24
the official magazine of australia's sugarcane industry
CHAMPION GROWERS
MORE THAN A TROPHY—IT’S A WAY OF LIFE BY ROBYN DEVINE
A strong sense of family, a deep understanding of soil types and the courage to diversify has shaped Bundaberg growers Bob and Wayne Baldry into champion growers.
Third-generation sugarcane grower Bob Baldry has been working on the farm since leaving school at 14, now in his eighties he remains an integral part of the farm. His son, Wayne, acknowledges the great legacy both his family have made to the district. Bob has witnessed some major changes in the industry since his grandfather grew flowers on another farm in the Bundaberg region before Bob’s father started growing cane on the current family farm. “When I was still going to school, in the August school holidays, it was spring planting, everyone chipped in,” Bob said. “You would cut the cane into billets, then you’d chuck them in a hessian bag and put it in the waterhole overnight, ready to plant the next day. We had three horses pulling the planter and dad used to sit on there and drop the billets in one by one.” Bob can remember far enough back when all the cutting was done by hand—Bob has seen it all during his time on the farm and enjoys mixing the old ways with the new. Wayne’s sense of fun shines through as he acknowledges the value of the old machinery, albeit its lack of modern comforts.
Right: Wayne, with his mother Carol and father Bob Baldry is proud of his family’s legacy to the district
“The irony is when we have a bad strike in planting, if you have had a copious amount of rain,” Wayne explained.
“We still have the drop planter to use, it’s on a spring load, you use your feet to dig it into the ground and drop the billets in one by one, to fill the gaps with what may have failed. “It’s not the most comfortable ride as its on cast iron wheels but it does still get used, once every five or six years if you get a bad strike.” Bob had 50 acres and at that time in the industry it was considered a big farm, now that’s only a hobby farm. The Baldrys have gradually expanded to 300 acres. Bob’s wife Carol didn’t grow up on a farm, she worked in an office but that didn’t stop her becoming deeply involved in the farm’s day-to-day operations. “Carol worked with me all my working life,” Bob said. “She used to pack rockmelons from October to Christmas every day of the week.” Wayne explained there wasn’t money in just growing cane, so it was lucrative to diversify crops. “If you didn’t diversify then it wasn’t viable, we have done a lot of crops during our time, rockmelon, watermelons, cucumbers but we transitioned away from small crops, it’s too hard, sometimes you make money but other times you don’t, and you need extra staff during the busy times,” Wayne said. CONTINUED PAGE 26 ‣
