Elsie Lange
Marc Serafino points out over his apple orchard in Darraweit Guim, home of Darraweit Valley Cider, and describes how the water came up over the hill and onto his crop.
“That’s the river,” he says, squinting into the distance.
“It came over that horizon like a wall of water … I can only describe the damage as tsunami-like.
“Normally it’s inundation here, it rises over 30 hours – this was not like that.”
Cider making, or apple growing, is a high-stakes game. If the trees don’t flower, or aren’t pollinated, the crop won’t grow for another year.
When flood waters rushed, leaving silt and grass on the blooms, it could have been devastating.
But thanks to a band of locals who came and painstakingly pulled the dirt from the flowers, owner Marc’s next batch might be saved.
“Wonderful community volunteers came in and took all of the debris off … which would have taken me weeks … I can’t believe it, [in just] two days,” he says.
“If the bees can’t find the flowers, there will be no crop, which would have compounded the situation.”
Marc says the orchard is fine now, although he’s not sure what’s in store over the next wet few days.
He and his family moved to Darraweit Guim to chase his cider-making dream seven years ago, and even though the house was flooded and their belongings soaked, he is just glad the crop was saved.
“I think if the orchard had been flattened, I’d be in the fetal position sucking my thumb right now,” he says half smiling.
“It’s been seven years building it, it would have been tough.”
It was a derelict property when he bought it, before he cleared it by hand. He’d only just put the finishing touches on his decked-out events marquis when the flood came.
“I prefer not to think about it, it does get a bit emotional if you do,” he says.
“I am pretty good at rolling with the punches, we will rebuild.”
Darraweit Guim fire brigade captain Mark Spedding was one of the volunteers who made their way to the cidery to lend a hand, his wife Vicki helping to organise the efforts.
He says he feels proud to be a part of his community in moments like this.
“This is business as usual, people help each other here,” he says.
“They know each other and they help each other.”
Located at the cidery is a Melbourne Water measuring station, which gave the Marc and his family access to accurate information about water levels as they rose. At 6.2 metres on Thursday, he, his partner Jenny and their two daughters got in the car.
“It’s never got in the house before, this is the highest flood historically in this area,” he says.
As Marc shows the damage to his bar and brewing area – explaining his flood insurance only covers the house and contents – three more pairs of hands pull up in a car, offering to help.
“I was talking to Jen yesterday and we said we’d pop in and offer a hand, if you guys needed one this afternoon,” the neighbour says.
“I don’t even know where we are up to at the moment,” Marc says, turning to another volunteer.
“Dino, can we put some people to work here?”
