Australian Olives History

History of The Australian Olive Industry

The history of olive farming in Australia dates back to the early 1800's. Olives were probably first planted in groves around 1805 in Parramatta near Sydney. During the 1800s all the states and territories were planting olive trees. In 1833 the news paper were flooded with information about olive trees growing in Queensland. They were spotted manly near Brisbane. South Australia began to grow the most olive trees as there climate suited the trees the best. In 1875 there were over 3000 olive trees in the parklands around Adelaide. South Australia, olives spread across the border to Victoria. There were plantings at Dookie, Sunbury, Wangaratta and Longerenong in Victoria. The Stonyfell Olive Oil Company

This olives are grown as they have a high quality oil compared to other species. Victoria now has the most olive plants out of every state in Australia. In south Australia they still have the biggest olive farm which was built all the way back in 1943. Even they this farm us quite old its produce one of the best olive oils in Australia and sells a lot of produce. The reason olives are so much more successful in growing down in South Australia and even in Victoria is because of there weather. Olives need good drainage and cold winters. And hot dry so without humidity. To make sure your olives stay healthy and keep producing you need to make sure fertilise, water and prune. The most important things about olive trees is not to over water them. They don’t need as much water as normal plants as there roots can sustain for long periods without water. The best time to start harvesting is at April/May and to prune in September. The Australian olive industry just doesn't sell the olives as food but makes olive oil, margarine, soup/body washers and medication. The olive industry in Australia basically sells the same stuff over seas as they sell across Australia. But half of the produce they grow gets sold of to other countries. The future of the industry is to sell more of there produce of to Europe and especially United Kingdom as they can not grow olives. So for the future the industry is just trying to self more products over seas and use more machines to grow and pick the tree and less human