Trevor Peeler has spent 50 years of his life driving in and out of the gates of the Harcourt Cooperative Cool Stores. He didn\u2019t see the site burn to the ground on Friday night because he was blocks away protecting his house.<\/p>\n
Not that he could have done anything. The Cool Stores were directly in the path of the fire and turned into an inferno.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou actually can\u2019t be happy about it,\u201d he says of the house. \u201cYou can feel lucky, but you can\u2019t feel happy because you look at everyone else who\u2019s lost their homes and it\u2019s just unimaginable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peeler managed the Cool Stores, a cluster of refrigerated sheds. The business was established in 1917 for a co-op of local apple growers, and in recent years had become essential storage for about 85 customers, from boutique producers to established wineries such as Bress.<\/p>\n
Peeler, a fifth-generation Harcourt apple grower, was delighted that a wave of innovative winemakers and craft brewers had appeared on the scene. But the bushfires that continue to burn in Harcourt and Ravenswood have wiped out these businesses\u2019 liquid stock and, in many cases, their ingredients, packaging, equipment, chiller units and distilleries.<\/p>\n
Gilles Lapalus, who lost all his equipment and most of his wine stock in the Cool Stores fire. Photograph: Penny Ryan\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m having trouble talking about it,\u201d Peeler says. \u201cEverything\u2019s still burning. I did go down to work yesterday because the insurance broker needed photos. I watched a few of our customers walking around the premises and you can tell the effect that it\u2019s having on them. They\u2019re not really customers any more, they\u2019ve become friends. I know what they\u2019re going through is hard and I can\u2019t help.\u201d<\/p>\n
For many local producers there\u2019s a sense of numbness. French winemaker Gilles Lapalus helped establish the local Sutton Grange Winery, before launching his own labels. He started at the Cool Stores 15 years ago, progressing from one room to four. On Friday, he lost all his equipment and most of his stock, including museum stock dating back 20 years and wine with a 10-year-old solera \u2013 a system of ageing wine.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can never replace that, because you can\u2019t replace time,\u201d he says. \u201cI was saying to my partner this morning, I\u2019m still there in my head, checking the wine, checking the temperature. But it\u2019s all flattened, and I\u2019m still not processing that. I\u2019m not a young chicken, either. So what do I do? I tell all my friends that I\u2019m becoming a postman soon.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018So many people have fond memories\u2019<\/p>\n
Others are forming a steely resolve. Ken Gilchrist and Kaye Graves own the GilGraves vineyard in Axedale, which was safe from the fires, but the couple lost an estimated 97% of their stock. Graves says the pair sat in bed with a coffee the morning after the Cool Stores burned down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe looked at each other and said, \u2018What are we going to do?\u2019 And we decided, GilGraves will rise from the ashes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those who want to help should always buy local, Graves says. \u201cIf people realised what went into a glass of wine they might think more about it. You dig the hole, you plant the vine, you produce the wine and it\u2019s a very soulful experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conna Mallett, co-director of Love Shack Brewing Co in Castlemaine, less than 10km from Harcourt, became a Cool Stores customer five years ago.<\/p>\n
Conna Mallett, the owner and publican of Love Shack in Castlemaine. Photograph: Penny Ryan\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first met Trevor I think he thought we were crazy because of what we were trying to do,\u201d Mallett says. \u201cHe\u2019s seen people like us come and go, but when we started trying more things, he loved it. It\u2019s a passionate industry and everyone\u2019s chasing their dreams. The Cool Stores became a community and so many people have fond memories and an emotional attachment to the place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Love Shack had 350 kegs and 1,400 slabs of beer in storage at the Cool Stores, as well as packaging. \u201cWe lost a lot, but people lost their homes,\u201d he says. \u201cWe can make more beer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mallett estimates the cost at $120,000, which may not be covered by insurance. Uncertainty around what is covered by each business\u2019s insurer is front and centre of many minds. Answers will be urgently sought over the next few working days.<\/p>\n
Doug Falconer, who runs the Shedshaker Brewery and Taproom with his partner, Jacqueline Brodie-Hanns, estimates that Shedshaker lost about 80% of its stock and most of its packaging, as well as the beer it brews for another organisation.<\/p>\n
Doug Falconer of the Shed Shaker brewery with his only remaining stock. Photograph: Penny Ryan\/The Guardian<\/p>\n
\u201cThe role the Cool Stores played was absolutely pivotal for anyone producing anything that needs cold storage within 100km,\u201d Falconer says. \u201cIt was a meeting place as well. Every time we went out there to drop stuff off you\u2019d run into winemakers and apple growers and everyone would have a big chat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Falconer and Brodie-Hanns donated pizzas to a barbecue for exhausted CFA volunteers on Sunday, and attended a public fundraising event at Boomtown Winery in Castlemaine along with hundreds of locals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still raw and too close and difficult to work out priorities,\u201d Falconer says, but that event, at least, was \u201ccathartic\u201d.<\/p>\n
A huge well of goodwill<\/p>\n
Boomtown owner Tim Sproal didn\u2019t have stock at the Cool Stores, but felt moved to help.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the fires we had a lot of cancellations and food left over, so we thought, let\u2019s throw a free lunch, and then the idea grew into a fundraiser that absolutely snowballed in a way I had not expected,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough I should have expected it, because Castlemaine is the biggest well of goodwill ever. There are a lot of people here who want to contribute and who feel a bit hopeless and useless.\u201d<\/p>\n