Has a superfood become an enviro-vandal? by Robin Osborne
Atherton Tablelands Tasmania.
The fruit commonly associated with Coffs Harbour is the banana, plantations of which have covered the steep hillsides fringing the North Coast town for decades. So celebrated was the crop that it spawned one of Australia’s roadside attractions known as the ‘Big Things’.
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But the local industry is the one that – so far, anyway - has attracted attention, with Coffs Harbour City Council commissioning SCU to investigate the environmental impacts of the industry. A 2018 study had found levels of nitrogen soared after rains as fertiliser from farms washed into rivers, reaching 695 times that of drier conditions –
Now, changing times and tastes have created a market for a more valuable fruit, the blueberry, a native of North America, and netted ‘‘These [nitrogen oxide] loads plantations have rapidly taken over National Marine Science Centre researchers Shane White (left) were amongst the highest reported much of the land previously under and Praktan Wadnekar. Photo: SCU for catchments on the east coast of bananas. Australia, and similar to loads in of the blueberry market and the soil is so rivers throughout China, Europe The industry, like its banana forebear, is contaminated that nothing else will grow and India with strong agricultural or urban dominated by industrious farmers of Sikh there.” influences” Indian background – Woolgoolga hosts the The market is already under threat, biggest Sikh temple on the east coast, and Shane White, a PhD researcher at SCU’s according to farmer Iqbal Singh Grewal, National Marine Science Centre, said, the State MP is of Sikh heritage. who told the paper that while the industry “These waterways remove nearly all the It is hard to imagine the construction is improving run-offs its finances are nitrogen during dry conditions, but lose of a ‘Big Blueberry’, especially as the Big turning sour. the ability during rain events when large Banana Fun Park has been upgraded in “His farm switched to blueberries amounts of nitrogen in creeks can escape to recent times, but the popularity of the about five years ago after banana profits the coast.” ‘superfood’ continues to grow. dwindled,” the paper reported, but “It costs Hearnes Lake, between Coffs Harbour While the ‘anti-inflammatory’ berry may Mr Grewal’s farm about $20 to produce a and Woolgoolga to the north, is the last indeed lower our risk of heart disease and 1.5 kilogram tray of blueberries that he can naturally-occurring filtration defence cancer it appears that its impact on the sell for $21.50 if he’s lucky.” before catchment run-off enters the iconic environment – depending on the growing The farmer added, “Everybody’s growing Solitary Islands Marine Park. site – may be less than healthy. This is the blueberries around Australia,’’ from the initial conclusion of research by Southern “About 50% of the nitrogen is sourced Cross University scientists who are working from fertilisers, and the rest from treated with the NSW Government’s Clean Coastal sewage in the Hearnes Lake catchment. Catchments initiative and in collaboration Management of both sources is necessary,” with Monash University. Mr White said. The study’s focus is on local water quality and the impact of blueberry cultivation on steep slopes experiencing high rainfall and it has put the industry under an environmental cloud because of nitrogen runoff into creeks that drain to the famed Solitary Islands Marine Park.
“Treated sewage is released to the farms to irrigate the crops and is relatively easier to manage but fertilisers are more widespread and complicated to manage.” Praktan Wadnekar, also a PhD researcher at the NMSC, was the lead author of one of the latest reports.
Concerned Coffs locals have begun buying into the issue, with a resident telling The Sydney Morning Herald, “Blueberry farmers have walked roughshod over us, their neighbours, for years, spraying chemicals that run off into creeks, setting off loud noises to scare birds and operating deafening wind turbines so the frost won’t settle on the fruit. “One wonders what will happen to these eyesores when the bottom falls out
“Nearly all creeks with agriculture and urban land use had water quality issues. Hearnes Lake, Woolgooga Creek and Coffs Creek are the main areas of concern,” said Mr Wadnerkar.
‘Fruitologist’ Alex Coronakis from Tropicana
“We are working with farmers, industry and government to improve on-farm practices and provide a framework to protect the waterways from harm,” Shane White said.
continued on P16
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