Jonathan Banks, Australia - 26 Jan 2007 - “My name is Jonathan Banks from Pialligo in the Australian Capital Territory, Australia the Capital of Australia. I am 63 years old and am married with 3 dependant children. I moved to Australia from the United Kingdom in 1974 and bought the 5 acre orchard farm in 1984. It has been an orchard farm for over 50 years and for the last 10 years it has been certified as organic.

I retired in 1999 from Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) where I worked as a Research Scientist on grain storage.

When we took over the orchard we used to do everything by the book with regards to spraying the fruit to combat pests. We found over time that the more spraying we did the more work there was. Slowly we converted the orchard to organic and it was certified as an organic orchard in 1994. The farm has always had a road side stall to sell the fruit locally which is normally open 4 days a week.”

Pests are becoming damaging

“During the 1980’s and early 11000’s it used to be quite wet and we would have to pick apples between rain showers. It is not like this any more with decreasing rainfall.

We have kept records of when apple trees blossom and these days they come into bloom one week earlier than they used. The growing season is longer too. It is drier and hotter. All this makes a big difference to the way we have to manage our orchard.

On the positive side, one of the ways this has impacted is we can now grow Lady William apples due to the longer growing season. The season used to be too short for them to ripen. Now these apples blossom early October and the fruit ripens end of May or early June. And we get less fungus because of the hot, dry weather.

On the negative side, the pests are changing and becoming damaging. In the 1970’s and 1980’s there used to be only an occasional occurrence of fruit fly in the orchard. This has changed dramatically with the numbers of fruit fly increasing every year due to warmer weather. In the past the temperatures were too cool for the fruit fly to overwinter at Pialligo or breed up in large numbers. The worst year for fruit fly was 2005.

The trees and fruit get sunburnt these days because of a combination of water stress and higher UV. We have to manage the sunburn by cutting off limbs that die and suffer the loss of good fruit.”

A creak without water

“In the past the occasional fruit bat would lose its way and come to Canberra. Two years ago we had a large flock of fruit bats, maybe 60 a night in the orchard. We expect them to be regular visitors now. This means we loose more fruit. However, they are beautiful animals and we are willing to pay the price of loosing some fruit in exchange for their company.

Our creek no longer runs with water when it used to run continuously through out the year. I feel it is due to a lack of rainfall and increased temperatures, though land use change in the area may also be responsible. Less water may get to the creek. The very dry climate we now experience means we have to start irrigating the orchard from the lake as early as spring, even when everything is in blossom, over the last 5 years. This was not the case in the past.

The impacts on the orchard from these changes include:

The road side shop only being open one or two days a week due to less fruit to sell.
In 2005 a third of the crop was lost due to fruit fly.
Orchard requires more management which costs in time and effort.
We are getting smaller size fruit and more ‘seconds’.

Even with increased fruit prices, overall we are less productive and profitable.

We are seriously considering what else to grow with the change in weather. The orchard is over 50 years old and still potentially productive in ‘normal’ seasons. It would take many years to replace it."

Scientific background

Climate analysis for this region shows a trend of warming over the last 50 years and in particular in the last 20 years, including a drought over the last few years. The need for additional irrigation is a function of both higher daytime temperatures and lower rainfall.