Dianne Benson, The Bramble Farm, Langwarrin, calls for relief

The Bramble Farm owner Mrs Benson, 68, says she and her husband Mark have considered "shutting shop" after 45 years, when they were considered ineligible for Primary Producer Flood Recovery grant.

They flooded twice in October and December of 2022, which caused widespread soil damage, yield loss and the destruction of nearly half a hectare of raspberry plantings.

Mrs Benson said they were considered primary producers under the Australian Taxation Office, but their local council, Frankston City Council, recognised them as residential with a rural lifestyle.

However, if they had been considered a primary producer, the Frankston City Council region failed to be identified as one of the 63 nominated local government areas affected by the October floods.

The flood recovery financial support was through the Disaster Recovery Funding Arrangements, a cost-sharing arrangement between state and federal governments to nominated local government areas.

She said they have since replanted their "thousands" of damaged plantings, and her husband Mark had singlehandedly installed thorough drainage across the farm after the floods.

"He was out here digging for hours and hours, then it all flooded again, and he was just about to give up completely," she said.

"The raspberries don't look like they're going to come to anything, this may be a dead-end paddock.

"Sitting in water for as long as they did, the soil was damaged, and we've had to replace the soil in every row right across the whole property."

Mrs Benson said they opened up their farm to the public for pick-your-own to try and earn additional income.

She said her residential classification meant she was unable to install tourism signs, and she continued to face challenges reaching consumers.

"I'm all over Facebook and Instagram, but unless you can get out there to the public - I've had people come here in the past week who have lived here for the past 50 years and have never been here before," she said.

Mrs Benson said she believed the farm would no longer be viable with ongoing skilled labour shortages, wage costs, public liability costs and packaging costs.

"We used to grow strawberries [elsewhere] for 12 years and we started at $1 a punnet, we exported all over the world, we had a million plants in the ground and we had to close it all down," she said.

Mr and Mrs Benson established the Bramble Farm in 1985, which now has 10,000 summer cropping brambleberries and about 28,000 summer and autumn-cropping canes.

She said their plantings of blackberries, youngberries, tayberries, jostaberries, mulberries, and raspberries produced between 10-15 tonnes of berries each year, and it was their sole income and full-time job.

"Our public liability has gone over $10,000 since they considered us residential," she said.

"It just goes from the sublime to the ridiculous."

Mrs Benson said she had battled breast and bowel cancer diagnoses, was a full-time carer to her three-year-old granddaughter, and faced property theft in the past 12 months.

"They went through my shop and smashed everything off the shelves, and took the little bit of change that was in the till," she said.

"This [farm] consumes us seven days a week."

She said they turned the Langwarrin property into a berry farm 45 years ago to look after Mr Benson's elderly parents.

"We're closer to 70 than anything, and my husband has a bad back through a car accident, and I've had breast cancer, bowel cancer and a quadruple bypass, and I still go every day," she said.

"We're eighth-generation family here, in this area."

She said she believed they were the last primary producers in their shire.

Alongside their berries, they collect honey, make jams and preserves for their on-farm store, and rescue animals.

"I used to be a vet by trade and I let that all fall apart so I could run this farm with my husband," she said.

The federal government's guidelines defines a primary producer as someone who spends part of their labour on the enterprise, derives at least 50 per cent of their gross income from the enterprise, or it generates more than $75,000 gross income.

The Frankston City Council website claims landholders may be eligible for farm rates if they own property two or more hectares in size, and used the property primarily for farming purposes as a business.

Stock & Land contacted Frankston City Council for comment, and inquired about its primary producer classification, Mrs Benson's residential classification and whether any assistance was offered.

The council declined to comment, citing privacy reasons.

An Agriculture Victoria spokesperson said they were working with Victorian farmers to provide technical information to support farm business recovery.

"In addition, farmers who are in, or at risk of, financial hardship can access the Rural Financial Counselling Service which offers free and independent financial services," the spokesperson said.

Nearly 7000 primary producers received more than a combined $258 million in grants and loans to November 8.

Mrs Benson said they were "fighting a losing battle", but they hoped to remain at their home and continue on the farm.

She said they were simply calling on local government to "recognise us".

"It's a crazy story, it really is," she said.

"I don't know how much longer we'll be able to fight.

"If we just had a bit of support somewhere along the line, it would keep us going and everything would be wonderful."

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