{"id":67574,"date":"2026-08-08T04:49:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:49:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/67574\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T04:49:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T04:49:21","slug":"landholders-still-rebuilding-12-months-after-deepest-snowfall-in-living-memory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/67574\/","title":{"rendered":"Landholders still rebuilding 12 months after deepest snowfall in ‘living memory’"},"content":{"rendered":"

When New South Wales Northern Tablelands residents woke up to a snowfall last August, they couldn’t have imagined they would still be cleaning up 12 months on.<\/p>\n

The snow closed roads, cut power and felled branches and fences across swathes of the region.<\/p>\n

Although the Bureau of Meteorology does not have official records of alpine snowfalls and snow depth, it was reported at the time that snowfalls of up to 20 to 40 centimetres were seen in areas such as Guyra, Walcha and Armidale.<\/p>\n

\"Snow<\/p>\n

There was widespread damage at Greenhill Orchards with netting collapsing over multiple hectares. (Supplied: Greenhill Orchards)<\/p>\n

Warren Yeomans, the sixth generation to run his family’s fruit orchard at Arding, said the snow was unlike anything he had seen before.<\/p>\n

“The snow event itself was once in a lifetime; it was far bigger than any other known in living memory.”<\/p>\n

Slow and tedious work<\/p>\n

The Yeomans’ family orchard has been operating for more than 160 years, growing cherries, apples, pears and more.<\/p>\n

Mr Yeomans said the snow extensively damaged their netted orchards, with the estimated cost about half a million dollars.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Yeomans’ orchard was hit with “unprecedented” damage one year ago when snow carpeted the Northern Tablelands. (ABC News: Brigitte Murphy)<\/p>\n

“It [the snow] collapsed all of our structures as well as a lot of native timber, which is still an ongoing process in cleaning up.<\/p>\n

“Literally cutting net off the structure which was all over the place, we removed all the net, then all the wires and cables, undoing clips and things which there are thousands of.<\/p>\n

\"Snow<\/p>\n

Warren Yeomans says he has never seen anything like the 2025 snowstorm and hopes he does not again. (Supplied: Greenhill Orchards)<\/p>\n

“It’s a long process of physical labour. We are moving forwards but it’s starting from a long way back.”<\/p>\n

Mr Yeomans said the impact from the snowstorm on their business, Greenhill Orchards, was being felt this season and possibly would be for years to come.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

One year later some netting at Greenhill Orchards is back in place but trees are still recovering. (ABC News: Brigitte Murphy)<\/p>\n

“We had a very low crop this year because of the tree damage \u2026 they had to recover and get their root systems back in place so we had a significantly reduced crop.”<\/p>\n

Community steps in to help<\/p>\n

A natural disaster declaration by the state government covered 10 local government areas, including Armidale and Uralla.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Assistance included grants for low-income uninsured residents and concessional interest rate loans for small businesses, primary producers and non-profit organisations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Snow<\/p>\n

The Yeomans family is still repairing damage from the snowstorm 12 months on.\u00a0 (Supplied: Greenhill Orchards)<\/p>\n

“We were able to apply for a low-interest loan but that’s been a long and arduous task,” Mr Yeomans said.<\/p>\n

He said there was still a lot of work to do on the orchard in the long term.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The recovery from 2025’s snowstorm is still underway at Greenhill Orchards. (ABC News: Brigitte Murphy)<\/p>\n

“We’re probably halfway through getting our structures back in place.<\/p>\n

“It was a disaster in slow motion and the recovery seems to be the same sort of thing. It’s in slow motion too.”Slipping through the cracks\"A<\/p>\n

The Kindly Animal Sanctuary cares for more than 250 animals, including donkeys, camels and cattle. (ABC News: Brigitte Murphy)<\/p>\n

Less than 30 kilometres north of the orchard is the Kindly Animal Sanctuary.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Trinity Hooper and her mother Naomi call the sanctuary home alongside the countless chickens, cattle, donkeys, pigs and even camels they care for.<\/p>\n

The not-for-profit was also inundated with snow, leaving many animals confused and cold.<\/p>\n

Ms Hooper said her mother spent hours in the snow.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

As the day progressed snow continued to blanket the property resulting in near white-out weather conditions. (Supplied: Kindly Animal Sanctuary)<\/p>\n

“She walked the 350 acres multiple times throughout those couple of days, carting food and water to every single animal.<\/p>\n

“So much work and every time you turned around there was another animal behind you that shouldn’t be there because a tree had fallen on their fence.<\/p>\n

“We literally did not own a single fence that didn’t have a tree on it.”\"A<\/p>\n

One year on from the snowstorm Trinity Hooper and her mother are still a long way off repairing all the damage. (ABC News: Brigitte Murphy)<\/p>\n

Ms Hooper said she did not know how much money the repair would cost them, but that it had been an enormous undertaking.<\/p>\n

“Just to repair one fence with one tree on it, you’re looking at anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We’re still doing it. It’s 12 months later and we still have not finished the clean-up.”\"A<\/p>\n

The sanctuary had significant damage, including to most of the fencing on the property. (ABC News: Brigitte Murphy)<\/p>\n

Ms Hooper said the sanctuary was unsuccessful when applying for grants from the natural disaster declaration.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think we do just fall through the cracks because even though we do have the cattle and sheep and things that do tick a lot of those boxes, they’re not for commercial use or you don’t have primary producer status.<\/p>\n

“I think it would be lovely if the government did sit there with a checklist and say, ‘Alright, we’ve helped the farmers, we’ve helped the community members and we’ve repaired the school \u2026 how about we go out and look at the charities and send them some money, let’s send them help.’<\/p>\n

“Because at the moment we’re just extremely unseen.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When New South Wales Northern Tablelands residents woke up to a snowfall last August, they couldn’t have imagined…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67575,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[86925,86923,22,21,86922,21986,86926,2303,86924,14285,86921,86927,86920],"class_list":["post-67574","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-animal-rescue","tag-animal-sanctuary","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-community-recovery","tag-farm","tag-farm-recovery","tag-farming","tag-fruit-orchard","tag-natural-disaster","tag-snow-damage","tag-snow-recovery","tag-snow-storm"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67574","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67574\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}