Batlow Cider is auctioning off the first box of new season Batlow apples to help rebuild its namesake town.
The town of Batlow, NSW, was devastated by bushfires in early January. At one point the situation was described as “un-defendable” by the RFS.
However, the locals and the RFS Fire Fighters dug deep and managed to reduce the destruction down to 20 homes and 20% of the apple orchards in the region being lost.
Batlow Apples make up 55% of all apples produced in NSW and 11% of apples produced Australia-wide. Losing so much of the crop had a significant overall impact on the fruit bowl of Australia.
Over the past two months, Batlow Cider has been offering ‘Karma Kegs’ to key venues across the country. To date $27,000 has been raised, with more to come. Key venues in support include The Salisbury, Applejack Group, The Whitehouse Group and many others across the east coast of Australia.
A further initiative went live last Friday, with the first box of new season apples being auctioned via the platform eBay.
Sharni Williams, Batlow resident and star of the Womens Rugby7s team and Gold Medal Olympian will be fronting the auction. All proceeds will be donated to the Regrow Batlow GoFundMe page.
Batlow apple grower Greg Mouat said the picking, production and delivery of new season Royal Gala apples is testament that the Batlow community is getting back on its feet and is on the road to recovery.
“There are more than 20 apple growers in Batlow who supply to Batlow Apples and almost all of them had their orchards damaged in the bushfires,” he said. “Some suffered damage to about 5% of their orchards, while others had up to 40% damaged.”
