It was a “vision” that prompted watermelon farmers Nick and Lou Gebert to buy an old table grape growing property near the outback town of Menindee in Far West New South Wales.
The family, who already ran a watermelon farm in the Western Murray region of Wentworth, purchased the 1,619-hectare former table grape property in 2021 with an idea to turn 113 hectares into watermelon crops.
“I had a suspicion it was going to be quite good for watermelon,” Mr Gebert said.
“We had a vision, and it’s come through for us,” he said.
But preparing and converting the property from a grape farm to one where they could harvest and pack approximately 9,000 tonnes of seedless watermelons per year was no easy task.
The “mammoth” job of preparing the land for watermelons took nearly a year.
“We had a pretty big job on our hands to clean it all up,” Ms Gebert said.
“It still had the trellis and old vines out in the paddock.”
Mr Gebert added that it turned out to be a “bigger job than I was expecting”.
“But we don’t regret it. We look at it now and can’t believe what it was, to what it is now,” he said.
The fruits of their labour were finally reaped in June 2022 with their first full watermelon season.
Starting out small
Watermelon season starts and finishes in June each year, from preparing the ground and replanting seeds, through to the intensive harvest and packing process.
Knowing it was not something that had been done in the region on the scale they had planned, the Geberts wanted to trial a smaller plot first to ensure they had made the right decision.
“We dipped our toes in first and just did a small area for the first season,” Mr Gebert said.
Knowing that the conditions were right for growing watermelons, they went all in for the next season and have not looked back.
“That went really well and then we committed and did a full season last season [June 2022],” Mr Gebert said.
“When we made that commitment we just threw everything we had at it.”
Watermelons of the outback
Horticultural farming may not be the first type of agricultural operation that springs to mind in Far West NSW.
But around the river township of Menindee, with its irrigation potential and warm, dry climate, the region has long been home to fruit, vegetable and citrus growers.
“It’s a great place to be and it’s a very productive area to grow,” Ms Gebert said.
The Geberts have taken on growing enough watermelons to supply one watermelon per 20 people in Australia, equivalent to approximately 1.3 million per season.
“It’s producing great quality watermelons that yield well,” Mr Gebert said.
“The climate in Menindee is a very good growing climate.
“We saw an opportunity … [and] we thought we’d give it a go.”
While citing the ideal climate conditions as a factor in the successful crops, Mr Gebert said it also came down to water access.
“It’s all about water. While there’s water, everything else lines up,” he said.
“At the end of the day, water, water.”
Picking the perfect melon
As for the art of harvesting melons straight off the crop, Mr Gebert says it can take some time to perfect.
“It takes generally a season for a picker to become quite good at it,” he said.
But for consumers wanting to identify a top quality melon, the sound it makes when the skin is tapped is a good method.
“Generally you can pick a good watermelon off the shelf if it’s a ‘ting ting’ [sound it makes],” Mr Gebert said.
“[But] if it’s a ‘doof-doof’ when tapping it, it’s not a good watermelon.”
