Friday, 19 March, 2021
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Tucker with Trevor
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Surf comps are back! Competitive surfing made a welcome return to Noosa last weekend with the running of the sixth annual Noosa Logger, and despite dire predictions, both waves and weather held up well for the two-day event. Noosa’s veteran former would longboard champion Josh Constable took out the Men’s Open with a strong finish after being tested by fellow local Harrison Roach in the early stages, but Roach came into his own in the Old Mal event, beating a world class field of traditional surfers riding pre-1968 surfboards. In the women’s open Hawaiian star and current USC student Mason Schremmer surfed stylishly to take the title from Noosa’s Emily Lethbridge. While Covid issues restricted the field to a majority of Sunshine Coast competitors, there was a sprinkling of interstate surfers and even a few internationals who have sought refuge here. And the patchy quality of the surf did nothing to diminish the spirits of the surfers, who were thrilled and relieved to be putting on the coloured jerseys once again after a competitive hiatus of more than a year.
Rising Noosa longboard star Mia Waite puts her best foot forward at the Noosa Logger. Picture: FENNA DE KING
Harvest threat By Margaret Maccoll Winter crop farmers face an uncertain winter harvest with their backpacker workforce shrunken due to the pandemic, worker costs increased in their search for staff and no guarantee supermarkets will pass on extra costs to consumers and compensate growers. Queensland Strawberries president Adrian Schultz said the country relied on Queensland’s winter harvest with many delicate crops including strawberries, tomatoes, capsicum and broccoli requiring hand picking and could not be mechanically harvested. He said the usual workforce of about 70,000 made up largely of backpackers and islander workers just didn’t exist with only about 35,000
people currently in the country on working holiday visas. Queensland Strawberries marketing manager Jane Richter said strawberry growers were particularly hard hit after three devastating years marked by incidents including the needle planted in the fruit and two years of drought. Jane said she knew of one local grower who did not plant this year and believe others have reduced their plantings. “It was the final straw for them,“ she said. Di West of Suncoast Harvest, who sells her strawberries and bananas at Noosa Farmers Markets, said she invested time and effort and adapted their routine to attract and maintain a group of Aussies to pick her strawberries.
“Luckily we have a good reputation with people. I work with our employees every day. We decided last year we would have to employ Aussies,“ she said. Di said they adapted to suit the Aussie workers with more flexible working hours and more training and she worked hard to keep people engaged and excited about the work. “A lot of backpackers will work whenever you have work,“ she said. “We just had to adapt our attitude.“ Di said the costs of getting workers had increased significantly this year, from about 30 per cent of their production costs to about 50 per cent. “I don’t know what the profit margin will be like,“ she said. “We’ll have to see if the super-
markets will help us out. They set the prices.“ She said the situation had led most farmers to cut back on production size and she knew some had not planted this year. Di said the winter fruit with its high Vitamin C content was an important crop and she encouraged people to take on fruit picking and experience the farming lifestyle. She said it was a good way for young people to take a gap year and experience hard work on the land. The peak season will run from June to September. Mr Schultz said Queensland Strawberries was working on a recruitment program they proposed to launch in two weeks.
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