Tasmania’s fruit industry has farewelled one of its most notable research facilities, with the closure of the Grove Research Station in the Huon Valley.
The Australian station spent 60 years researching a variety of horticultural crops, with a specific focus on apples, reported the ABC.
Closure of the state government-owned facility is a sign of the downturn in Tasmania’s apple industry; exports from the island have steadily shrunk over the last few decades, although the state is still considered a premium producer.
A lot of the research conducted at Grove Research Station has been adopted worldwide, according to previous employees.
“The research carried out there was responsible really for the maintenance of the apple industry, the high level of production and its contribution to the Tasmanian economy over a 25-40 year period,” former employee Steve Wilson told the ABC. “It had a major impact on the apple industry.”
“One of the things that was amazing about the place was the absolute personal commitment that people had to the job and I think most of them were driven by that personal interest in the industry and crop, rather than the money that they were taking home each fortnight.”
Grove Research Station has now been leased to Oak Tasmania’s Tahune Fields Nursery, which will continue to operate the station’s weather monitoring facility and maintain the large heritage apple collection.
