Farmers who felt the impact of torrential rain and strong winds which lashed NSW over the weekend have vowed to recover.
Banana, sugarcane and oyster farmers in the small town of Woolgoolga, north of Coffs Harbour, are inspecting what little is left of their produce after their farms were left in ruins.
Woolgoolga, or 'Woopi' as the locals call it, boasts the largest regional Sikh settlement in Australia - half the population is Sikh and 90 per cent of the families own banana farms.
Farmer Iqbal Singh Grewal has worked on his banana plantation for more than three decades and said he had never seen damage that bad.
"We've been through a few storms before, but this is the worst one," he said.
Rows of fallen banana trees were left strewn across the steep slopes of his farm.
Damaged at a banana plantation in Woolgoolga, north of Coffs Harbour (SBS) Source: AAP
As much as 70 per cent of his crop was damaged, some will be destroyed, others replanted in September.
Mr Grewel said it would take the farmers at least two years and tens of thousands of dollars to recover the entire farm.
Mr Grewel's son, Anu, works with his father at the small plantation, which has only two other workers.
"I didn’t think there would be this much damage," Anu said.
"Normally you can see the bananas along the hill side from the shed, but when I came out on Sunday morning I couldn’t. That's when it really kicked in that it must have been a real bad storm."
The Grewel family banana plantation is one of the few remaining in the Coffs Harbour region.
Once the banana capital of Australia, strong competition from north Queensland has seen the local banana industry shrink and farmers are now diversifying to more lucrative blueberries.
Despite the latest blow, Anu remains determined to keep his family's banana farm alive.
"It definitely hurts seeing as you put this much effort into growing the bananas and then in no time its all flattened, but you know, what can you do?"
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