By Sean Gresham, Technical Manager
Thirteen growers from the Hawke’s Bay and Central Otago spent a week last month in and around the Goulburn Valley exploring the fruit bowl of Australia. The tour was guided by Nic Finger, a well-connected and knowledgeable Victoria-based consultant.
Except for the red dirt and the abundance of gum trees, driving around the Goulburn Valley seemed very familiar to fruit growing regions back in New Zealand. The lush green surroundings and cooler weather covered up the fact that water is the most important ingredient for successful production there. The local irrigation network may be the only source of water for the trees over the summer months, when temperatures climb into the high 30s or low 40s and evapotranspiration gets up to 30 mm a day. Water security doesn’t come cheap – one moderate sized orchard we visited had water rights valued at $3 million AUD.
We saw a good diversity of orchards growing a variety of varieties and a mixture of growing systems. What was most interesting, however, was meeting all the orchardists who were passionate about fruit growing and were generous with their time to share their thoughts on a wide variety of ideas and issues. Nic was a fantastic guide, keeping us on track and providing context on all matters growing and selling fruit.
We capped of the tour with attendance at the Fruit Growers Victoria Conference in Shepparton and on the final day, we visited Steritech Irradiation Facility and La Manna Grocers just outside Melbourne.
We’ve had some great feedback from attendees so really appreciate the support that allowed this tour to go ahead. We had a fantastic cohort along for the journey, which made the trip even more enjoyable and rewarding for everyone.
Summerfruit NZ provided a travel grant to support eight of the growers attending the tour, while the NZ Fruitgrowers’ Charitable Trust provided funding for all growers to attend the conference and covered costs for orchard tours.
Keep your eyes peeled for trip reports to come out from the participants. We will share some of their insights with members next month.
Group at Cherry Hill – all their orchards are pedestrian to minimise harvest costs
Trellised Plums with potential yield of up to 90T/Ha