Victorian Flood Update - Supplier Spotlight: Jonesy's Milk

Jonesy's flooded farm in Kerang, Victoria.

Where does your milk come from?

Well the weather has really given Australia a battering in the past few months or so. There were the devastating floods and cyclone Yasi in Queensland, ferocious bushfires in Western Australia, there were heat waves in Sydney and massive flooding in Victoria. It has been a terrifying time for many people and huge amounts of the population are experiencing varying degrees of hardship attributed to these natural disasters. Although we were thankfully safe and relatively dry here in Melbourne a number of our suppliers and associates bore the full brunt of nature's destruction. Banana crops were devastated in Queensland as were sugar plantations, these will take a massive effort and a long time before they are back up and running. This will also affect pricing of these products across the country. We are due to open our 'Sweet Studio' in March and have to factor all of these issues into our start up costing and plan. Here in Victoria, the flooding has crippled local producers and the knock on effect of supply, quality and pricing of fruit, vegetables and other items will be significant. Our fantastic supplier of milk and cream, Jonesy's, were unfortunately hit extremely hard in the recent rains. As you can see from the top picture, not too much is left of their main farm. Jonesy's produce fantastic dairy produce and pride themselves, rightly, on their superior milk and cream products including non-homogenised goods. The flavour is far superior to anything you can find in the supermarket and we wholeheartedly endorse buying these sorts of ingredients from local quality producers. Below is a message from the team at Jonesy's on the recent troubles and their plans to carry on trying to produce fantastic milk! 

To All Our kind customers who have been enquiring about us, thankyou so much for your thoughts and wishes during this difficult time, it has helped enormously to know there are people concerned about our welfare here,  We are all a bit shell shocked at the scale of the flood.

As you can see from the photograph our main farm 2500 hectares is under water, our sons’ house along with one of the houses on the dairy have been flooded as well as the “Jonesy’s office” we have lost most of our hay and silage,  a  good crop, all pasture, shearing sheds, equipment, fencing, and are contending with a large amount of damage across the farm. We travelled by boat between the farms all the way without having to get out due to the depth of the water, and we believe a lot of the water will need pumping to disperse it.  We have chooks, dogs, sheep, cows and even a kangaroo resting in what little land you can see in the photo in our backyard, as they all migrated to the only place above the water. Thankfully our house was built some 100 yrs ago on what appears to be the highest point on the property.  Given “Tragowel Estate” was one of the biggest properties in its day around 50,000 acres, this was obviously not an accident.  We currently have family living with us, Christie and I have moved the office also to the house,  and we are trying to make the most of it.

Thankfully our dairies did not flood, and the “Jonesy’s cows are safe, and we are making alternative arrangements to move them to a new home so they can keep their feet dry!, as their paddocks are under water and feed is going to be an issue.

There is a large amount of damage right across the area, and we feel for other families who have lost houses and dairies and most likely their livelihoods, we are more fortunate than most and count our blessings, even though our losses are heavy.

A big thankyou to Melinda and Christie and the team for keeping things running as normally as possible, Christie had to evacuate with her family as well, and she took her computer, mobile,  and work with her so she could keep your deliveries going, as opposed to taking her own belongings.  Thankfully her house was safe when she returned!, but it is this attitude and help that is keeping us going. A big thankyou to all of you for being patient with our limited phone lines etc, and any disruption that have occurred, we are most grateful.

We are trying to set up a newspage on our website to post more photos and information about the farm, as we would like to keep you all informed.  The Jonesy’s concept is about helping farmers and giving you a good product to sell, it is your involvement not just as customers but as friends that motivates us, and we are always thrilled to hear how much people like your coffees’ etc., or a new customers comes on board, and although we are small we want to  continue to give you the best and better service. We have had numerous offers of help and to our amazement the offer of a fundraiser, and it is really giving us the strength to face it all so again thankyou all so much and stay in touch.

Thankfully Yours

Wayne & Rhonda Somerville and the team at Jonesy’s

PS. Drink lots of milk!

We hope you all understand the importance of local producers such as Jonesy's and try to support them wherever possible. Here at Burch & Purchese we will try, wherever possible to procure and promote, fine local produce and pass that on to our customers in 'Sweet Studio' in 2011. Our thoughts go out to all persons affected by floods, fires, cyclones and the rest here in Australia.

http://www.jonesysdairyfresh.com/index.html - Jonesy's Milk