Christmas visitors arrive by boat as flood turns Giuseppa’s vineyard into an island

In her 60 years as a farmer, Giuseppa Callipari has learned there are bad times and good times — and that some things are just out of your control.

On Christmas Day 2022, most of her family’s vineyard in Mildura in Victoria’s north-west was under water.

Dreaming of a dry Christmas: Son-in-law Frank Zappia, in boat at rear, and grandchildren Nicolette (in the boat), Joseph and Esta visited Giuseppa and Giuseppe Callipari at their flooded vineyard in Mildura on Christmas morning. Credit:Ian McKenzie

The Calliparis’ entire 2023 wine grape harvest, on 16 hectares of vines and due to be picked in February, has been destroyed, along with 300 olive trees.

Their two-storey brick house is an island surrounded by floods. For the last month, the only way to get to the Calliparis’ front door from the property’s entrance has been by boat.

But there was joy on Sunday when the couple’s son-in-law Frank Zappia and three of their grandchildren — Joseph, 23, Nicolette, 21, and Esta, 18 — motored in on a dinghy for breakfast, bearing gifts.

Last year, Giuseppa and her husband Giuseppe welcomed 30 relatives to a Christmas Day feast.

In the same boat: a photo taken with a drone shows relatives approaching the Callipari house on Christmas morning.Credit:Ian McKenzie

This year, at lunch, it was just them, their pregnant granddaughter Allegra and her partner. Their six children and rest of their 19 grandchildren were at functions elsewhere in Victoria and interstate.

Giuseppa, 82, was philosophical. “You can’t have them all every year because they’ve got their partners’ families too, who they’ve got to look after,” she said. “You have to be fair.”

Their children invited them to their houses, but Giuseppe, 89, doesn’t like to leave home, Giuseppa said, and she would not leave her husband of 62 years.

Giuseppa said the floods encroached from November 22. Water lapped the vines and “it built up each day”.

Giuseppa and Giuseppe Callipari greeting their son-in-law and three of their grandchildren who arrived by boat on Christmas morning.Credit:Ian McKenzie

Their son Joe visited from his home in Port Douglas, Queensland and built a levee around the house.

During the peak, over a week ago, the flood water got within about 10 metres of the front of the house. It had started to recede, Giuseppa said, but “it’s a very slow process”.

The water drowned the couple’s vegetable and flower gardens and 20 sheep had to be moved.

The water rose up to two metres deep — over the vines.

Good to see you: Giuseppe Callipari (standing) with (left to right) at breakfast with son-in-law Frank Zappia, wife Giuseppa, granddaughter Esta and grandson Joseph.Credit:Ian McKenzie

The vineyard’s future is uncertain. Giuseppa, who is also a former Mildura cafe owner, said she didn’t think they would re-plant the vines and they may have to sell the lease on the land.

“We were living in paradise. Now we’re living in lost paradise,” she said.

“We lost our work, all our lives of work and nothing can replace that because we’re old and we don’t have the physical strength or the money.

“We didn’t [want] to finish this way, but Mother Nature works her way and we’ve got to accept that.”

Different last year: Giuseppa Callipari, front, at the 2021 Christmas gathering at the vineyard.

She said it was the worst disaster in more than 60 years in Mildura, after migrating from Italy in the 1950s.

“We’ve never seen, in our life, a thing like this,” Giuseppa said. “When a flash of rain has come, you get a little bit of water, and in three or four days it dries out, but things like this never happened before.”

It’s not all gloomy. Allegra’s baby — their first great-grandchild — is due to be born next month.

They have plenty of food and Giuseppa makes bread, pasta, pasta sauce, olive oil and pickles olives. Relatives deliver groceries.

Aerial view of the vineyard about November 29, 2022.

Giuseppa tries to be positive.“That’s the best way to go because it’s nature which took away things from us and there is no one to be blamed. We can’t get upset about it. You’ve got to accept what comes, and that’s it.”

Dean Narramore, senior meteorologist from the Bureau of Meteorology said the flood peak in the Mildura area came in mid-December.

“It’s still high, we’re still seeing a fair bit of flooding and inundation — water above the ground level — on low-lying areas such as golf courses and roads, adjacent areas to the river,” Narramore said.

“There’s still a lot of water moving through, but it is very slowly falling.”

While showers and storms were expected in the area on Monday, they weren’t expected to be significant enough to have an impact on the flooding.

The Mildura area forecast for the next week is for mainly fine and hot conditions, with maximum temperatures in the high 30s or low 40s.

Mildura Rural City Council’s Community Relief and Support Service for those affected by the Murray River floods in the region can be contacted on 5018 8100 or [email protected].

A council spokesman said the service links people with food relief, accommodation support and information about grants, relief programs and financial assistance.

The Mildura-based Incident Control Centre has been in contact with people isolated due to flood water and provides support such as flood safety information, sandbagging and monitoring and maintaining levees.

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