Another winter in Dunoon and the scent of macadamia blossom fills the air. Fingers crossed with favourable weather, good management and lots of luck there might be a good crop to harvest next year to compensate for the reduced quantity, low price and poor quality of this years harvest. The strong aroma and the busy bees are a positive early indication of at least a good nut set.

The odds of a flower becoming a nut are over a thousand to one!!! Maybe nut farmers (gamblers) should invest in lotto tickets and if they win, they can keep on farming for a few more years ‘till its all gone.

DID YOU KNOW:

Of the millions of flowers on an average tree only a tiny percentage; less than 0.5% ever form into a nutlet. Out of those few thousand nutlets most will drop off as the tree reacts to the weather, sunlight, water, nutrient status and insect attack. Once the tree has done its early shedding and determined how many macadamia nuts it can bear; usually down to a few hundred; the real struggle begins against another lot of pests, diseases and weather conditions . The nuts that manage to hang on for the next 8 months and mature will then fall to the ground ready for harvest. The final challenge is to harvest the nuts before the rats take a large share or the weather turns wet, sending the nuts mouldy

Despite these odds, the archaeological evidence reckons macadamias have evolved and been happily growing and fruiting in this area (and also in South East Queensland) for the last 50,000,000 years; give or take a million years . Likewise, the locals have been enjoying and trading them in season for at least the last 30,000 years.
Bparum, kindal kindal, moon nuts, bush nuts, jindilli, Queensland nuts, macadamia nuts, maccas, , Maroochy nut, Bauple nut, macadamia integrifolia, Mullumbimby nut, tetraphylla nuts, Hawaiian nut, macaz or even gonutz are some of the different names attached to those hard brown nuts that tumble from the trees around Dunoon . They have been, and still are, a big part of this districts history.
Ms Colleen Wall, a senior woman of the Kabi clan of South East Queensland, gave a talk at the last Australian Macadamia Society AGM and explained a lot of the history and mythology surrounding the macadamia in her area. It was a very generous and detailed story and can be read in full in the printed report of the meeting. To the Kabi clan the nuts are known as “bparum” which translates as “moon nut” in English. I won’t try and repeat the story here as it’s a sacred story to the Kabi people and I may not be entitled to tell their story In any case I’d probably get it wrong!

FROM THE HISTORY BOOKS:

Moving along: and from the whitefella’s history books we read that about 150 years ago (historically a few minutes ago) the name Macadamia was devised by the German /Australian botanist Ferdinand von Mueller who came across the trees in Queensland and used the name of his mate, John Macadam, so as to identify them for scientific western classification.

Fast forwarding to 30 years ago (couple of seconds historically) and the few scattered small orchards on the east coast of Australia and the fairly large industry in Hawaii ( selling Hawaiian Nuts!!) have grown under the whitefella dreaming of “keep planting millions of them and the customers will come”. Numbers of trees planted have raced along until now there are around 9 million trees in Australia; another 9 million in South Africa; several million in South America and Central America and a few million in Hawaii. China and Vietnam are also giving them a run as are Kenya, Uganda and who knows where else. Is it possible to have too much of a good thing?

Don’t know about overseas but in Australia chances are that a large number of the trees planted won’t come to much as they are planted too densely or on unsuitable land. Consultants and bank managers have worked on the model that if 40 trees to the acre are good then 200 to the acre must be lots better. What looks good on paper is a disaster in the real world where overcrowding leads to heavy disease pressure . Add to that the shading effect of too many trees and reduced yields are the result. The only likely increase under this model is disease and debt. Avocado growers found this out in the 60’s and 70’s when overcrowded orchards stopped bearing. A fruity philosopher might suggest “The sunshine factor”. Always allow a little sunshine in your life!
While thinking of the 60’s and 70’s I also recall (or is it just a scary flashback ?) back then there were people who believed they had the power to predict the future. They were warning of coming disasters such as:
• Famine and pestilence from overpopulation
• Environmental catastrophe
• Acid rain falling from the sky
• Nuclear winter .
• M.A.D (mutually assured destruction) nuclear war
• Collapse of society and share markets
• No more oil
• End of the world
Its 40 years later and the world’s still here (better than ever) so a new generation of people with the super powers are giving their future predictions a run.
Apart from a nasty bug called Y2K that was going to end life as we knew it and then the scary WMD’s lurking in our cities; the new biggy is that there is too much hot air in the form of CO2 (I’m a believer) and its leading to climate change. I always say good flim flam needs an element of truth. Its still undecided whether that means our climate will get hotter or colder or somewhere in between. No matter. Everything will work out fine if we pay our protection money and leave everything to the very serious “Minister for Climate Change” . A Minister for Silly Walks could no doubt help too but what I’d really like to see is a Minister for Sunshine. Now that would be impressive!