Ready to depart
No rest for Andrew
River reserve, Renmark
We departed on time and travelled through Gawler and Elizabeth before stopping at Truro for morning tea. Here we experience the only hiccup for the entire tour - a flat tyre. Andrew slaved away while we relaxed, observed and enjoyed some refreshments.
Ready to depart | No rest for Andrew | River reserve, Renmark |
The rest of the day went smoothly as we travelled to Renmark (lunch) and then through Midura and across the river into NSW for our first visit. Along the way, Lee allocated reporting duties to each member except Roger who was the self-appointed "official" photographer and compiler of the composite report for our Web Site.
Mario and Marie have diversified their orange orchard near Mildura by offering tours. We joined with other visitors a tractor led train to see the system in their orchard and to hear Mario's presentation. The orchard grows many varieties of citrus and a few avocado trees so allowing harvesting over the whole year. There is also a small section to show tourists a wide range of citrus. At the time of our visit the orchard was being irrigated using sprays (water birds) one per tree at near ground level, the power being cheaper over the weekend.
The needs of citrus are a warm climate, rainfall 50 inches per annum. The average rainfall at Mildura is annually 8 inches, last five years have been nearer 4-5 inches. The orchard has been updated from overhead watering to waterbirds; drip irrigation for citrus requires two lines one each side of the tree to be effective. The cost to change over to drip is $60,000 for 25 acres supported by 25% grant and interest rate subsidy. Water allocation for 50 acre orange block is 200 million litres.
An orange tree usually produces 600 fruit: in drought conditions reduces to 200-250. Trees are trimmed top and sides every 2 years. Most pests are dealt with using pest oil. The quarantine area protects the industry from a lot of potential diseases. A NPK fertiliser product is applied 2/3 times per annum. The trees are also mulched with organic materials.
Harvesting is done by hand: oranges are plucked, mandarins cut with secateurs. Each picker fills a 15kg bag. In about 1¼ hrs 30 bags fill a bin. Product is sold worldwide and in Australia with the varieties maturing through out the year spreading the income and work load.
Growers' income from oranges is 20c/kg. Supermarket price on that day was $2.89/kg. So value adding to product and other income streams are advantageous.
As well as outlining the citrus production industry, Mario entertained his visitors with samples, jokes and attention to the children in the group.
Beverley
We returned to Mildura and settled in to our Motel. Short walks enabled us to stretch our legs after the day's travelling. At 6:30pm we enjoyed a sumptuous barbecue as we reviewed the first day and looked forward to the rest of the tour.
Sunday 21st MarchA long day of travelling to reach our main destination at Griffiths. We had our first sight of the Murrumbidgee River at Balranald (right) and then again at Hay where we found it rather difficult to find lunch.
Irrigation sites, including rice beds, were evident to the west of Hay and continued to flourish all the way to Griffiths. Crops included grapes, citrus, some stone fruits, corn and other vegetables. We were not able to identify some of the vegetable crops. Some sites were still using overhead sprinklers; others were using ground level sprinklers or open furrows. We were pleased to see that at least some were using drip irrigation.
Maureen guided us to the "Scenic Hill" lookout at Griffiths where Roger "demanded" a Group Portrait. Andrew (our driver) snapped this one for us.
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