Scribbles in three small notebooks were all they had to guide them, but a year after the sudden death of Maroochydore’s last pioneering farmer, Peter Wise’s family has honoured him with a hard-earned, sentimental harvest.
As the Sunshine Coast holiday hotspot’s largest private landowner, Mr Wise had made more than enough money from property sales to retire but never gave up farming.
The proud eighth-generation farmer was picking fresh fruit from his beloved fig trees for loyal customers up until the day he went to hospital.
The 82-year-old passed away after a short stay on January 22, 2024.
He had listed his prime property for sale on the edge of the CBD, and even as his devastated family considered multiple offers from developers to buy the 39 hectare farm, they vowed to see in another harvest.
Sorting figs in the shed, surrounded by family, Ivy Wise has adapted to life as best she could without her husband of 59 years by her side.
Ivy Wise sorts figs with her grandson Lachlan Dean. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)
Peter and Ivy Wise were to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary in 2024. (Supplied: Wise’s Farm)
“We didn’t think we’d make it, but we’re here,” Ms Wise said.
“I have a lot of family helping out and without their support, we wouldn’t be able to do the figs this year.”
Family effort
Mr Wise’s family didn’t have his depth of knowledge and has spent hours working out the orchard’s management regime from the scribbles he left behind in three small notebooks.
“Twenty-five per cent in the books, 75 per cent in his head, so the two son-in-laws are doing the best they can, trying to decipher, and I think we’ve done quite well,” his daughter, Amanda Hutchings said.
Her sister Kylie Dean was relieved to see the figs flourish.
“It was very daunting to wonder if we’d even be able to get them to grow,” she said.
“I think he used to come out and sing and talk to them.”
Wise’s Farm before it was split in half by the Sunshine Motorway. (Supplied: Wise’s Farm)
Peter Wise on one of a succession of tractors used on the farm. (Supplied: Wise’s Farm)
Peter Wise’s father Frank ploughing in 1961 on Buderim. (Supplied: Wise’s Farm)
Farming history
The kilometre-long Harvey Norman complex, Maroochy Boulevarde, part of the Sunshine Motorway and Wises Road now sprawl over what was once Wise’s Farm.
In the 1960s Mr Wise bought a large parcel of land in Maroochydore to add to the original Buderim farm his family has owned since 1901.
In the 1980s he ran a pick-your-own tropical fruit farm on land where the Sunshine Cove canal estate now stands.
Amanda Hutchings said her father planted the first row of his fig orchard on December 18, 2000.
It was meant to be his “wind-down” crop as he edged towards retirement.
“But no, what he really created was a full-time job and we never saw him again, seven days a week,” Ms Hutchings said.
“So yeah, the ‘wind-down’ crop didn’t work.
“The only way we could get him away from the farm was for mum to get him on a cruise because he couldn’t swim back.”
Ms Hutchings said it took the extended family to do what Mr Wise achieved with the figs.
She said her father would have also spent time checking on cattle and his Buderim coffee plantation.
“We’re exhausted and we’ve only done the figs, he still had a full day to go and we’re ready to go for a nap,” Ms Hutchings said.
“That’s the amazing thing is one man did everything that all of us are doing.”
Mr Wise’s family worked through Christmas and New Year’s breaks to help pick and sell fresh fruit directly from their farm shed.
They have sold out every day they picked, with customers ringing from as far away as the Gold Coast asking for fruit to be set aside.
“Christmas Eve is like a line, it reminds you of the shopping centre Boxing Day sales so it’s a bit of a tradition,” Ms Hutchings said.
After picking a healthy crop of black genoa figs, the family is waiting for the next flush of brown turkey figs to ripen next week.
Ms Hutchings said she couldn’t answer the question as to whether it would be the last harvest of the 500 remaining fig trees on the farm.
“Can’t say yes or no but I’d say leaning more towards it would probably be the last one,” she said.
But Ms Hutchings said her family was not rushing to sell the Maroochydore property.
“We’ve got buyers but we’re very slow at giving up, that’s all I can say, we’re just very slow at giving up,” she said.
“We’re just going day by day, that’s pretty much it, day by day.”
Figs live on
Even when the orchard is no more, descendants of Peter Wise’s beloved fig trees will live on in other people’s gardens.
His family has been propagating plants in response to requests from customers.
“People were asking last year, oh, if you’re not here we’d really like our own fig tree in memory of your father and what he’s done, so we can always pick our figs and think of him,” Ms Hutchings said.
“I didn’t know he had that much of an impact, you know, but he did, he had a big impact on people.”
Posted , updated
