a statement, South Australian Minister for Primary Industries, Clare Scriven, said her department was working with all stakeholders to assist farmers with flood recovery. 

“While it has been a challenging time for primary producers in the Lower Murray, progress is being made through the replanting of pastures, the return of livestock to the area and the recent completion of the dewatering program in the Lower Murray River Irrigation Area (LMIRA) involving more than 80 landholders,” she said.

Ms Westlake’s state parliament representative, Member for Hammond Adrian Pederick, said he believed the second flood in September could have been avoided if landholders’ concerns were listened to.

“The farmers need to be consulted,” he said.

“These people know what it’s like to farm on a flood plain, they know what it’s like to manage the land, they know where the good clay is.”

Silver linings 

Despite the challenges of farming on a floodplain, Ms Westlake said she could not imagine living and working anywhere else.

“This is a good news story as well,” she said.

“We’ve had a year of pain, suffering and lots of hard decision-making along the way.

“But the benefit of having water come over onto this floodplain is amazing — our grass is thriving, our animals are thriving, we’ve had three cuts of hay so far this year and we could go again.

“The environment is just alive.

“So, we give thanks that we were flooded, but moving forward, we need to understand that we need to properly manage this land into the future.”