Resilient stud on long journey of flood recovery

Successful New South Wales harness racing breeder Paul Carmody knows better than most that flood recovery is a slow process and a hard slog.

Carmody and his wife Sharon operate Lochend Stud, abutting the Wallis Creek in the picturesque Hunter Valley, a family operation that was established in 1973 by Paul’s father Hugh, and renowned for producing many quality yearlings to make their mark on tracks across the country.

And while it’s stunning country, flooding is a consistent and unwelcome feature of life on the fertile floodplain – most recently in the massive flood event in July.

“We’re going as good as we can, and we’re open for business for the upcoming stud season,” Carmody said.

“We were left with a huge clean-up, and I couldn’t count the number of loads we’ve so far made to the local dump. Thankfully the council gave us a free pass up until Christmas!” he said.

Torrential rain prompted flooding in the Hunter Valley in March, and then exceeded that in July 2022 when floodwaters not only covered the 60 acres of Lochend Stud, but also another 70 acres the family leases nearby.

As well as rebuilding their lives, Paul and Sharon have worked hard to reset the Lochend Stud operations in time to again stand Modern Art (Perfect Art), the sire of sensational pacer Lochinvar Art, this season, along with Village Jolt (Cams Card Shark).

“There’s been a few floods in the past, but nowhere near as big as July,” Carmody said.

“In the last day it come very quickly — it actually rose about half a metre within half a day. The water builds up from Cessnock about 30 miles away and then it has to drain through Wallis Creek to get away,” Carmody said.

“The boundary of our property butts onto the creek which snakes its way around our place.

“In 2015 we had floodwater around us, and it covered everything but the house and shed. This time nothing was spared.

“We ended up with three feet of water through our house and it also went right through our (semen) lab and stallion boxes. I put about $70K worth of artificial insemination equipment including scanners and other gear up high— but unfortunately it still got me.”

Also in the losses were entire stores of the property’s hay and grain.

“There was a couple of thousand really nice square bales lost, and we saw 500 round bales just float on by,” Carmody said.

“There was a stack of hay stored in a shed and that started smoking at one point after the floodwaters hit, which of course was caused by spontaneous combustion. We couldn’t do anything about it ourselves, so we had to call in the ‘firies’.

“We ended up losing all of our hay in the floods, along with $20K of grain, but I’m still saying we were lucky.

“I’ve spent $50K and will probably spend that much again by the end of the year so we can just get through because the property it’s still so wet that it will be ages before we can get out and work it up to sow.”

Carmody said at one point, a one-acre high point of adjoining land, owned by their son Daniel, had 20 broodmares huddled on it.

“Other neighbors and friends also helped us out, to keep the horses safe and cared for.”

Carmody said the post-flood cleanup had been monumental.

“The amount of debris that comes down in floodwaters is incredible. We had cupboards, tyres, brooms and every bit of junk that people keep in their sheds or garages. There were also huge numbers of snakes, some just swimming and others were up on logs or debris,” he said.

“Everything on the property copped it and we’ll have a new kitchen and bathroom in the end. Daniel is a builder so it will be better than ever when it’s all fixed up. But so far, the ceilings have been painted and the walls pulled out.”

Carmody, who doesn’t find a lot of time to concentrate on the horse training side these days, said Lochend Stud was still taking bookings for both stallions.

“This year we enjoyed some really good sales at the Bathurst Gold Crown and Sydney APG. We got $20K for two of our yearlings, while another one went for $10K so we were very pleased.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink