The Road to Recovery - Adelaide Hills
Its taken me a while to be able to write this as its still terrifying to so many of us. It has been the horror summer for so many Australians this year, one we all want to forget but hope its one that we can all learn from the disaster and change the way we manage the land. For the Adelaide Hills Wine region its been a devastating time losing approx 30% of their vines which is a tough pill to swallow after such low yields last year too. Each day we have inspected the vines and the baby vines damaged are all starting to reshoot quite well but sadly the older vines look worse and are detoriating daily, so looks like a good prune this year with very little or most likely no fruit for a couple of varieties sadly and patience for next year.
We were lucky in that the buildings were saved thanks to our amazing CFS firies and neighbours help, though the fire did reach to 8 metres to the rear of our home, way too close for comfort. Its still very raw and there are so many heartbreaking stories ... BUT the one thing that has kept us all going has been the amazing community spirit, its been the big hug that we all needed. We are lucky to have amazing neighbours and community here in Woodside who have all gathered together and supported one another which is how we should all be living. Its certainly brought us all closer which is a great thing!
Some images below of our burnt vines, our totally burnt woodlot and some of the amazing helpers we had to assist us in clearing up, they are pruning our fried olive trees - no crops for a couple of years from these either.
I want to give a huge shoutout to Blaze Aid who are assisting the communities in replacing all the burnt fences, they do an incredible job, more unsung heroes, I cannot imagine how many thousands of kilometres of fencing have been destroyed throughout the country.
Onwards and upwards for the beautiful Adelaide HIlls which is shooting green everywhere now, nature can be cruel but is also inspiring! And... we still have lots of really good wines available!
Cheers Judy & Glen and the Artwine Team
19/02/2020 at 2:18 PM
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