May 14th

 

Hot air balloons in the Melbourne skyline.

Students boarding the flight to Cairns.

Today we started our morning a little bit earlier than we have been to head to the airport for our flight from Melbourne to Cairns. We left the hotel at 7:00 am and took the 30-minute drive to the airport. On the drive, we saw hot air balloons along the skyline. We experienced airport security in Australia for the first time, and it was a bit different than what we are used to. Dr. Walker was the only one to show identification, and we all headed through security with our shoes on. Quite a few of the students tried Hungry Jack’s (Australia’s Burger King) for the first time while we waited to board our flight. We then took the short 3-hour flight to Cairns, where we arrived in 80 degree and 60% humidity weather. Since we were seated near the back of the plane, we got the opportunity to exit the plane through the rear stairs, directly onto the ground. Many of us have never experienced this before, so this was a cool addition to our flight.

Beach & ocean from the plane landing in Cairns

Exiting the rear stairs of the plane in Cairns

Sugarcane field along the highway

We then met Joe, our bus driver for the next couple of days. As we drove a little over an hour through the Atherton Tablelands to our first stop of the day, Joe gave us a bit of background on the area. We learned that Cairns got populated through the goldrush, similar to Melbourne. Sugarcane is the second largest industry in Cairns, just behind tourism. We were able to see many sugarcane fields, and the sugarcane rail which is used to transport sugarcane to the mill within 18 hours. If the sugarcane is not transported in this quick time, the sugar content starts to leak. Geographically, Cairnes is much different than the land we have been seeing. Due to the location along the coast, they receive up to 6 feet of rain per year, much greater than the 16 inches they receive further south. It was fascinating to see the integration of a rainforest and mountain range as we progressed through our drive.

View from Skybury, with the papaya trees and mountains in the distance.

Papaya tree with many fruits growing.

Our main stop of the day was at Skybury Tropical Plantation. We received a late lunch, where we had fresh papaya, passionfruit, and coffee, all grown on the plantation. The plantation was established is 1987 and now covers 470 acres. The main products grown on the plantation are red papaya and coffee, but bananas, avocado and passionfruit are also grown for education and restaurant use. The papayas on this plantation are actually grown from a tissue culture, unlike most fruit trees which are grown from a seed. The tissue cultures grow in the lab for 4 weeks, then are transferred to the hot house for 4 weeks, and then grown in the nursery for 2 weeks before being planted in the paddock. These papayas have a very quick return on investment, as 8 months after planting they can harvest the first fruit. This is very important since the plants only have a three-year lifespan. Right now, they are planting about 10,000 trees a month, and harvesting about 150 tons per week. They are continuously making improvements and are hoping to double their production in the near future. Nothing from their papaya farm gets wasted. Once the three year life cycle of the plant is up, they use the whole tree as biochar for fertilizer on the rest of the plantation. This fertilizer increases levels of carbon and nitrogen in the soil, also giving it a grey color. All trees are irrigated through a drip irrigation system, allowing them to only use 75% of the water they are allocated. The biggest challenge they have had this year is too much water. They had to destroy 50% of the plantation and replant, due to the cyclone that hit in December 2023.

Coffee tree with both ripe and unripe coffee berries.

Skybury is the oldest coffee roaster in Australia. Coffee berries are harvested using mechanical tree shakers. They are then washed, pealed, placed back into water to ferment, and finally dried. Through this process, the coffee beans lose 75% of their weight in moisture. The coffee industry as a whole has a huge amount of wastage which helps explain the high price of coffee beans. The coffee trees are only grown for 10 years. This is because the beans only grow on new wood, and it takes 5 years for the tree to produce its first crop. This plantation grows coffee and papaya next to each other due to its symbiotic relationship. Through this relationship the coffee benefits the papaya by protecting it from being over watered. The papaya provides shade to the coffee tree to give it a better chance of survival in extreme heat.

Banana tree with numerous green bananas

After concluding our tour at Skybury Tropical Plantation, we began our 3-hour drive to Discovery Park Mount Surprise where we will be spending the next two nights. We took a lot of twists and turns on the way and were greeted with dinner upon our arrival.

 

By: Greta Adolf and Bryce Adrian