Stock up on bananas as cyclone descends on North Queensland

Residents and bananas in the path of category five storm, Cyclone Ita have gone to shelters as winds of 125km/h lash the region.  The cyclone is expected to be worse than Larry which hit North Queensland in March 2006, and destroyed more than 10,000 homes and an entire banana industry.   Whilst only 9000 people are expected to be in Cyclone Ita’s direct path, the surrounding towns and crops will no doubt take a battering.

Banana farmers have been picking desperately in the knowledge of what has happened to their industry back in 2006.  Lakeland’s biggest farm, Swiss Farms, was hoping to get 250 tonnes of bananas and another 1,500 banana bunches into storage and out of harm’s way last night before the storm hit.

But owner Peter Inderbitzen was disappointed he couldn’t do more in his conversations with the ABC.

“We’re not doing much else than trying to pack. Everything’s up to date, our de-leafing’s right up… we’ve tied our irrigators down and cleaned up. Do the best you can, but there’s not much you can do.

His farm is 260 hectares in size, all devoted to banana production.  According to the ABC, he inadvertently gained a major windfall three years ago when Cyclone Yasi decimated up to 90 per cent of Australia’s banana production but left his farm untouched as it was so much further north.

The latest advice from the Bureau of Meteorology is that Ita was 235 kilometres away from Cooktown at 6am on Friday, with the Bureau of Meteorology predicting the storm poses a “serious threat to communities along the far north Queensland coast”.

Our thoughts and wishes are with the communities affected… stay safe.