REAL ESTATE | Ultimate lifestyle change; Daintree fruit farm hits the market

In what would be the ultimate tree change, a fruit farm in the world’s oldest living rainforest, full of the Queen of exotic fruits the Mangosteen, has hit the market.

Situated on 1.07 hectares, this Daintree Rainforest property, one hour north of Port Douglas, features a 250-tree fruit farm, a modern open plan home, with wide and spectacular views, taking in Thorntons Peak Mountain and glimpses of the Coral Sea.

The Diwan property on Ironbark Road uses an innovative technique to grow the Mangosteens on Open Tatura Trellises.

Back in 2010 Chris and Karen Beckwith, an advertising couple from Sydney, visited Mission Beach in Far North Queensland and saw how tropical fruit was being grown on ‘Open Tatura Trellises'.

View Property For Sale - 59 Ironbark Road, Diwan

“This type of farming trains the limbs of a tree as they are woven along horizontal wires, giving the tree support to fruit earlier than usual,” Mr Beckwith said.

“After a lot of research, we could find no evidence that our favourite fruit, the Mangosteen, would adapt to this form of farming, but we decided to give it a try anyway.”

In 2014 the couple planted young Mangosteen trees on their new farm in the Daintree Rainforest in the same way as they had previously seen. They hoped to reduce the amount of time the trees needed to produce fruit, instead of the traditional way which can take from 8 to 12 years.

“Five years later our perseverance paid off, resulting in 40 of our 250 trees fruiting,” Mr Beckwith said.

The trees are kept at a height of 2.2 meters, making picking easier and protecting them from the wind; the adjacent windbreaks also help with this and there is no need for cherry pickers.

“A bore-fed ground watering system feeds the trees. This can be switched to a fertigation drum, where nutrients like calcium, potassium, magnesium, dolomite and various other ‘goodies' can be added to flow through the irrigation lines.

“Each year more trees have commenced fruiting,” he said.

The owners of this farmlet are amongst an increasing number of farmers achieving great results, growing tropical fruits in innovative ways.

Alongside the fruit farm is a modern, elevated, steel framed two-bedroom and two-bathroom home, with beautiful low maintance man-made floors throughout, stone top kitchen with dishwasher, all opening to an oversized covered deck.

Both bedrooms open onto the covered deck and have their own bathroom, the master suite offering large robes and ensuite.

The home is supported by a 5.5 KVA solar system with battery storage and a generator for backup. The oversized double lock up garage has roller doors and extensive storage. The property has mobile phone and satellite NBN broadband communications.