‘Never seen anything like it’ — Hail carpets Wheatbelt growers’ crops in surprise storm

Incredible photos have surfaced of a hail storm that lashed the Central Wheatbelt on Tuesday, with “shocked” growers saying they had “never seen anything like” the carpets of white it left in its wake. They are now anxiously awaiting just how much crop damage was incurred. Some properties were belted twice, with the icy droplets first falling at about midday, and again at 4.30pm. It appears to have moved in a line, impacting a strip of growers in South Yelbeni, Wandering, Corrigin and Kondinin. Third generation Kondinin grower Luke Tyson was on his way back home from taking a trailer of sheep to V&V Walsh in Bunbury, when he heard the news from his wife Michelle. His stomach dropped. “I thought the worst,” he said. After an “outstanding year” which saw their rain gauge in overdrive, injecting much needed moisture into their heavy red soil, it was the last thing he wanted to hear. They also lost about 40ha to frost in September. Getting home at about 6pm, he was greeted by carpets of hail on the roads, the backyard and unfortunately, in the crops. “We always seem to get thunderstorms and hail in summer,” Mr Tyson said. “I wouldn’t have liked to be out standing in it.” It was not until morning that he had the chance to give the crops a proper inspection, however in a positive turn of events, they were looking much better than he had anticipated. “We didn’t think the crop would’ve held up to it as well as it has,” he said. “The plants are all standing up, it has knocked a bit of grain out of the heads, but it could’ve been worse. “The saving grace was the rain we got earlier in the day and the day before — about 10-15mm. If we hadn’t have had the rain beforehand it would’ve flattened it. “It’s a massive relief, but we won’t really know the full extent until we get the headers into it.” He hopes to start harvest at the weekend, after the crops dry out and his new header arrives. The insurance assessors are also due out, to determine just how much damage occurred. “The lupins probably got hit the worst,” Mr Tyson said. Helen and Matt Crane’s Kondinin property also weathered the storm, their roads awash with hail, their crops carpeted and their backyard blanketed. Helen and Matt Crane’s Kondinin property was also in the firing line, with the worst of it about one kilometre wide. “I was on the other side of town at the tip and there was nothing and when I came back the road was white,” Mr Crane said. “The last time I saw hail like that was 30 years ago in Mount Barker during shearing, I was a kid and I just remember the ice filled up the neighbours gutters and broke them off.” The Cranes also had 26mm fall before the hail softening crops, which Mr Crane said helped them weather the storm. “It was only knocking grains out not the heads off,” he said. “It would be half a tonne on the ground per hectare at worst.” Mr Crane said he had heard of other growers with more damage and said he “had been fortunate”. “It was an insane amount of ice around and really the damage doesn’t match up,” he said. “I think we got off pretty lightly — I feel like we’ve dodged a bullet.” It was one of Mother Nature’s last hurrahs for what has been a very wet — and in some cases record-breaking — October. Rain and gusty winds over the past couple of weeks have marked a “frustrating” start to harvest for WA grain growers, with those in the north forced to park up their headers between showers. As of October 25, CBH had received deliveries in all five of their port zones, but it has been stop-start for those that kicked off earlier in the month. South Yelbeni grain grower Murray Clausen had hail on his property this Tuesday, however he was not too worried about its impact. “My crops are still relatively green so haven’t sustained any real damage,” he said. “The rain will probably add more kilograms to my yield than what they have taken out through hail.”