Global plans for native Kimberley super fruit

Plans to globally market a Kimberley-grown native super fruit are ripe for the picking – 10 years after a gubinge plantation was first trialled in the region, 180km south of Broome.

The horticulture test at the Bidyadanga community has been so successful a program is under way to expand the operation with the ultimate hope of commercialising the enterprise to create local jobs and drive economic sustainability.

The partnership involves the Bidyadanga community, Kullari Regional Communities Incorporated (KRCI) and the Kimberley Training Institute (KTI).

Four hundred seedlings first went into the ground there a decade ago.

They have been resilient in the face of being starved of water over prolonged periods and are now bursting into life as the warmer weather triggers another growing season.

The roundish light-green fruits have unprecedented concentrations of vitamin C and antioxidants and their extracts are in demand internationally as a nutraceutical and ingredient for cosmetics.

KTI horticulture lecturer, Kim Courtenay, who coordinated the original plantings and was delivering the current project, said there had been problems with the irrigation system in recent years but the trees had survived.

He said that was testimony to their natural resilience.

“Through the current program we’re repairing and extending the irrigation system and aim to plant another 200 young trees before the end of the year”, Mr Courtenay said.

“Earlier this year gubinge fetched up to $20 a kilo and with some cultivated trees producing up to 50 kilos in a good season, apart from the health and social benefits; it’s a lucrative economic opportunity for communities.

With the recent release of the Federal Government’s White Paper on Developing Northern Australia and its commitment to supporting sustainable agriculture and Aboriginal enterprises, Mr Courtenay said gubinge and bush food production had enormous potential.

Bidyadanga has a long history of food production dating back to the 1960s and 1970s when it was La Grange mission and market gardens, established by the late Father Kevin McKelson and maintained by community members.

In 2004, community leaders saw potential in the commercial production of gubinge and through a KTI (then TAFE) training program established one of the first ever cultivated plantations there.

The initiative also grew a range of other traditionally important bush foods including pindan walnut, desert yam and bush tomato.

Bidyadanga Community chief executive Tania Baxter said the hope was to expand the plantations to produce commercial quantities of sustainably grown crops that provide income and employment for the community, with continued support from KRCI and KTI.

She said community leaders like Merridoo Walbidi and James Yanawana, who were youngsters on La Grange Mission when Father McKelson’s gardens were thriving, still remember people working together growing and harvesting crops.

“Our vision is not only to develop the gubinge plantations but also to develop community parks and gardens to encourage families to replicate this in their own yards,” she said.

“There are benefits of reduced stress and increased well-being from areas being set aside for parks with lawn, trees and plants where people can sit with family and relax.”

Meanwhile an initiative in the NT led through the philanthropic Kindred Spirits Foundation, in partnership with several research, training and Aboriginal organisations is developing an “across the north” approach to the processing and marketing of gubinge, known there as Kakadu plum.

An overarching aim of the Kindred Spirits venture is to create meaningful employment for Aboriginal people through wild harvesting and cultivation using a combination of traditional land management practices and modern techniques in horticulture and agronomy.

Research Fellow at the Institute of Environment and Livelihoods at Charles Darwin University in Darwin Julian Gorman, has been exploring commercial opportunities supporting indigenous aspirations around Kakadu plum in the Top End of the NT for the last ten years.

He believes the Kindred Spirits initiative to establish central processing hubs which collectively and consistently supply markets with a quality product, was a breakthrough for the emerging industry.

“The co-operative approach has less risk and allows for more flexibility in supplying markets,” he said.

“A central hub will initially be set up in Darwin to deal with processing, product development and marketing. Regional centres will deal with the supply of raw product through wild harvest and/or horticulture.

“The central hub will develop business structures and deal with export permits, fruit analysis and models for appropriate ownership and benefit sharing.”

Earlier this year the Kindred Spirits initiative provided support to the Wadeye community, 400km south west of Darwin, where community members harvested around 4,500 kilos of fruit.