Wine industry withers on vine as Queensland records $18b loss

Heavy rainfall caused widespread flooding across more than half of Queensland in 2019, which the Climate Council described as one of the worst disasters in the region’s history.

Report lead author Simon Bradshaw said the findings showed the past two years had been exceptional for extreme weather locally and capped off a costly decade.

“No community in Australia is immune to climate change. Queensland, in particular, is facing a combination of vulnerabilities,” Dr Bradshaw said.

“Many of the state’s coastal communities are in the path of cyclones and there have been many record-breaking hot days in the state recently.

“There is nowhere in Australia or almost anywhere in the world like Queensland with opportunities for renewable energies in the state, there is a great opportunity in the time of the COVID-19 rebuild for new renewable energy initiatives and clean energy for the future.”

Dr Bradshaw said there was a need to set ambitious targets, such as zero emissions before 2040, invest more in renewables and take advantage of existing renewable resources.

Storms, drought, floods and increasing temperatures in particular have hit Queensland winemakers hard, forcing them to embrace new technologies and more resilient foreign grape varieties.

Sirromet Wines chief winemaker Mike Hayes, who has been in the business for 42 years, has felt the impact of extreme weather first-hand.

“With warmer summers and warmer nights, it has compressed our harvests, given us many varieties ready at once so the ability for us to pick the grapes becomes a challenge, and we’ve also had a double-whammy with COVID-19 and the lack of backpackers coming through town,” he said.

“There is also more sugar in the grapes due to the warmer temperatures day and night.

“To exacerbate this, with the worst drought we’ve ever seen, we lost 98.8 per cent of 2020 vintage.”

Mr Hayes said Queensland winemakers were leading the country and many parts of the world in their investment in more resistant overseas grape varieties and the establishment of back-up grape supplies.

“Queensland winemakers are experimenting with Portuguese, Spanish and French grape varieties … and there are already more than 100 grape varieties in the state,” he said.

“We’ve developed a vineyard of the future in Stanthorpe where we have over 80 varieties … as climate change emerges, we have these varieties to change over to in our vineyards if needed.

“One one hand, climate change is hurting us, but we’re trying to fight back … as they say, it’s not the size of the dog in the fight.

“Queensland is only half of 1 per cent of the national total of wine growers, but we are leading the way in our research.”