By Callum Ludwig
Yarra Ranges’ agribusinesses are struggling to prevent their produce from being damaged by unsealed roads that link to many local farms and orchards.
Yarra Valley Cherries is based on Victoria Road in Seville, a long stretch of dirt road and during the Cherry season from November to December the roads are precarious after a wet springtime,
Andrew Fairley, owner of Yarra Valley Cherries said the damage to the unsealed road after rain is inevitable.
“We get wash-aways on the road, because there’s a lot of water comes in from various from all directions and no matter how hard council try to fix the drains, they seem to block up,” he said.
“Because of the intensity of the water, it starts pulling the road away and softens up the road, when you have people driving too fast it then it creates really significant corrugations and big holes when it starts to reform.”
Mr Fairley said the bumpy, uneven roads cause significant damage to high-quality produce from agribusinesses all over the Yarra Ranges.
“When our fruit is packed into pallets and boxes for sale into the domestic and international market, as soon as it gets out onto the dirt road and it starts getting pummelled across the corrugations, the fruit settles in the box, with the fruit down the bottom getting squashed,” he said.
“It diminishes the quality of the fruit, but also reduces the shelf life because it damages the crunchy skin of a cherry which is a really important part. When it then goes soft, people say that’s not what I signed up for when I’m buying premium quality fruit.”
Yarra Valley Cherries is not alone and is in support of the Yarra Ranges Council’s push for ‘Roads for Agribusiness’ federal funding.
“They [YRC] wanted to really ensure the Federal Government had an understanding of the impact that poor roads had on agricultural producers, particularly where you have a product that is susceptible to damage.”
Yarra Ranges Council estimates the shire is home to a large unmade road network of approximately 700 kilometres.
At current every year the Council spends approximately $4.5 million grading unsealed roads at a cost of $1250 per kilometre for each grade.
Another agribusiness also spoke to Star Mail, but wanted to remain anonymous.
A representative said as a tourism-related agribusiness, unsealed roads affect their business model.
“We have people consider us a once-only experience because they are disappointed by the access, and we want to encourage repeat tourism so having good access to the farm is a high priority,” they said.
“I worry the funding will come up short, we were quoted by the council $300,000 for the stretch of road to be fixed.”
However, they remain grateful the funding is being pushed for and feel as though the importance of agribusiness is reflected.
“It sounds like they realise that agribusiness is significant, and as we are tourism-related, I’m sure it will put a smile on people’s faces if they are happy with the tourism experience,” they said.
Yarra Ranges Council is asking Casey candidates and political parties to provide $150 million to deliver 150 kilometres of unsealed roads upgrades connected to local producers. It would act similar as the ‘Roads for Community’ initiative which sees landholders also front some of the bill at a reduced cost.
