Cyclone Seroja: Perenjori and Mingenew reeling with ‘no time to stop’ on long road to recovery

Jim Pohl has watched many world tragedies from the 102-year-old Perenjori Hotel — recalling the day he bought it as the day of the Challenger space shuttle disaster in 1986 — but has now lived through one himself as the world watched.

The former publican, whose son Kirk has since stepped up behind the bar, was in his upstairs lodgings as cyclone Seroja blew the roof off on Sunday and his brick chimney crumbled.

Pointing at it resting on the town’s main road on Wednesday, he said he felt lucky to be alive, as if it had blown the other way it would have fallen into his room.

“I couldn’t see anything, all I saw is the chimney flying and hit the electric post and then the lights were gone. It was pitch black and pouring rain with the ceilings dropping down and God knows what,” he said.

“I look at that chimney and think ‘My God, that could have been me if the wind had blown it the other way’.”

Mr Pohl said he remained positive and was confident they could repair the heritage-listed hotel, resolving to operate what they could from the side that was not damaged — including the bar and beer taps — when electricity was restored to the town.

“It’s a bit of excitement, isn’t it? It’s something the town can talk about. I think (my son) has accepted it now,” he said.

“Last night there were 30 or 40-odd people out the front here ... the pub is the centre of any town.

“When the pub shuts down, the town dies.”

He said the Italian family of his employee’s wife called her while the hotel staff were in Dalwallinu, the closest town with phone reception after the cyclone, worried about them after hearing about the disaster on the news.

Shire of Perenjori president Chris King said while the town of about 600 residents faced a big clean-up, farmers on the outskirts of the shire were badly hit and at least four families were being relocated from their uninhabitable homes.

“It’s devastating — a lot of structural damage, particularly the hotel in the main street,” he said.

“The two churches have both had some damage, and some sheds and things, but out on the farms there’s been significant damage to houses, sheds, silos, tanks and the like.

“We’ve got four families at the moment relocated into town.

“The Shire has provided houses for them and it’s fantastic we’ve had that opportunity to do that.”

He said farmers remained positive despite dealing with the damage during one of the most important times of the year when they seeded their crops while already being understaffed because of COVID-19.

It’s a very important time, and very busy time of the year, so people will have to get back to focusing on that and then look at more of a clean-up,

“In terms of the actual rebuild ... people will be competing for tradesmen with the new home builds and people affected by the fires down in the hills there.

“It will be rebuilt, but the time frame will be significant.”

Farmers in Mingenew faced the devastation of their homes and machinery, with the loss of harvested grain in silos, while dealing with staffing shortages and general delays because of COVID-19 during this crucial time of year.

Cosgrove Farming Company partner Fiona Cosgrove said it was unlike anything she had experienced in Mingenew.

One of their properties just outside Mingenew, Depot Hill Farm, where her father-in-law lives, had extensive damage including the veranda coming off the house, a large shed being flattened on top of their seeding trailer, the shearing shed roof disappearing, and a silo being lost into the paddock.

Mrs Cosgrove said it was unlike anything she had ever experienced in Mingenew. “There’s actually quite a lot of damage ... hundreds of thousands of dollars worth,” she said. “We’ve had storms come through before and they’ve certainly caused damage — we lose roofs on sheds quite often ... but never this widespread, and never this much all at once. It’s probably going to take us at least six months to recover.

We’ve just started seeding so that’s all hands on deck . . . there’s no time to stop.

She said riding out the storm itself was terrifying, but there was a silver lining to the physical and emotional clouds that had formed over the properties of the town’s 450 residents.

“The shining light out of it is the rain — it will mean good things for the start of seeding and gives us a good amount of wet ground to work with,” she said.

“But I’m also feeling pretty devastated for a lot of my friends that have lost their houses and everything in them ... there would be at least 10 people I know well who have lost roofs in Mingenew and surrounds.

“It’s not Kalbarri, but it’s not great.”

Shire of Coorow president Moira Girando said their towns had “dodged a bullet” with some buildings to the east sustaining damage and the townsite losing power, but overall emerging relatively unscathed.

Three Springs Shire president Chris Lane said the town came away with minor damage but its north and east farming properties had lost roofs on homes and infrastructure had been destroyed, while Morawa and Dalwallinu experienced similar devastation.