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)

Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated.

Just 15 years ago, Federal Mills was a very different place. Once among the most significant industrial sites in Victoria, the historic woollen mill was one of a dozen that operated in Geelong at the industry’s peak in the mid-20th century, helping the city earn its title as ‘wool centre of the world’. But by the 1960s global competition and the rise of synthetic fabrics led to the slow decline of the industry, and Federal Mills finally shuttered its doors in 2001. Within a few years, the abandoned North Geelong grounds had become makeshift pastoral land, with cows and goats grazing among the overgrown grass between the empty red-brick warehouses. It was a forgotten pocket of the city, all but two klicks from the bustle of the CBD.

Geelong cellar door wine bar — Geelong has shed its industrial identity to become an innovative urban hub with reimagined heritage spaces. (Image: Ash Hughes)

Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct

Today, the century-old complex stands reborn. The distinctive sawtooth-roof buildings have been sensitively restored. An old silo is splashed with a bright floral mural, landscapers have transformed the grounds, and the precinct is once again alive with activity. More than 1000 people work across 50-plus businesses here. It’s so busy, in fact, that on a sunny Thursday morning in the thick of winter, it’s hard to find a car park. The high ceilings, open-plan design, and large multi-paned windows – revolutionary features for factories of their time – have again become a drawcard.

Paddock Bakery andPatisserie — Paddock Bakery and Patisserie is housed within the historic wool factory. (Image: Gallant Lee)

At Paddock , one of the precinct’s newer tenants, weaving looms and dye vats have been replaced by a wood-fired brick oven and heavy-duty mixers. Open since April 2024, the bakery looks right at home here; the building’s industrial shell is softened by ivy climbing its steel frames, and sunlight streams through the tall windows. Outside, among the white cedar trees, families at picnic benches linger over dippy eggs and bagels, while white-collar workers pass in and out, single-origin coffee and crème brûlée doughnuts in hand.

Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design

Paddock Bakery can be found at Federal Mills. (Image: Gallant Lee)

“A lot of people are now seeing the merit of investing in Geelong,” says Paul Traynor, the head of Hamilton Hospitality Group, which redeveloped Federal Mills. A city once shunned as Sleepy Hollow, and spurned for its industrial, working-class roots and ‘rust belt’ image, Geelong has long since reclaimed its ‘Pivot City’ title, having reinvented itself as an affordable, lifestyle-driven satellite city, and a post-COVID migration hotspot.

And the numbers stand testament to the change. In March 2025, and for the first time in its history, Greater Geelong became Australia’s most popular regional town for internal migration, overtaking Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Current forecasts suggest Geelong will continue to outpace many other Australian cities and towns, with jobs growing at double the rate of the population.

Tourism is booming, too. The 2023-24 financial year was Geelong and The Bellarine region’s busiest on record, with 6.4 million visitors making it one of the fastest-growing destinations in the country. It’s not hard to see why: beyond the city’s prime positioning at the doorstep of the Great Ocean Road, Geelong’s tenacity and cultural ambition stands out.

As Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design, Geelong is swiftly shaking off its industrial past to become a model for urban renewal, innovation, sustainability and creative communities. The signs are everywhere, from the revitalisation of the city’s waterfront, and the landmark design of the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre and Geelong Arts Centre, to the growing network of local designers, architects and artists, and the burgeoning roster of festivals and events. That’s not even mentioning the adaptive reuse of storied old industrial buildings – from Federal Mills, to Little Creatures’ brewery ‘village’ housed within a 1920s textile mill – or the city’s flourishing food and wine scene.

The rise of a food and wine destination

Restaurant 1915 is housed within a restored former boiler house. (Image: Harry Pope/Two Palms)

Traynor credits now-closed local restaurant Igni, which opened in 2016, as the turning point for Geelong’s hospo industry. “[Aaron Turner, Igni’s chef-patron] was probably the first guy, with all due respect, to raise the bar food-wise for Geelong,” he says. “People now treat it really seriously, and there’s clearly a market for it.” While Igni is gone, Turner now helms a string of other notable Geelong venues, including The Hot Chicken Project and Tacos y Liquor, all within the buzzy, street art-speckled laneways of the CBD’s Little Malop Street Precinct. Many others have also popped up in Igni’s wake, including Federal Mills’ own restaurant, 1915 . Housed within the cavernous boiler house, 1915’s interior is dramatic: soaring, vaulted ceilings with timber beams, exposed brick, a huge arched window. The share plates echo the space’s bold character, playing with contrast and texture, with dishes such as a compressed watermelon tataki, the sweet, juicy squares tempered by salty strands of fried leeks, and charred, smoky snow peas dusted with saganaki on a nutty bed of romesco.

The Woolstore , one of The Hamilton Group’s most recent hospo projects, opened in February. It occupies a century-old riverside warehouse and exudes a more sultry, fine dining ambience. Much like Federal Mills, the blueprint was to preserve the original brickwork, tallowwood flooring and nods to the building’s former life. That same careful consideration extends to the well-versed, affable waitstaff as well as the kitchen. Head chef Eli Grubb is turning out an eclectic mix of ambitious and indulgent mod Oz dishes that deliver: strikingly tender skewers of chicken tsukune, infused with hints of smoke from the parrilla grill, and glazed with a moreish, sweet gochujang ‘jam’; nduja arancini fragrant with hints of aniseed and the earthy lick of sunny saffron aioli; and golden squares of potato pavé, adorned with tiny turrets of crème fraîche, crisp-fried saltbush leaves, and Avruga caviar, to name but a few stand-out dishes.

Woolstore menu — Woolstore’s menu is designed for sharing.

Breathing new life into historic spaces

On the city’s fringe, hidden down a winding side road with little fanfare, lies a long-dormant site that’s being gently revived. Built from locally quarried bluestone and brick, and dating back to the 1870s, the complex of original tin-roofed mill buildings is lush with greenery and backs onto the Barwon River and Buckley Falls; the audible rush of water provides a soothing soundtrack. Fyansford Paper Mill is one of few complexes of its time to survive intact. It feels steeped in history and spellbindingly rustic.

“We were looking for an old industrial place that had some charm and romance to it,” explains Sam Vogel, the owner, director and winemaker at Provenance Wines which moved here in 2018. When he first viewed the building with his former co-owner, it was in such a state of disrepair that the tradie tenant occupying the space had built a shed within it to escape the leaking roof and freezing winter temperatures. “To say it was run down would be an understatement,” he notes. “There was ivy growing through the place; the windows were all smashed. It was a classic Grand Designs project.”

Provenance Wines moved to Fyansford Paper Mill in 2018. (Image: Cameron Murray Photography)

The team has since invested more than a million dollars into their new home. Where paper processing machinery once sat, wine barrels are now stacked. Vaulted cathedral ceilings are strung with festoon lights, and hidden in plain sight lies a shadowy mural by local street artist de rigueur Rone – one of only three permanent works by the artist.

While the award-winning, cool-climate pinot noir, riesling and chardonnay naturally remain a key draw at Provenance, the winery’s restaurant is a destination in itself. Impressed already by whipsmart service, I devour one of the most cleverly curated and faultlessly executed degustations I’ve had in some time. It’s all prepared in a kitchen that is proudly zero-waste, and committed to providing seasonal, ethical and locally sourced meat and produce under head chef Nate McIver. Think free-range venison served rare with a syrupy red wine jus and a half-moon of neon-orange kosho, shokupan with a deeply savoury duck fat jus (a modern Japanese take on bread and drippings), and a golden potato cake adorned with a colourful confetti of dehydrated nasturtiums and tomato powder, and planted atop a sea urchin emulsion.

handcrafted pieces — Bell’s handcrafted functional pieces on display.

The complex is home to a coterie of independent businesses, including a gallery, a jeweller, and its latest tenant, ceramicist Elizabeth Bell, drawn here by the building’s “soul”. “There’s so much potential for these buildings to have new life breathed into them,” says Bell, whose studio is housed within the old pump room. “Even people in Geelong don’t know we’re here,” she says. “It’s definitely a destination, but I like that. It has a really calming atmosphere.”

A Melbourne transplant, Bell now feels at home in Geelong, which offers something Melbourne didn’t. “If this business was in Melbourne I don’t think it would’ve been as successful,” she notes. “It’s very collaborative in Geelong, and I don’t think you get that as much in Melbourne; you’re a bit more in it for yourself. Here it’s about community over competition.”

A seasonal guide to fruit picking around Australia