Stinker’s History: The avocado farm

IN 1976 Don and Coral Kafer of Bobs Farm planted six avocado trees on the advice of an agronomist from the Department of Agriculture.

As there was no information as to whether the trees would grow and fruit this far south, the trees were pretty much left to “fend for themselves”.

In the early stages of the development, the avocado trees were grown with existing vegetables.

The avocados flourished from six experimental trees to around 2500 in full production.

The couple continued market gardening.

After another two years they realised that the avocado trees were still growing.

“Maybe,” they questioned, “is it possible to grow avocados on a bigger scale?”

The couple commenced clearing patches of sand, laying irrigation pipes and planting young avocado trees through the bush on the sandhill section of the farm, resulting in around 2,500 trees over time.

This became the first avocado farm in the district.

As the trees take around five years to bear marketable fruit, vegetables (mainly tomatoes) were still grown in between the rows.

In the early 1980s Don and Coral built a big shed on the Nelson Bay roadside of the farm and this became the original avocado farm stall, so recognisable to those travelling into Nelson Bay.
After running the store for 18 years Don and Coral sold that side of the business to concentrate on the avocados alone.

Using a grading machine to sort sizes, the fruit was packed in trays, labelled ‘Port Stephens Avocados’ and sold through the Newcastle Fruit and Vegetable markets, which were located at Sandgate.

The business expanded as carriers would cart them down from the Sandgate Markets to the Homebush Fruit and Vegetable Markets in Sydney where the agents on-sold them to shops.

It was very tiring work as the fruit was firstly picked into large wooden bins before being fed into the grading machine then hand packed into trays then onto pallets which were thankfully lifted onto the truck by the tractor and loader.

Don then trucked them to Newcastle, not returning until late at night.

Eventually the couple became involved with an avocado packing house at Stuarts Point, near Kempsey, where the traditional sorting and packing was done.

This packing house became a focus for farmers to send their fruit from where it was distributed to all the central markets in Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.

Because of the number of growers of avocados involved, this became the most economical means of distribution. The Kafer’s farm was the furthest south of all the growers.

This efficiency allowed Don and Coral to spend more time on the farm, eventually selling their farmland around 2016. The couple retired to the only remaining section of the farm on the Marsh Road where they commenced their married life growing tomatoes and vegetables.

By John ‘Stinker’ CLARKE