Hail Storms in Victoria's Mallee Region Cause Major Crop Damage

January 18,2024

Crops worth millions of dollars have been destroyed and windows on homes smashed after hail storms hit the Victorian Mallee at the weekend.

Source: ABC Rural / By Angus Verley and Warwick Long

Crops worth millions of dollars have been destroyed in the Victorian Mallee after hail storms smashed the region at the weekend.

Some farmers have lost entire paddocks

While some were insured against hail, others were not.

The hail also smashed vehicle windscreens and windows of homes and stripped trees bare.

Mark Roberts, who farms near the Mallee town of Speed, was away from home during the storms.

He returned to a scene of devastation caused by hail he described as "palm-of-your-hand sized with jagged edges".

"The windows of the house on the north side are smashed and there's glass probably six or eight metres inside the house, up the passage," he said.

"I've got a three-metre verandah so it's hard to believe the hail could come in and smash as high as it did," he said.

"And I've got a little bungalow out the back, a nine-metre bungalow, and it's smashed clean through the north window and there was glass up against the back wall basically."

Mr Roberts said he also had entire crops destroyed.

"I had canola almost ready to be harvested, and that's basically 100 per cent lost.

"A paddock of wheat, there's virtually nothing left standing there.

"The peas around my house will be a 100 per cent loss too."

While Mr Roberts was insured against hail damage, he said it was still a blow to suffer the damage.

"We're lucky everything is insured, but I won't get the satisfaction of harvesting the best crops I've ever grown," he said.

His rain gauge also fell victim to the storm.

"It's obliterated, it's in a million bits," he said.

"I'll need a new gauge but I probably won't buy one until March next year because I won't want any rain until then."