A bushfire has ripped through one of the country's largest ladyfinger banana farms, Rob and Krista Watkins' award-winning farm at Walkamin, west of Cairns, destroying its crop and more than 40 hectares of surrounding bushland.
More than a dozen firefighting crews from the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service and Rural Fire Service battled the blaze for seven hours.
Mr Watkins said their factory was not damaged in the blaze.
The couple were the first in the country to turn rejected green bananas into a gluten-free flour as well as into skin products, establishing a factory on their property.
They now export their products around the world under their Natural Evolution Foods label.
Mr Watkins said he was in Brisbane at the time of the blaze and his father, Bruce, helped to fight off the flames.
"Dad said it was just like super-charged flames, the flames were up to 45 to 50 feet [15 metres]," he said.
"The fire literally went right around the area of the factory.
"But it's safe and that's all that matters really. It would be have been devastating if that was to go."
The family suffered huge crop losses of bananas, avocadoes and macadamias in Cyclone Larry in 2006.
"It's definitely a cigarette butt, or been deliberately lit, " Mr Watkins said.
"We're just lucky we had the fire barriers in place around the factory."
He said while he had lost his own crop, he had the support of surrounding growers.
"That's the good thing about what we are doing. We're not just using our waste bananas, we're using waste from other properties, " he said.
"I can get my bananas back in seven to eight months, we will be okay."
Fire authorities are monitoring several blazes in far north Queensland, including at Edmonton, south of Cairns, Cardwell and at Mutchilba on the Atherton Tablelands.
