News

On International Women’s Day, we acknowledge and celebrate the enormous contribution women make to the Australian macadamia industry. 

By Samantha Elley

Growers: Graeme and Diane Cheal

Farm: Kolora Farm, Beerwah Queensland

Size: 4500 trees most of which are between a year and 20 years old although a few are 50 years old

Cultivars: Daddo, 842s and 741s with a young planting of MCT1s

Spacing: 9 x 5 m

Soils: Light sandy loam

Diane Cheal wasn’t always a macadamia farmer, having started her career in academia. After studying to be an acupuncturist, she completed a post-graduate degree in higher education curriculum for universities. This changed about six years ago when she found she was spending more time working on her father’s farm and less in academia.

Diane’s father, Graeme Cheal, has a long background in farming. He bought the farm 58 years ago, when he was 19 years old and started out as a Golden Circle farmer and grew pineapples. Twenty years ago, he took on a new challenge and planted macadamia trees. 

“In this time he has certainly seen a lot of changes and had his ups and downs,” said Diane.

One of the biggest downs the farm experienced was in early March 2022, when an intense and violent hailstorm worked its way through the orchard. According to Diane, they are still cleaning up the damage that was done to the farm. 

“We had to bulldoze our custard apples and avocadoes, and great big 100-year-old eucalypts and bloodwood trees that fell into the dam,” she said.

As Diane became more involved in the farm work, discussions were had about succession planning for the farm. As a result, she and her father agreed on a plan where she would “step into the tractor” and carry on the family farm after he died.

“I am extremely hands on and he treats me like a bloke as I am expected to do all things,” said Diane.

She explained that she sees the work she does with her father as a form of apprenticeship, where she isn’t expected to always be in the sorting shed, rather she is involved in all aspects of the farm. While this has been tough, it also means that Diane has developed her abilities, so she is able to figure out the safest way to fix something or complete a task.

“There’s a lot of heavy lifting and a lot of broken machines, and I’ve had to learn machinery maintenance, including how to fix a flat battery and how to swap over add-ons, on the machines,” she said.

Focus on soil health and accurate records

The improvements Diane has made on the farm have centred around the soil, and she explained that she is “extremely invested” in the soil and erosion control. One of the things she has focused on with her orchard floor management is ensuring that trees don’t have exposed roots.

“Exposed roots are not happy roots,” she said.

Their management strategies include trying to use less-damaging products on the ground and improving the under-tree community of bugs, worms and fungi. According to Diane, they would rather “nudge the bounty of the trees along”, than just exploit them for their nuts.

“We’ve softened the idea of using chemical fertilisers and are going as much with nature as we can,” she said.

Areas they continue to improve on the farm include record-keeping and safety procedures. Part of the reason for having accurate records is that Diane wants to be sure that she knows how her father did things when it comes time for her to take over the farm completely. 

“I use an app called Farmable, which is free, and you can keep your spray records on them. It helps separate the farm into farmlets so you can see what sections of cultivars have been sprayed and what is still to be done,” she said.

Recovering from storm damage

Despite the fact that the damaging storm was early last year, there is still much work to get the farm back to the same level of production. The main priority for the next few years will be to help the trees recover as much as they can. 

“Some of the trees are giving an OK amount of nut after being hammered, but we’ve been told they may be in shock for years,” she said.

Isolation a challenge

When it comes to strengths, Diane says her introverted nature is a plus.

“I am happy to sit on the mower all day and listen to my podcasts, and I have an affinity with nature and respect the natural world, thinking of myself as a steward of the land as opposed to a farmer. I want to learn more about how to support the land, rather than just take from it,” she said.

Diane said challenges women can face in the macadamia industry include the hard manual labour, but also the sense of isolation. This is particularly the case for extroverted women who are used to having a chat and working with people.

“Along with the hard yakka there can be a lack of community, however, it is possible for all women to do all things,” she said.

Diane’s suggestion for women wanting to be involved in the macadamia industry is to go and spend time on a macadamia farm to get a feel and taste for it. Diane has also been involved in the industry’s women in macadamia workshops that bring together women working in macadamias across the region to network and share ideas and challenges.

“Go in with your eyes open, know it is hard yakka and gather information and resources as this is how you learn best,” she said.

One of Diane’s learning curves was dealing with adversity.

“The storm was shocking,” she said, adding that she was so pleased her father had a strong group of people who came and helped them.

Diane has realised that despite the setback, they didn’t crumble. They are still there, and they are working at getting back to full strength. What they have learnt from last year’s storm will prepare them for adversity in the future.