‘You can’t replace time’: Harcourt’s wine and beer producers mourn loss of industry’s heart in Victoria bushfires

The remains of the Harcourt Cooperative Cool Stores after it was destroyed in the Victoria bushfires on Friday. Photograph: Doug Falconer

Trevor Peeler has spent 50 years of his life driving in and out of the gates of the Harcourt Cooperative Cool Stores. He didn’t see the site burn to the ground on Friday night because he was blocks away protecting his house.

Not that he could have done anything. The Cool Stores were directly in the path of the fire – and were turned into an inferno.