RECYCLED waste water from a Riverina town is being used to irrigate the region's first stonefruit orchard.

It's part of a pilot project that aims to be good for the environment and consumers' health. Queensland fine wool and cattle producer Rick Goodrich planted 12ha of queen garnet plums last spring on Warbreccan Farm, near Deniliquin.

    AT A GLANCE
  • Who: Rick Goodrich
  • What: Stone fruit
  • Why: A plum job
  • Where: Deniliquin, NSW
  • Report: SANDRA GODWIN

The planting of 12,000 trees is the first stage of a planned 100ha orchard of the new variety, which has been bred over the past 12 years by government researchers in Queensland for the high anthocyanin levels that give the flesh its deep red colour.

The queen garnet plum is being commercialised by Nutrafruit, a consortium in which Rick and his brother, Bim, have a stake, as a high-antioxidant fresh fruit variety and for processing into a nutraceutical ingredient.

Rick said he was excited by the project and hoped it would lead to a new industry for the region, which has suffered from the downturn in the rice industry and a long period of drought.

As the first stonefruit to be planted in the region, Rick said the orchard was far enough from major production areas at Cobram and Swan Hill to avoid pest problems, but close enough to attract seasonal labour during peak periods such as pruning and harvest.

The orchard also is close enough to Deniliquin to obtain re-use water from the town's waste water treatment plant.

"I think it's a great use for that water, because it's a high-value crop that potentially adds a lot of benefit to the community," he said.

Rick expects the supply of re-use water to average about 600 megalitres a year, rising to as much as 1500 megalitres "in a good year".

The trees will be watered and fertilised through double drip lines, with a heavy layer of mulch to reduce evaporation and help keep irrigation at no more than 3.7 megalitres/ha.

Rather than the traditional vase shape, the trees are being pruned into an open palmette (fan shape), making it easier and faster to pick the fruit.

Rick said the orchard had been designed to produce fruit for processing to extract antioxidants, rather than fresh whole fruit.

"We hope to have 100ha in some time in the next two years," he said.

"I'm pretty excited about it. I look forward to getting the fruit off."

Rick said he hoped the young trees would yield a small quantity of fruit in January, increasing to full production in following years.

Living between Stanthorpe and Inglewood, where much of Queensland's stonefruit, wine grapes and pome fruit is grown, Rick said he had gained "a pretty good understanding of the processes of fruit growing".

Fellow Nutrafruit director Hugh Macintosh said queen garnet tree numbers would be boosted this year with the planting of another 2000 in Western Australia and up to 14,000 in southern Queensland, where 2500 two to four-year-old trees had been planted as part of the evaluation process for the new variety.

Another 60,000 trees were expected to be planted next year.

Hugh said he expected the orchards to produce commercial volumes of fruit from 2012.

The queen garnet plum will also be grown in New Zealand, Spain, the US and South Africa.

"I see most of our production coming from Australia," he said. "The overseas fruit will be either for the fresh market or to provide a counter-seasonal supply."

Hugh said fruit grown in Australia would be processed here into a high-antioxidant extract suitable for vitamin tablets, health drinks and related products.

"We're conducting a small trial on ready-to-drink queen garnet juice products and our ultimate plan is to get the juice products into large chain and health-food stores," he said.

Queensland Government principal experimentalist Dougal Russell selected the variety in 2001, after three years of trying to develop a high antioxidant plum.

"We found that it was as much as five times higher in antioxidants than other blood plums and as much as 10 to 20 times higher than other regular yellow flesh varieties," he said.

"(One glass of juice is) equivalent in antioxidants to two glasses of red wine.

"One plum is the equivalent of two glasses of red wine or a cup of tea."

Processing trials were conducted in 2008 and a commercial agreement was signed by Nutrafruit and the Queensland government in April.

Dougal said the breeding program was continuing to look for other new anthocyanin-rich plums to extend the month-long harvest window by another three months.