A Seasonal Guide to Fruit Picking Around Australia

Picking your own fruit is as fresh as it gets. Have your basket at the ready and make a beeline for the farm gate, because there’s something to pick in every season.

Australia’s wide range of climates means that when it comes to fruit, there’s an incredible array of produce. From the cool, verdant landscapes of Tasmania where sweet berries thrive to the sweltering Queensland sun that ripens juicy tropical fruits like mangos and dragonfruit, fruit picking in Australia is as diverse as it is delicious.

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There’s also no greater satisfaction than eating a fruit you’ve picked yourself. Not only is picking your own as fresh as it gets, but it’s an activity that allows you to connect with the landscape and its seasons. Luckily, there’s always something fruiting on our vast continent. So we’ve broken down what to pick and where to pick it in this guide to pick-your-own fruit experiences around Australia.

Summer | Autumn | Winter | Spring

Fruit picking in summer

Cherries and berries

It’s no surprise that the pristine landscapes of Tasmania produce some of the sweetest cherries and berries in Australia. In the summer, cherries, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries and raspberries are all in full swing. Picking your own is a must-do Tassie experience, and there’s an abundance of farm gates and orchards where you can get your hands on fresh, ripe fruit.

For PYO berries, try out family-owned Hillwood Farms near Launceston. Call into Turners Beach Berry Patch near Devonport – and don’t pass up their famous berry ice cream from their farm cafe.

Pick berries in Tasmania — You can pick your own berries at plenty of farms in Tasmania, such as Turners Beach Berry Patch. (Image: Tourism Australia)

There are lots of cherry orchards clustered around Hobart where you can pluck the ruby-red gems straight from the tree. Check out Oneys Creek Cherries and Plenty Park Fruit Farm, which offers homemade cherry jam at the farm shop.

You’ll also find sweet, juicy cherries all across the tri-state area, too – with Young in Central West NSW especially well-known for its high-quality cherry produce.

Valley Fresh Cherries in Young NSW — Get the pick of the bunch at Valley Fresh Cherries in Young, NSW. (Image: Destination NSW)

Mangoes and tropical fruits

Nothing signals summer like the syrupy flesh of a mango or the candy-like sweetness of a lychee. In the hottest months of the year, the orchards of Queensland heave with tropical delights ready for the picking. Get your tropical fix at the Longan Farm in Narangba , just 34 kilometres north of Brisbane, where you can pick your own juicy mangoes and ripe longans (a tropical fruit similar to a lychee). Mangos are one of our top Australian foods worth travelling for.

Queensland Mango picking — The hot Queensland sun ripens tropical fruits like mangos to perfection. (Image: Tourism and Events Queensland)

You’ll find lashings of lychees across the state, which you can pick and gorge on at farms like family-run Lush Lychees in South Yaamba, Central Queensland.

For those with an adventurous palate, rare tropical fruits await in North Queensland. Guests at Wildwood Retreat, located on Cape Trib Exotic Fruit Farm can walk through the orchards sampling fruity delights such as dragonfruits, mangosteens, rambutans and papayas. Or, pop by for a fruit tour, where you can sample rarities like breadfruit, durians, and pangium edule (football fruit).

Lychees on tree — Pick and gorge on lychees in Central Queensland.

Peaches and other stonefruits

Everything’s just peachy during stonefruit season in NSW. The hot, dry summers yield sweet, juicy fruits, which are ready to be picked when the mercury’s on the rise. The Peach Farm near Yamba on NSW’s North Coast is an off-grid and pet-friendly fruit farm that offers PYO peaches and nectarines by the bucket. It’s also a campsite, perfect for parking up for a night and watching the farm’s adorable troupe of pet ducks roam around.

Closer to Sydney, Cedar Creek Orchard in Thirlmere is a fruit farm that has been active since the 1940s, and in summer, you’ll find the trees dripping with peaches and juicy nectarines that can be picked.

In the Yarra Valley, you can pick peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums and so much more at family-run, boutique fruit orchard Rayner’s Orchard .

Peaches on a tree — Everything’s just peachy during stonefruit season.

Fruit picking in autumn

Figs

Is there anything better than a soft, jammy fig? As autumn kicks into gear, the fig trees across the country’s south swell with these natural sugar bombs. To pick your own, head to Pot & Still in the Adelaide Hills, a 175-year-old estate and distillery that creates a range of fig-flavoured spirits. After you’ve collected your bounty, head to the onsite fig bar for a fig-inspired tipple.

Persimmons

A ripe persimmon is nature’s candy. This vibrant fruit adapts well to many climates but grows well along NSW’s coast. Pick your fill at a number of orchards close to Sydney, such as Cedar Creek Orchard or at the Bilpin Fruit Bowl located in the Greater Blue Mountains Area.

Apples

They don’t call Tasmania the Apple Isle for nothing. The southernmost state has been growing apples for 170 years and has a reputation as a producer of some of the country’s best. Picking your own apples in Tasmania is less common than picking cherries and berries, but you’ll still find some smaller farms like Sorrell Fruit Farm that will welcome visitors looking to pick their own.

You can also get your apple fix on the Tasmanian Cider Trail , which connects makers across the state.

Willie Smith's Apple Shed — Taste crisp Tassie cider at Willie Smith’s Apple Shed. (Image: Stu Gibson)

In NSW, you can get pickin’ at a number of orchards such as TNT Produce in Bilpin which is well-known for its apple produce. It’s a great spot to hunt out a range of delicious apple goodies such as juice, cider or sweet, freshly-baked apple pie. There’s also Glenbernie Orchard in Darkes Forest, where you can kick back at their onsite brewery with a glass of crisp apple cider to cap off a day of picking.

Glenbernie Orchard, Darkes Forest. — Crisp, fresh apples at Glenbernie Orchard in Darkes Forest, NSW. (Image: Dee Kramer Photography)

Pomegranates

The pomegranate is a mythic fruit. Full of hundreds of glistening ruby-like seeds, pomegranates have been an important symbol across many cultures since ancient times. These fruits grow particularly well in Western Australia. Come autumn, you can pick your own at orchards such as Gingin Pomegranates, just over an hour from Perth.

Pomegranate on tree — Pomegranate’s grow particularly well in WA.

Tomatoes

The Italian word for tomato is pomodoro. The word comes from pomo d’oro, literally ‘apple of gold’ – which tells you just how spectacular these fruits are. Whether you’re whipping up a passata or making a fresh garden salad, a freshly picked tomato levels up any meal.

You can get your pick of the bunch at Canoelands Orchard in North Sydney, or Emily Hill Farm in Dewhurst, Victoria. Want the heavy lifting done for you? The farm gate at Ricardos Tomatoes in Port Macquarie has plenty of fresh tomatoes, as well as a range of handmade sauces and chutneys, too.

Ricardoes Tomatoes and Strawberries located in Port Macquarie — It doesn’t get fresher than Ricardoes Tomatoes and Strawberries in Port Macquarie, NSW. (Image: Destination NSW)

Pears

Paracombe Premium Perry is a family-owned pear orchard and cidery – pick your own on select days. When you’re done, amble over to the shed door and treat yourself to a crisp, refreshing glass of pear cider. The onsite restaurant also serves up tasty sweet and savoury pear-inspired dishes, like pear and blue cheese pizza.

Fruit picking in winter

Macadamias

The delicious macadamia nut is native to north-east NSW and south-east Queensland and has been an important Indigenous bush food for millennia. Gathering these delicious, nutrient-rich nuts is easy: when they are ready, they’ll drop to the ground.

To gather macadamias, head to The Farm and Summerland Farm , both in Byron Bay. Here, you can wander through macadamia orchards, gathering the nuts and cracking them with the nut-cracker provided on the grounds.

In Queensland, check out Macadamias Australia , a family-owned farm in Bundaberg, where visitors can take tours of the orchard to learn the journey of this native Aussie nut from tree to table.

Macadamias being peeled at Tropical Fruit World, Duranbah. The nut is native to NSW and Queensland. (Image: Destination NSW)

Citrus

The zesty fragrance of a citrus tree is sure to cut right through your winter blues. Spend a day among the orange trees gathering the sweet, golden orbs, which fruit during the cooler months. Ford’s Farm on the Central Coast grows lemons, limes, oranges, mandarins and kumquats, and has operated as a Pick Your Own Orchard for more than 22 years. The shed sells homemade jam, chutneys, and oils – as well as coffee to warm you up after a day of picking.

Freshly picked oranges from an orchard in Cornwallis, NSW — Picking oranges in NSW will cut right through your winter blues. (Image: Destination NSW)

Fruit picking in spring

Avocados

Avocados are nature’s butter – creamy, delicious and packed with health benefits. You can bag your very own at orchards like Meliora Farm in Peats Ridge, an avocado and citrus farm that has been growing fruit since 1925.

Strawberries

It’s good news for strawberry lovers. These sweet delights are commonly grown across Australia, meaning it’s always strawberry season somewhere. This fruit is mostly associated with the summer, but they are still plentiful in the spring, too.

Victoria has over 100 strawberry farms, big and small. Here, the strawberry season typically begins in October, For picking your own, The Big Strawberry in Koonoomoo is a good sport to call in, where you’ll find a cafe, playground and their own strawberry liquor. Tuckerberry Hill Berry Farm on the Bellarine Peninsula also has a produce market and cafe.

Baskets of freshly picked strawberries — Victoria has over 100 strawberry farms.

South Australia is known for its great fruit-growing conditions, but its grapes tend to get all the glory as it’s home to some of the most esteemed wine regions in the world. But strawberries grow just as well the grapes, with many farms such as Harvest the Fleurieu , just an hour’s drive from Adelaide CBD.

There are plenty of growers in NSW, too, with the Riverina region being a particular highlight. Here, you can get your hands on some delicious strawberry jam, strawberry pie and strawberry ice cream – made fresh using local milk. Closer to Sydney, there’s Berrylicious Strawberries in Thilmere, just an hour’s drive from the CBD.

Riverina Strawberries — Strawberries grow well across NSW, Tas, Vic and SA. (Image: Penelope Beveridge; Margan Winery and Restaurant)

Slow down and find your rhythm on a Murray River journey through time and place.

Trust is a funny thing. It seems not that long ago that my mother was insisting on pouring the milk into my cereal bowl, because she didn’t trust me not to slosh it over the table, and yet here I am on the Murray River at Mildura in far north-west Victoria, being handed the keys to a very new and very expensive luxury houseboat.

After a crash course in how not to crash, I’m at the wheel of the good ship Elevate – pride of the All Seasons fleet – guiding her upstream past red-ochre cliffs as pelicans glide above the rippled river and kookaburras call from reedy banks. There’s a brief moment of breath-holding while I negotiate a hairpin turn around a jagged reef of skeletal, submerged gum trees, before a cheer rings out and calm descends as the timeless river unfurls in front of us.

The Murray River winding through Yarrawonga. (Image: Rob Blackburn)

Setting sail from Mildura

Murray River birds — Home to a large number of bird species, including pelicans. (Image: The Precint Studios)

A journey along the Murray River is never less than magical, and launching from Mildura makes perfect sense. Up here the river is wide and largely empty, giving novice skippers like myself the confidence to nudge the 60-tonne houseboat up to the riverbank where we tie up for the night, without fear of shattering the glass elevator (the boat is fully wheelchair accessible) or spilling our Champagne.

My friends and I spend three days on the water, swimming and fishing, sitting around campfires onshore at night, and basking in air so warm you’d swear you were in the tropics. The simplicity of river life reveals an interesting dichotomy: we feel disconnected from the world but at the same time connected to Country, privileged to be part of something so ancient and special.

Stop one: Echuca

19th-century paddlesteamers — A historic 19th-century paddlesteamer cruises along the Murray River. (Image: Visit Victoria)

The six-hour drive from Melbourne to Mildura (or four hours and 20 minutes from Adelaide) is more than worth it, but you don’t have to travel that far to find fun on the river. Once Australia’s largest inland port, Echuca is the closest point on the Murray to Melbourne (two hours 45 minutes), and you’ll still find a plethora of paddlesteamers tethered to the historic timber wharf, a throwback to the thriving river trade days of the 19th century. The PS Adelaide, built in 1866 and the oldest wooden-hulled paddlesteamer operating in the world, departs daily for one-hour cruises, while a brand-new paddlesteamer, the PS Australian Star , is launching luxury seven-night voyages in December through APT Touring.

The town is also a hot food and wine destination. St Anne’s Winery at the historic Port of Echuca precinct has an incredibly photogenic cellar door, set inside an old carriage builders’ workshop on the wharf and filled with huge, 3000-litre port barrels. The Mill, meanwhile, is a cosy winter spot to sample regional produce as an open fire warms the red-brick walls of this former flour mill.

Stop two: Barmah National Park

Just half-an-hour upstream, Barmah National Park is flourishing, its river red gum landscape (the largest in the world) rebounding magnificently after the recent removal of more than 700 feral horses. The internationally significant Ramsar-listed wetland sits in the heart of Yorta Yorta Country, with Traditional Owners managing the environment in close partnership with Parks Victoria. Walkways weave through the forest, crossing creeks lined with rare or threatened plants, passing remnants of Yorta Yorta oven mounds and numerous scar trees, where the bark was removed to build canoes, containers or shields.

The Dharnya Centre (open weekdays until 3pm) is the cultural hub for the Yorta Yorta. Visitors can learn about the ecological significance of the Barmah Lakes on a 90-minute river cruise, led by a First Nations guide, or take a one-hour, guided cultural walking tour along the Yamyabuc Trail.

Stop three: Cobram

Continue east to Cobram to find the southern hemisphere’s largest inland beach. Swarming with sun-seekers in summer, the white sand of Thompson’s Beach is shaded by majestic river red gums and dotted with hundreds of beach umbrellas, as beachgoers launch all manner of water craft and set up stumps for beach cricket. But the beach is at its most captivating at sunset, when the crowds thin out, the glassy river mirrors the purple sky, and the canopies of the gum trees glow fiery orange.

The region is also home to some fine resorts and indulgent retreats. Yarrawonga Mulwala Golf Club Resort has two riverside championship golf courses, luxury apartments and self-contained villas. While not strictly on the Murray, the historic wine town of Rutherglen is rife with boutique (and unique) accommodation, including an exquisitely renovated red-brick tower in a French provincial-style castle at Mount Ophir Estate. Fans of fortified wines can unravel the mystery of Rutherglen’s ‘Muscat Mile’, meeting the vignerons and master-blenders whose artistry has put the town on the global map for this rich and complex wine style.

Stop four: Albury-Wodonga

First Nations YindyamarraSculpture Walk — First Nations Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk is part of the Wagirra Trail. (Image: Carmen Zammit)

Follow the river far enough upstream and you’ll arrive at the twin border cities of Albury-Wodonga. The Hume Highway thunders through, but serenity can be found along the five-kilometre Yindyamarra Sculpture Walk – part of the Wagirra Trail that meanders through river wetlands just west of Albury in Wiradjuri country. Fifteen sculptures by local First Nations artists line the trail, conveying stories of reconciliation, enduring connection to culture, local Milawa lore and traditional practices. It feels a long way from Mildura, and it is, but the pelicans and kookaburras remind us that it’s the same river, the great conduit that connects our country.

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

New Mildura motel Kar-rama. (Image: Iain Bond Photo)

Kar-Rama is a brand-new boutique, retro-styled motel in Mildura, with a butterfly-shaped pool and a tropical, Palm Springs vibe. Echuca Holiday Homes has a range of high-end accommodation options, both on the riverfront and in town.

Playing there

BruceMunro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura — Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights in Mildura. (Image: Imogen Eveson)

Artist Bruce Munro’s Trail of Lights installation, comprising more than 12,000 illuminated ‘fireflies’, is currently lighting up Mildura’s Lock Island in the middle of the Murray. Murray Art Museum Albury (MAMA) is a hub for contemporary art, with a rotating roster of exhibitions, and is a major outlet for young and First Nations artists.

Eating there

Mildura’s diverse demographic means it’s a fantastic place to eat. Andy’s Kitchen is a local favourite, serving up delicious pan-Asian dishes and creative cocktails in a Balinese-style garden setting. Call in to Spoons Riverside in Swan Hill to enjoy locally sourced, seasonal produce in a tranquil setting overlooking the river.

A seasonal guide to fruit picking around Australia