Yarra Valley Essay

In the Yarra Valley, the area around Healesville was initially occupied by the Yarra Yarra or Wurrundjeri Aboriginal group. By 1863 these people were settled at the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reservation on Badger Creek (figure 1), which soon became Victoria’s largest Aboriginal reserve until its closure in 1924. The Yarra Valley is one of the most important drainage basin and food production region in Australia. The area of Yarra Valley is approximately 5000 kilometers squared, and its border is located 25 kilometers of Melbourne’s CBD. It’s bordered by Whittleseas, Lilydale, Healesville etc. The Yarra catchment is depended on by most Melbourne’s 4 million people, for its water supply. The eastward expansion is encouraged by the Yarra Valley’s attractive landscape.
Recently there has been few conflicts whether or not the farming practices in Yarra Valley are considered to be sustainable or not. Based on the evidence collected on our field trip (6th of october), it is believed that farming practices in the yarra valley are becoming increasingly sustainable. However, there are some areas of the Yarra Valley that can be more sustainable. Some of these include water sustainability, reuse of waste, herbicides, no chemical spray, carbon sink, hydroponics, recycling and use in synthetic products in some farms in the Yarral Valley. Rayner’s stonefruit orchard is a farm 63 km east from Melbourne, and south-east from Woori Yallock. The farm is surrounded by forests and is opposite to Lusatia Park Dexter Stud. From the orchard, a number of mountain ranges can be seen. The area is densely populated with flora such as trees and grass. Although the land is still mainly used for agriculture, the farm has also been converted into a tourist attraction as it has been contributing into a Melbourne tour program that allows customers to pick their own fruit. They also produce delicious jam preserves and marmalades from their excess fruit. Having a farm in the Yarra Valley has many advantages such as: good rainfall, space, and fewer food miles for consumers of Melbourne. However, on the other hand, there are a few negatives aspects of having a farm situated in the Yarra Valley such as having unpredictable weather. In addition, during extremely hot weather, there are chances that a bushfire may occur. The farm uses human and natural re to produce the products in the farm. Some of the human re are: changing the root stock, mowing the grass, fertile, picking and pruning of the fruit and power ladder to pick fruits growing to high off reach and some of the natural re are: sun, rainfall, fertile soil, flat land etc. The farms in Yarra Valley are by far different compared to other farms around the world because they grow over 361 different plant varieties. Therefore, this allows them to have a particular ‘fruit season’ and more fruit stock throughout the year. This sustainable practice cuts down food miles for the consumers in Melbourne. The consumers of these products are 90% local and 10% global/national, providing no wholesalers. Rayners fruit orchard is sustainable and becoming increasing sustainable due to three crucial farming practices which may be similar to other farms in the Yarra Valley. 1. The fruit orchard uses 15 megalitres of water for 11 hectares of land whilst other farms usually use 15 megalitres of water per hectares. 2. The farm waste gets collected and are put into drum where they attract insects. This prevents insects and other pests from destroying the plants, fruits and trees. This is a more organic and efficient way to get rid of pests other than infecting plan with pesticides. 3. The fruits are hand-picked. This is much better than using machines to pick fruits as this can damage the fruits, trees and land. Also, fuel would be saved and no carbon emissions from fruit picking would be released into the air. When the fruits were too high to pick, the farmer would use a power ladder, or a cherry picker (figure 2) to elevate them.
These three practises insure a sustainable natural farm, farming practises wise. The orchard uses farms wastes to attract pest and eradicate them. It’s a very smart tactic to battle pests without the use of chemical spray over the plants. the future for this farm aims to produce over 400 varieties of fruits in total. However, after all the sustainable features that the Rayner's stonefruit orchard contains, it still lacks few features that could would have made the fruit orchard even more sustainable. One of them would be adding renewable energy. Renewable energy are beneficial in several different ways. As renewable energy is renewable, therefore it means it will never run out. Sunshine, strong winds, heat within the earth, moving water can provide us with vast and steady energy resource supplies. Renewable energy also emits little or no waste products such as carbon dioxide and due to this it has a minimal impact on the environment. Lastly, renewable energy is much cheaper and can be financial advantages to numerous local territories, as most projects are located away from rural
areas.
The Big Bouquet is modern flower farm that is located Healesville and is about 63 kilometers northeast from Melbourne CBD. The big bouquet produce two very unique products: gerbera flowers, and alpaca wool products. This farm is home to dozens of breeds of alpacas: such as black, cream, and black/white.
Farms around the world have different ways to keep their farms as sustainable as possible. However every farms in Yarra Valley approaches to sustainability in different way and utilizes these characteristics to their own advantage. The Big Bouquet uses a hydroponic water system and nutrient recycling control system (FIgure 3), where the rainwater is collected on the glass roof of the greenhouse and is stored in a reservoir and this goes through a system which adds nutrients to make the water suitable for the gerberas. The owner of this orchard also tries to minimize the amount of chemicals used and uses soft chemicals which are oil based sprays. The owner also doesn’t discard his plants and uses these plants as a potting mix. The flower pots are also specially designed so that the remaining water that drips from the bottom is collected. The remaining water is collected in a gutter and is being reused. However, as this system is all computerised, it uses a lot of electricity to run this and is powered by natural gas. Although it is evident that they are working on creating a machine capable of regenerating energy with natural gas, more research should be put into utilising this more efficiently because until it is achieved, the farm will be struggling to work around the concerning effects it is impacting on the environment. Moreover, most of the packaging used in the Big Bouquet is recyclable but some plastics are used, and new methods should be implemented to avoid this.
Yarra Glen is situated is a small town situated near the Yarra River and is about 40 kilometers north-east of Melbourne CBD. There are few advantages of Yarra Glen such as having a peaceful neighbourhood, clean environment and access to fresh food from the local supermarket. The town is suitable for families with young kids as it has a pre-school, parkland and playground for the young kids. The town also contains a lake which is great way to attract tourist.