‘Devastation’: Freak storm strikes family farm after drought and illness | Photos

Despite causing some rain and not much more in Orange, the storm caused widespread damage through Mullion Creek, Euchareena and towards Wellington. 

Mrs Johnstone described the storm as a “cyclone” which uprooted hundreds of trees and speared them onto cars, sheds, the house and fences while also bringing a large part of the roof off their woolshed and damaging kilometres worth of fences.

She said winds even moved a 40 foot shipping container. 

The chaos and carnage only lasted five minutes, but it was more than enough. 

Mrs Johnstone it was like nothing she’d seen in all her years on the land.

“The rain was like a high pressure hose up against the window. I thought there was hail but it turned out to be glass from our front doors,” she said.

“We could see out the window the pine tree was moving and we thought ‘oh my goodness, it’s coming down’.”

Five minutes later the storm was gone and they could walk out into the yard.

“It was devastation,” Mrs Johnstone said. 

“It was like what you see on the news where a cyclone had hit, not something you’d expect to see in the Central West.”

The 100-year-old pine tree – the “heart and soul” of their property – was lying on its side. 

“The tree was the foundation of this farm, my husband swung in it when he was was a kid and our kids who are fourth generation did the same,” Mrs Johnstone said.

Another tree fell on her car, which Mr Johnstone had been in less than 15 minutes before the storm hit, fitting a new Bluetooth radio as a Christmas present to Mrs Johnstone.

Their first thought was for their stock, which have suffered “so much” in the drought, and after finding so many fences in disarray the couple managed to find them all safe and bring them closer to the house. 

None of the Johnstone’s neighbours were hit anywhere near as hard by the freak storm cell. 

“We’re lucky we have friends and family who have come around at the drop of a hat to help us,” Mrs Johnstone said. 

“Everything else can be replaced. At the end of the day, we’re okay, the pets are okay and the stock are okay, so we’re lucky.”

The storm capped off a rotten run of luck for the third-generation farmers, who have struggled immensely with feeding stock during the severe drought over the past 18 months.

Adding further layers of pain, Mr Johnstone’s father died suddenly, and Mrs Johnstone had several surgeries to treat thyroid cancer, the last of which was in Sydney just a week before the storm.

The house and contents are insured but due to the financial pressures of the drought, the Johnstones have had to pull back to third party, fire and theft coverage for the cars and scale back property insurance, meaning they will be facing the majority of the clean-up bill on their own. 

The clean-up will come after the couple faced the crippling cost of the drought, and Mrs Johnstone’s medical expenses getting to and from Sydney for surgery. 

“You expect drought, you expect floods, but,” Mrs Johnstone said before pausing, “you can’t expect this. I’ve never seen a storm like this.”

Their daughter Brooke has set up a GoFundMe page for the Johnstones, and the generosity of strangers who had donated caught them off guard. 

“We did the tractor trek a few years ago and raised $14,500 and were really proud of that, but didn’t think twice about why, and now people are helping us out and we’re not used to asking for help,” she said.

“Australians tend to be a hardy people, we just help out others but don’t expect it back.”