Years after two natural disasters all but destroyed the Cowie family farm, lychees are rising from the ashes.
In the lush hills of Bungundarra, on the outskirts of Yeppoon in central Queensland, Eddie Cowie has just picked the first lychees of the season, the first in five years.
“It’s a bittersweet moment for us,” Mr Cowie said.
After five years, lychee trees are starting to bear fruit again for the Cowie family. (ABC Capricornia: Aaron Kelly)
The central Queensland primary producer lost 1,500 lychee trees just as they were bearing fruit when a bushfire tore through the area just weeks before Christmas in 2019.
The 54-year-old farmer said the season was set to be a bumper crop and he had expected to make $250,000.
It was much needed, as the family had only just recovered from category five Cyclone Marcia in 2015.
Firefighters and landowners battled the major bushfire near Yeppoon in 2019. (Supplied)
“It was the most significant crop we’d had since Cyclone Marcia came through,” he said.
“What started off being a really good day for us ended up with 100 per cent burnout and ultimately nothing at all was salvageable.”
The blaze wiped out the Cowie family’s entire lychee orchard. (Supplied: Jack and Rae Cowie)
The fire near Yeppoon was 14 kilometres long and 6km wide.
The Cowies also lost $100,000 worth of netting they had just put over those lychee trees.
The $1 million-plus hit over the next five years almost crippled the seventh-generation farmer.
It took months for the Cowies to clean up from the bushfire. (Supplied: Jack and Rae Cowie)
“When it comes to farming, the long-term loss is that you no longer have your primary production income,” he said.
“These trees take generally five years to mature and become commercially viable, so we went from potentially a growth period to basically recovery period.”
Recovery and resilience
The road to recovery has been challenging for Eddie Cowie and his family. (ABC Capricornia: Russel Talbot)
The devastating 2019 bushfires tore through more than 11,000 hectares of land near Yeppoon.
Mr Cowie and his father, Jack, almost lost their lives after making the decision to stay to defend their 40 hectares of primary production.
“We stopped the fire about 5 metres from the stairs of the homestead,” Mr Cowie said.
“At one point there were three fire tornadoes coming down the hills but you’re trying to save your livelihood and we’re here to tell the story.”
Jack Cowie reflects on the past decade of natural disasters that hit the family farm. (ABC Capricornia: Aaron Kelly)
Jack, 82, keeps a photo album to show visitors to the farm the before and aftermath of the catastrophic event.
“This is the morning after and that’s the burnt-out cattle truck,” he points to.
The Cowie farm before (above) and after (below) the 2019 bushfires. (Supplied: Jack and Rae Cowie)
Support from neighbours and the community has helped the Cowie’s lychee operation bounce back.
“You sit back, and you look at a picturesque landscape and say, ‘Living on the land is great’ but knowing that the views don’t pay the bills is a challenge,” Mr Cowie said.
“Rebuilding the farm, emotionally it’s been a rollercoaster. You ask yourself, ‘Is it worth it to rebuild again?’
A newly planted lychee tree stands where the Cowie’s fully mature trees once were. (ABC Capricornia: Laura Mayers)
“But we had tremendous support from our neighbours who wanted to see us get back on our feet and they went out of their way to provide us with trees so that we could go and propagate off.”
While the family has seen its share of hardships, the black, charred landscape is now a beautiful, green, lush paddock and lychees are in demand — locally and interstate.
“We currently send to the Sydney market while we are recovering from the fires and when in full production we will send Australia-wide if all goes to plan,” Mr Cowie said.
Nets are put over the lychee trees to protect the fruit from birds and animals. (ABC Capricornia: Aaron Kelly)
“In total, we’re looking at about 4,000 trees and nearly all of those have been replanted since the fire.
“We hope that in time as they start to bear different fruits that will give us a continuous income, which is what we’re looking for.”
‘Don’t be complacent’
Rural Fire Service Queensland is warning a few showers of rain will not be enough to stop fires this summer.
“We have been lucky with some early rain, but people still need to focus on mitigation activities,” acting manager of bushfire mitigation Naomi Scott said.
Above average temperatures combined with higher fuel loads have put Queensland at an increased risk of bushfires, which the state’s fire authorities say create prime conditions for bushfires.
Landowners are being urged to work with local fire authorities to prepare their own properties and develop a bushfire management plan.
“We ask landowners not to be complacent,” Ms Scott said.
A helicopter takes off in smoke-filled skies above Yeppoon during the 2019 bushfires. (ABC News: Allyson Horn)
“So, we really want people getting their blocks cleaned up and have adequate fire breaks in place to reduce the risk for us coming into fire season.”
Mr Cowie has nearly four decades in the State Emergency Service (SES) and says only good management prevented a loss of life at his property five years ago.
A Queensland Rural Fire Service crew with its truck near Yeppoon in 2019. (ABC News: Rachel McGhee)
“Compounding disaster events ultimately create an ongoing financial strain on farmers,” he said.
“There’s a whole lot of work that we can do to educate and be prepared for what probably will be the next event.”
