Media

Relief for Ord farmers after ag workers get travel exemptions

Date: 1 April 2020
Farmers in the Ord River are breathing a sigh of relief, after the State Government approved an interim ‘special permission’ exemption for food production workers in the Kimberley.

The exemption is subject to strict conditions that minimise the risk of COVID-19 spread while ensuring food production workers can get on with the essential job of providing food for WA’s needs.

Read Article: Relief for Ord farmers after ag workers get travel exemptions

Halloween pumpkins carving out a niche market for Kimberley farmers

Date: 6 October 2019
Jack-o-lantern pumpkins, grown for generations in the United States, have only recently been carving out a spot for themselves in Australia’s niche Halloween market.

Staff at Ceres Farm in the Ord Irrigation scheme of Western Australia have just finished picking and packing the jack-o-lantern pumpkins that arrived on supermarket shelves in every capital city last week.

Read Article: Halloween pumpkins carving out a niche market for Kimberley farmers

Searching for Watermelons

Date: 27 August 2019
Better Homes and Gardens chef Ed Halmagyi visited Ceres Farm in August 2019 and enjoyed a delicious watermelon right from the field.

Read more: Better Homes and Gardens

Oh gourd, it’s pumpkin time

Date: 23 October 2018
A Kununurra farm has put a smile on faces of their workers and some of the pumpkins they picked, thanks to a little Halloween spirit.

Ceres Farm on Packsaddle Road had an in-house jack-o-lantern carving competition last week, attracting 11 entries and with the winner decided by popular vote on social media.

Read Article: Oh gourd, it’s pumpkin time (The Kimberley Echo)

Ceres Farm take out cup honours

Date: 10 October 2018
Ceres Farm won the second annual Ord Valley Cup which was held at Kununurra Town Oval recently, where East Timorese workers in Kununurra, as part of the seasonal worker program, team up with backpackers to represent their respective farms in a round robin soccer event.

Last year it was Ivanhoe-Barradale who triumphed but no one had the answers for Ceres Farm this time with the Packsaddle-based crew winning both their matches.

Read Article: Ceres Farm take out cup honours

Melon munchers wanted for new competitive eating contest

Date: 11 July 2018
Fruit gluttons will have a chance to win cash in a new watermelon eating contest at this year’s Kununurra Ag Show. Ceres Farm is donating the melons, which will be used in the novelty event, starting from 5pm on Friday. Entrants can take part in one of four age groups.

The winner of the six-and-under category will get $20, ages 7-11 wins $50, 12-17 gets a cool $100 and the open event will net the best watermelon eater $200.

Read Article: Melon munchers wanted for new competitive eating contest

Cotton industry makes a comeback with historic planting in WA’s Ord Irrigation Scheme

Date: 28 February 2018
History is being made in Western Australia’s remote Kimberley, as the first commercial wet season cotton crop is planted in the Ord Irrigation Scheme since the collapse of the industry in the 1970s.

The budding cotton industry is being supported by a $11.7 million project under the Northern Australia Crop Research Alliance, funded by the Federal Government and a number of private stakeholders, including Ord Stage 2 developer Kimberley Agricultural Investment (KAI).

Read Article: Cotton industry makes a comeback with historic planting in WA’s Ord Irrigation Scheme

Colour in the Kimberley

Date: 9 December 2017
As they watch their three young sons splash around in a shallow waterway on their property in the Ord River region of the East Kimberley, Matt and Melanie Gray can’t help but think about what a different turn their lives could have taken.

The couple run Ceres Farm near Kununurra, in the far north of the State, set in the beautiful, rugged Kimberley ranges, where they have just completed their seventh season producing a variety of horticultural and broadacre crops by both service and trickle irrigation.

Read Article: Colour in the Kimberley

Kununurra growers get fresh

Date: 12 October 2017
Pumpkins and melons grown in Kununurra will no longer make a 7000km return journey to Perth before hitting the town’s supermarket shelves.

Four farming families from the Ord Valley have joined forces to supply watermelon, rockmelon, honeydew, butternut and Kent pumpkins to Coles Kununurra. Previously, produce from the Ord was trucked to Coles’ Perth distribution centre and back again before it was sold at Coles Kununurra.

Read Article: Kununurra growers get fresh

Wet season cotton harvest looks promising in the Kimberley’s Ord Irrigation Scheme

Date: 20 July 2017
Cotton planted as part of a trial during the wet season in the Kimberley’s Ord Irrigation Scheme has been harvested, and the early results look promising. It was the first time new CSIRO-bred varieties with Monsanto Bollgard 3 technology had been trialled in the region, with researchers and local farmers keen to see how it performed.

Read Article: Wet season cotton harvest looks promising in the Kimberley’s Ord Irrigation Scheme

Strong prices for Australian winter watermelons

Date: 13 July 2017
A Western Australian watermelon grower says that, apart from the past week, prices have been strong for melons over the winter months so far. Matt Gray from Ceres Farm in Kununurra, in the state’s north, grows watermelons and pumpkins during the winter-spring months.

Read Article: Strong prices for Australian winter watermelons

Wallabies whack the track

Date: 24 June 2017
The ground shook as Joshua Letchford strode out the last 50m of the Kununurra Half Marathon, his feet pounding the dirt, to be first over the line. Letchford finished off the job for his quad team entrant the Wacky Wallabies, who collectively put up a time of 1hr 27min. 36sec. in the run between Swim Beach and Celebrity Tree Park on Sunday.

Read Article: Wallabies whack the track

Seasonal Workers Program a growing trend for Top End farms

Date: 15 May 2017
A growing number of farms in northern Australia are turning to the Seasonal Worker Program to fill labour gaps, especially during harvest time. The program was established in 2012 and, apart from helping Australian farmers, it is designed to help the economic development of the 10 participating nations, which include Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu, and Timor-Leste (East Timor).

Read Article: Seasonal Workers Program a growing trend for Top End farms

Momentum builds for resurrecting Ord Valley cotton industry

Date: 15 March 2017
Momentum is building to resurrect the cotton industry in the Kimberley’s Ord Irrigation Scheme, with trials underway and more farming land being developed. The company developing stage two of the Ord has shelved its plans to grow sugar cane and is now focusing on cotton as its preferred broadacre crop.

Read Article: Momentum builds for resurrecting Ord Valley cotton industry

Red tape strangling young family’s dream of developing new farm in the Ord Irrigation Scheme

Date: 2 December 2016
A young farming family in the Kimberley’s Ord Irrigation Scheme says government bureaucracy has suffocated its plans to develop a new farm in the region. Back in 2014, to much fanfare, the West Australian Government announced the Gray family as the preferred developers of a 360-hectare parcel of land in the Ord Valley.

Read Article: Red tape strangling young family’s dream of developing new farm in the Ord Irrigation Scheme

Ord Valley corn set for export to Korea

Date: 19 October 2016
Around 10,000 tonnes of corn is due to be shipped out of Wyndham in the coming months, as part of a new export deal for farmers in the Kimberley’s Ord Irrigation Scheme. The crop is currently being harvested and is destined to end up on the dinner plates of consumers in South Korea. Fritz Bolten is working on the corn harvest in the newly-developed lands of Ord Stage Two, and said the crop was significant for a number of reasons.

Read Article: Ord Valley corn set for export to Korea

In 70 years: Farmer opinions on the future of food production

Date: 21 September 2015
Australian farmers describe their connection to their land, highlight the biggest change they’ve seen in farming, and imagine food production in 2085. Mel Gray grows watermelons, pumpkins, chia, chick peas and sorghum on Ceres Farm in Kununurra in Western Australia.

What’s your connection to this farm?

I’m a relatively new farmer with my husband Matt. We started in 2011.

We thought it would be a great challenge and it has been. We really enjoy the outdoor lifestyle and what farming has to offer for young families.

Can you describe the biggest change you’ve witnessed?

Read Article: In 70 years: Farmer opinions on the future of food production