00:00 With the season's work on the verge of being completely spoiled, Chloe Fox is clearing
00:08 the canvas.
00:09 Many of her crops, grown for farmers markets and restaurants in Melbourne, are now covered
00:14 in silt after being submerged by torrential floods.
00:18 It's financially devastating.
00:20 We were really on track to start recovering from the previous flood and now it's all gone
00:27 again.
00:28 This was meant to be the year to start over, but instead her farm in Seymour is facing
00:34 $300,000 in losses.
00:37 Since Christmas, rain has devastated crops across central Victoria.
00:42 The water has ended up here in the Goulburn River, creating anxious communities across
00:47 the region.
00:48 Authorities have door-knocked 300 homes in Shepparton, warning that roads will likely
00:53 be cut off.
00:54 But they don't expect houses to be inundated, with the river expected to peak somewhere
00:59 around 10.4 metres, significantly lower than 15 months ago.
01:04 The local crews are really rapt to hear that they're not going to see what they saw in
01:08 2022.
01:10 It's not just the flooding.
01:11 Recent heavy rainfall and hailstorms have already done damage.
01:16 It's thought more than $10 million has been lost in the Goulburn Valley alone, with some
01:21 fruit growers losing their entire crop to the extreme weather.
01:26 At Aipen South, west of Shepparton, David Chernside's farm had a contract to supply
01:31 14,500 tonnes of tomatoes to SPC.
01:36 He spent Christmas surveying the damage.
01:39 And this is what's left.
01:41 Field officers now estimate he's lost 30% of his crops, worth up to $2 million.
01:46 "We've pumped off as much as possible, but the tomatoes that were underwater for more
01:52 than 48 hours are pretty much finished.
01:55 They won't make it through to harvest."
01:57 For the flood-fatigued farmers like Chloe Fox, the fear is that this natural disaster
02:03 will soon be wiped from minds.
02:05 "I know this flood looks less devastating than the last time, so there's less attention
02:11 on it.
02:12 I worry it's going to get forgotten."
02:14 A plea to remember.
02:15 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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