‘Zero income’: Locals rally behind small businesses wiped out by fires

As the small Victorian town of Harcourt reeled from the shock of Friday’s devastating fires that destroyed homes and the town’s co-operative housing 80-plus businesses, their neighbours in Castlemaine were already swinging into action.

A fundraiser was quickly organised by winemakers Boomtown and held on Sunday afternoon at its winery in Castlemaine’s Mill precinct, with an auction, raffle and drinks sales going towards support for Harcourt residents.

Boomtown confirmed between $130,000 and $140,000 was raised in five hours, after dozens of local businesses donated prizes. Funds will go to the local CFA and the Harcourt Progress Association, with Castlemaine Community House also supporting the latter’s work.

“It’s not much money compared to what’s needed, but it will help,” said Boomtown owner Tim Sproal.

More than 50 structures including homes and businesses were destroyed in Harcourt, a town known for its apples used to produce cider.

The Harcourt Cooperative Cool Stores, which contained more than 80 businesses, was reduced to ashes and mangled metal by Friday’s Ravenswood blaze.

Local Gilles Lapalus ran two businesses from the space. His wine business, Maison Lapalus, lost all its stock and equipment, while the equipment, stock and raw materials of his Maidenii vermouth business were also destroyed, including rare items like a 10-year-old solera system. A solera is a stacked arrangement of barrels that’s used to age sherry, wine, spirits and more.

Since Lapalus established Maidenii with Shaun Byrne around 2012, the brand has become a vermouth of choice for many top bars and restaurants in Australia.

The loss of raw materials, including the locally gathered botanicals that are key to vermouth-making, means Maidenii will not be able to produce a 2026 vintage.

“That leaves us with a gap next year … where we have zero income,” Lapalus said.

“It’s more than that, though. I lost half my super. My super was that business.”

While he’s had offers of support flood in from the local and international hospitality community, he can’t yet turn his mind to recovery. “The fire’s still burning, the wind change will come this week, we’re likely to have more disasters.”

Lapalus has a home near Chewton, about nine kilometres from Harcourt, that he evacuated on Friday afternoon as the fire was nearing. When the wind changed direction, the fire bore down on Harcourt.

While his home was spared, at 8pm that night, he received a message saying the town’s cool stores were gone.

“I feel lucky compared to Henry of Harcourt, for example. They lost everything: the house, the business, the orchard, everything.”

Henry of Harcourt is a family cider business that’s been running for more than 25 years.

“It could very well spell quite a serious blow to Henry of Harcourt because I can’t go through the process of growing up trees for another 10 years to start up the types of varieties that we had,” cider maker Michael Henry told this masthead on Saturday.

Conna Mallett, co-director of Castlemaine brewery Love Shack, was also affected by the damage to Harcourt’s Cool Stores.

“We had all of our stock there. Six weeks’ worth of stock – 1500 slabs, 450 kegs ... all gone. That’s a pretty rough hit to take, especially as a small business who lives hand-to mouth most of the time,” he said.

“We just have to start knuckling down and brewing seven days a week ... we want people to buy Love Shack but we can’t keep up with the demand ... so we might have to get a bit creative. But there’s a lot of people out there struggling more than we have. Lots of businesses stored their stuff [at Cool Stores] and lost it all.”

Mallett said Love Shack lost about $200,000 worth of stock, a mix of slabs, kegs and packaging materials, which insurance didn’t cover.

‘That’s a pretty rough hit to take, especially as a small business who lives hand-to mouth most of the time.’

Conna Mallett, co-director of Castlemaine brewery Love Shack

Jacqueline Brodie-Hanns, who chairs peak body Business Mount Alexander, said: “It’s staggering how much amazing local produce was lost [at the Cool Stores]. That’s before we even get to the fruit.”

Harcourt cafe Cool Store, located in a building separate to the Cooperative Cool Stores, was also destroyed.

Fowles Wines in Avenel, further east, was destroyed by the Longwood fire on Thursday.

Castlemaine businesses such as Superhero Banh Mi are offering to feed anyone sheltering in the town. Others are encouraging the public to buy wine directly from affected wineries to help with their cashflow.

In Melbourne, restaurants including Horn Please in Fitzroy North and Bibi Ji in Carlton are organising their own fundraising for those affected by bushfires. Both restaurants say they’re donating $1 from every pot of curry sold for the next seven days, with funds going towards families, firefighters and volunteers.

Other fundraising efforts include the Victorian Bushfire Appeal (to be active from Tuesday), Victorian Farmers’ Federation Disaster Relief Fund, and Blaze Aid.

Lapalus says messages from the community, fundraisers and offers of help are keeping him going.

“It’s just humanity at its best. But, unfortunately, [the fire’s] not finished and there’s so many unknown things at the moment,” he said.