NEWS
Page 6, Southern Farmer
She’s all apples,
GRANNY GLORY: Looking across a stand of Granny Smiths to the coolstore and packing shed. The family are fourth-generation orchardists and hope to continue the tradition.
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SIZED AND GRADED: Pink Ladys in the farm coolroom ready for market.
attempted to put it out, but were prevented from doing so by Parks Victoria, according to Brian. Again on the Friday, the CFA brought in dozers to get it under control, but Parks Victoria prevented them from even unloading them and sent them home. Brian said, “What saved us a bit was that I got in touch with a local contractor on the Friday morning and he disced ďŹ re breaks round Shaun’s house, mum’s house, our house and the coolstoreâ€?. “Then we started the irrigation pump and that helped save the housesâ€?. The Witchells are fourth generation orchardists and Shaun has children who
will hopefully take over the mantle. Brian said Shaun’s twoand-a-half-year-old son, Cooper, is “pretty keen about hanging around the packing shed� so a seamless generational transition some time in the 2030s looks likely. Brian said his grandfather started growing fruit trees in Glen Waverley in 1903, but were eventually pushed out by urban expansion and moved to Wantirna South. “Then Dad bought a neglected dairy farm here 37 years ago, although he kept the Wantirna South orchard working for two years, as he established this one,� he said. Brian said that unlike Wantirna South, the former Labertouche dairy farm
was virgin ground as far as apple diseases were concerned and made the establishment of the 32ha orchard much easier. Rainfall at close to 1000mm (38in) is much better, too, than in Melbourne. The Witchells said there were probably about half a dozen other orchards in the immediate vicinity but none were close enough to warrant concerns about diseases and pests being transmitted. Shaun said yields had gone up dramatically in the past ďŹ ve years to average 40 to 45t/ha across the orchard versus 25 to 30t/ha in the late 1990s. „ Continued page 7
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Shaun and part of the 2.5ha planting of Jazz apples. The espalier layout is called a 2D trellis.
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NONSENSICAL water restrictions are holding back horticultural development in high-rainfall regions of Gippsland. Brian Witchell, who, with his son, Shaun, runs the Golden Apple orchard at Labertouche, about 100km south east of Melbourne, said they could not build new irrigation dams without buying an existing water right from someone in the district. He said hobby farmers could build small dams to water their gardens, without any intervention, in this case from Southern Rural Water. “At the same time, the government keeps saying we will soon be feeding Asia,â€? Brian said. But despite the long, hot and dry summer, the Witchells still had one quarter to one third of their irrigation water left at the end of last summer in their main 80ML dam. However, they are about to plant several hectares of new trees and will need more water. Brian said the biggest kick in the guts was on Black Saturday in February 2009, when nine tractors, a coolstore and packing shed and about three hectares of trees were so badly burned they had to be grubbed out. They were planning to start replanting that area with Pink Lady trees about now. Despite insurance, all up it cost them between $2.5 and $3 million. Brian said they were due to start picking on the Monday after the ďŹ re and ultimately their apple income was reduced by 85 per cent because of the ďŹ re. It started from a controlled burn in nearby state forest. On the Tuesday before Black Saturday, the Country Fire Authority sent crews to the burn and
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