Too early to tell for some pastoralists while fears grow for Carnarvon growers in the grip of cyclone Narelle

Pastoralists in WA’s north have escaped the brunt of cyclone Narelle, while fruit growers near the North West Cape are copping severe damage to crops a month after cyclone Mitchell.

Currently battering WA between Exmouth and Carnarvon, the category 3 severe tropical cyclone is smashing communities — tearing off roofs and cutting power and water access.

The storm formed in the Pacific Ocean before hitting northern Queensland last week, moving over to the coast of the Northern Territory and west to the Indian Ocean where it is travelling along WA’s coastline.

Bullara Station owner Edwina Shallcross has had major damage to her station, a more than 100,000ha working cattle station, near Coral Bay and Exmouth.

The station is a popular, award-winning agro-tourism destination that was recently featured as a location on Home & Away.

Ms Shallcross said the “hairy” cyclone hit Bullara Station about 1am this morning and had been relentlessly battering the property for about 10 hours.

“Half of our homestead roof has been ripped off so we’re currently sheltering in part of our homestead, the kitchen area, where we expect to remain for the next couple of hours as the cyclone continues,” she said.

“We’ve got power supply here so we have been listening to the radio but we’re guessing our communications will be cut off soon.

“We know our water plants have been destroyed and stopped working. However, we still have our rainwater supply.”

Ms Shallcross said it was too early to know the full extent of the damage to the station as they were sheltering in place while the storm rages on.

“Looking out the windows we’re seeing giant pieces of tin and wood resting on the ground so we know that’s been ripped off somewhere,” she said.

“All the gum leaves have been stripped from the gum trees, they look strange and naked.”

Ms Shallcross had her team of staff arrive a couple of days ago ready to begin their season but she said they had to be turned around.

“It’s disappointing, as we had a lovely orientation planned for them initially, we were all going to have a swim and a welcome event,” she said.

“We’re very lucky that Rob and Evan from Cheela Plains Station have taken our staff in and they’re helping out there, at the cafe and around their station, until its safe for them to come back here.”

Doriana Mangili, banana grower for Sweeter, said she was in the “acceptance stage” of the grieving process, after already incurring severe losses to her crop from weather events earlier in the year.

“We’ve harvested as much as we can,” she said, adding that the truck stayed late on Thursday to collect as much stock as possible before roads shut.

“We’ve been worried about it all week,” Ms Mangili said.

“There’s really nothing you can do.”

Ms Mangili said Carnarvon residents hadn’t had severe weather yet but were forced to “just wait”.

“It is likely we’ll have significant damage,” she said.

Anna Plains Station, a 360,000ha cattle station about 250km south of Broome, only copped light rainfall and mild winds.

“It was windy (on Wednesday) and a little bit on (Thursday morning), but we only got a couples of mills of rain — no damage or anything,” he said.

“We didn’t really get affected much.”

Barn Hill Station manager Rex Grey-McCormack said his cattle station, about 50km south of Broome, had thankfully avoided any storm damage.

“(We’ve had) no issues up heere, it ended up being quite far out from the coast when it went past us,” he said.

“Plenty of wind but nothing destructive and only 30mm of rain.”

vegetablesWA chief executive Peter Spackman said cyclone Narelle was the latest hit to WA’s food bowl — particularly fruit growers in the Mid West.

“Due to the severe heat stress of crops over the Christmas period, then cyclone Mitchell in February, the crops and growers have not yet recovered,” he said.

“It is feared that Narelle’s impact will be much greater as a result of this. We have great concerns for the growers in Carnarvon.”