With the warm weather and the sun shining, the watermelon harvest is well underway at one of the region’s melon farms.
About 23km north-east of Chinchilla, Paramagh Farming has been hard at work harvesting melons for the past two months.
Owners Terry and Aja O’Leary run the 1000ha watermelon farm, one of the only three melon farms in the region.
The first patch of seeded watermelons was planted back in 1986 by Terry’s parents, Darryl and Janet O’Leary, who still helps out on the farm.
Darryl and his wife Janet started Paramagh Farming, with Darryl having picked melons since he was 12.
Darryl remembers being one of the first melon growers in the region, with many others following.
He was one of the first to plant the seedless variety of melons in Australia with his first crop harvested in 1993.
“A lot of blokes tried planting the seedless watermelons, but a lot of their crops failed because no one knew much about them back then,” Darryl said.
“People were standoffish with the seedless when they first came out but once they saw the product they got around it.“
Having pioneered melon growing in the region, Darryl maintains his involvement in the industry by being one of the founding organisers of the famed Chinchilla Melon Festival.
Although retired and with the farm sold to Terry and Aja, Darryl and Janet still help at Paramagh.
The current harvest started last year on 10 December and is expected to run until the end of March.
Darryl said there was poor quality fruit early in the harvest in December due to the weather conditions.
Watermelons, especially of the seedless variety, don’t set fruit in cold weather.
Darryl said with a lot of rain and cold weather late last year played havoc with the growing process.
“The pollens aren’t as strong with cold weather,” Darryl said.
“We didn’t harvest as much earlier on in the harvest this season because there was a lot of rain and cold weather which caused the fruits to crack internally.
“The first couple of blocks we harvested, we left about 60 per cent of the fruits behind and only picked about 40 per cent of what the crop should’ve been.”
Darryl said the fruit had now improved and the harvesting this month had yielded some really good quality fruit.
“This week we’re loading more than 90 per cent of the crop now.
“Last year (2023) was beautiful with no extreme weather conditions and good melon growing weather.
“But this year we’ve had hot days and it was cold until end of November with heaps of rain and cloudy weather.”
Paramagh Farming employs more than 10 pickers and packers each season, including the family members who are involved in the operation.
“We’ve got some backpackers and locals picking and packing each season,” Darryl said.
“It’s hard to get good pickers because it takes a lot of work to train them, especially when you have quality problems and it’s about knowing what’s a good fruit and what’s not.”
Being a small family farm, Terry and Aja rely on family members to help run the operation.
“Not many people get the privilege of keeping a business and farm in the family,” Darryl said.
“It’s a very stressful game to be in with a lot of money going into it and you can get wiped out with a hailstorm in a second.
“Terry is doing a very good job of running Paramagh, we are lucky to be able to keep it in the family.“
Back in late ’80s and ’90s there were more than 20 growers in Chinchilla, with three rockmelon growers.
Now there are only three watermelon growers in the region.
Darryl said the drop in melon growers over the years was an indication of how tough farming melons is.
“Anybody in horticulture would know it’s a pretty tough fruit to grow with lots of hard work and regulations,” he said.
“I don’t think anybody else will join the game of growing melons in the region.
“I’d give any young fella a hand if they wanted to have a crack at it but I can’t see anybody wanting to do it or start it.
Paramagh’s watermelons are distributed by Select Melons Australia, which works with growers Australia-wide.
Most of their fruits are sold to big corporations such as Woolworth and Coles and the central market.
The melon harvest will be celebrated with the upcoming biennial event, the Chinchilla Melon Festival from 13-16 February.
In about a week, Paramagh will be picking watermelons of the long-seeded variety for watermelon skiing at the festival and will also be supplying seedless watermelons for festival goers to feast on.
Check out the free festival on their website: melonfestival.com.au/
