Top End cattle property Tipperary Station has planted 3,500 lemon trees as part of a major horticultural development.
The planting is the first stage of what the owners of the property, 170 kilometres south of Darwin, hope will become a 10,000-tree orchard over the next three years.
General manager for the Tipperary Group of Stations David Connolly said the move formed part of a broader diversification push, which also includes cotton production.
"We're very intent on diversifying in agriculture in the Northern Territory, and particularly on this station, so we thought we'd give citrus a go," he said.
"We were thinking about limes, but we settled on lemons. We think they might be a little more hardy and the market is very strong for lemons, it's been pretty stable over the years."
A unique growing environment
The success of the lemon project falls with horticulture manager Ben Taylor, who was recruited from Queensland to drive the new citrus development.
He said it had been a nervous wait to see how the young plants would adapt from where they were propagated in Mildura, north-west Victoria.
"They've taken pretty well, considering the climate change," he said.
"When they were shipped here it was -2 degrees [Celsius in Mildura], and they ended up in the Northern Territory in 30 degrees, so it's been a testing time."
Keenly aware of his unique operating environment, Mr Taylor was reluctant to predict exactly how productive the orchard could eventually be, but said yields should be comparable to other Top End citrus crops.
"It will certainly be up there as far as lemons per hectare in the Northern Territory goes, but we have to keep in mind it's very challenging," he said.
"We're not on the east coast, it is a cattle station, we don't have implements that lend themselves to horticulture sitting around."
Growing interest in Top End citrus
The Northern Territory's largest commercial citrus producer, Nutrano Produce, has thrown its support behind the Tipperary Station project as it continues to expand its own citrus operation near Katherine.
CEO George Hagger said the development was an exciting step forward for the small but growing local citrus industry.
"When we think about the supply chain for citrus up in the region, companies like ourselves and Tipperary need to collaborate because we need to work the supply chain in the most efficient way we can," he said.
"I think it's great for the region, I think there is definitely a market for it.
"What we hope to do ultimately is minimise imports, and that's unashamedly the objective.
"We have great support from the Australian supermarkets to clearly have an Australian-first policy and we're trying to do our bit to increase the volume of Australian lemons at that time of year [summer]."
Slow but steady progress
Despite planting the lemons in a paddock previously used to grow bananas, Mr Connolly said it took two years to obtain the necessary NT Government approvals for the project.
He said a more streamlined process was needed to help drive new agricultural investment in the north.
"If they want to promote development in the north they have to get behind these investors that want to do it, and help to make the process easy," he said.
"I'm not advocating that the process should be something that's not going to protect the land, we want to do that anyway, if we don't protect the land we're not profitable.
"But the procedures have to be easy to get through, [with] … not as much red tape, and quick and timely so these investors don't walk away."
