Passionfruit Communications Program

Project Overview

The delivery partner selected to undertake this project was the team from Passionfruit Australia Inc (PAI). The selection process involved a tender process where Passionfruit Australia Inc submitted a proposal in line with the requirements of the project. The current project will operate for three years, finishing in 2025.

During this period PAI will deliver the following elements:

Planning & Reporting:
- An annually reviewed and updated Industry Communication Strategy, published using the Hort Innovation Template
- Interim reports provided using the Milestone Report Template, every 6 months until the end of the project
- Mid-Term Review produced following a consultative grower survey designed in consultation to Hort Innovation to identify grower communication needs and analyse the project performance against these needs
- Final Report clearly highlighting the impact this R&D has provided for the Australian passionfruit industry
Events:
- Regional Field Days will be planned and implemented to occur every 6 months, targeting the quieter months of March and October. Locations proposed provide fair coverage across growing regions to optimise attendance by growers and to deliver equitable benefits to all levy-payers.
- A Joint Tropical Industry Event will be planned to occur in the third year of the project life.
Ongoing communication:
- Update of the website passionfruitaustralia.org.au
- Bi-monthly ‘Passiflora News’ sent to all subscribers to provide timely updates about R&D projects, industry issues, innovations and vital business updates regarding IR, WHS and legislative changes
- Annual magazine ‘The Passion Vine’ revitalised and produced in both hard copy and e-magazine (PDF) format for distribution to all levy-payers and key industry stakeholders as directed by Hort Innovation

Delivery Partner

The core team from Passionfruit Australia Inc. that will deliver this project are:

Project Leader – Dennis Chant (President)

Project Leader Dennis Chant holds:
• Degree in Civil Engineering QIT 1975
• Masters Degree in Business Administration (majoring in Capital Project Management) USQ 1992
• Company Directors Diploma UNE 1993
Dennis sits on the board of several institutions including Griffith University (Griffith Aviation Advisory Board), Passionfruit Australia (President), Sunshine Coast Airport, Coffs Harbour Airport and Warrina Services. He is a passionfruit grower himself and participated in the delivery of PF16003. He has a clear understanding of the industry, significant leadership experience and sits on the Passionfruit SIAP.

Project Administrator – Heidi Nash

Heidi has qualifications in public health and a vast array of experience to bring to the role, having worked for non-government organisations in the public health sector, the pet industry and managing a fancy dress hire store for ten years.

She is currently undertaking a permaculture course on a farm in Noosa to learn how to grow her own food and understand systems of food production.

Project Team Member – Jane Richter

Project Team Member Jane Richter holds:
• Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Business Administration and specialising in Consumer Marketing

Jane is a communications industry professional with over 25 years’ experience working in marketing, communications and strategic research across both the UK and Australia. She has managed the existing programme PF16003 from the beginning in 2017 and is a sub-contractor under MT18020 – Facilitating the Development of the Australian Berry Industries responsible for the delivery of the Communication outputs.

Jane has participated in numerous levy-funded projects through Strawberries, Berries, Macadamias and Passionfruit. She has an exceptional background in marketing and communications, and is highly regarded within horticulture. As a former passionfruit grower, and current ginger grower, she understands the challenges growers face, and is able to balance the needs of growers with the requirements of government when delivering projects.

Project Team Member – Sacha Harty

Project Team Member Sacha Harty holds:
• CERT II in Tourism
• Cert III in Business (Office Administration)
• Bachelor of Design (Visual Communication)

Sacha was involved in the final year of PF16003 Communications Program in her position as Industry Services Manager, and currently publishes the Passiflora e-Newsletters. She has significant design and communications experience which allows her to effectively communicate with stakeholders through a wide variety of mediums. Sacha comes from a farming family, and understands the challenges stakeholders face.

Field Day – December 2022

In December 2022 we held a field day at the Sunshine Coast, featuring speakers from Biohub Solutions, Hort Innoation, Arbor Grove Nursery and DAFF.

It was a great chance for growers to re-connect and also meet with key researchers from UQ, who are delivering PF2000 Passionfruit Breeding Program.

Regional Meetings: 2021

Across April and May 2021, we have held a series of three regional Grower get-togethers to bring each region back face-to-face, give growers the chance to re-connect and provide a contact point for the new Hort Innovation extension team lead by Jane Wightman. The meetings were held in Mareeba, Murwillumbah and Palmwoods.

Regional Field Day programme: 2020

We had an ambitious goal again for 2020 and that was to stretch the budget to deliver three really packed days of learning – one per major growing region with the Sunshine Coast and Bundaberg growers coming together half way.

Following the completion of the latest levy-funded project – PF18002: Passionfruit postharvest best practice – we had planned to bring the lead researcher from that project Dr Jenny Ekman to each field day to fully present the findings and for each grower to receive a copy of the Best Practice Guide produced by the project.

Covid-19 came along and spoiled those plans!

Location
739 Mareeba Dimbulah Road, Mareeba
674 Beenham Valley Road, Wolvi
1264 Urliup Road, Murwillumbah

Date
Wednesday 29th April 2020
Wednesday 27th May 2020
Wednesday 29th July

Regional Field Day programme: 2019

Location
Glass House Mountains – Community Centre
Far North Queensland
Northern NSW
Wide Bay / Bundaberg

Date
Wednesday 20th March
Wednesday 19th June
Wednesday 24th July
Wednesday 21st August

Regional Field Day: IPM Glass House Mountains 20th March 2019

The first Regional Field Day of the year was held in Glass House Mountains on Wednesday 20 March. The day was well-attended with growers coming from as far away as Northern NSW and Bundaberg.

The focus for the programme was IPM and the day was packed with learning from a range of sources including product suppliers, industry specialists and the team from Growcom.

All of the farms present completed the Hort360 Best Management Practice Pesticide module, which allowed the Growcom to showcase back to growers near the end of the day how their practices currently benchmark vs other growers and the industry best practice standards. The Growcom Hort360 programme is well worth investigating – it is free to use as a grower and not only provide a huge range of useful resources, but gives you a way to monitor and benchmark your own on-farm practices.

This module & a talk from the Growcom team will feature at all of the IPM field days this year.

After some industry updates, Paul Jones from Bugs for Bugs and Nathan Roy from Drone Agriculture provided useful insights into how you can use beneficial insects to assist with managing certain pest issues on your farm.

In the late afternoon, we moved to a local farm at Beerburrum – thank you very much to the Agostinelli family. At the farm site, Paul gave a really useful quick guide as to how to scout your crop for pests.

Surprisingly, the first thing to look for – Ants. Ants will interfere with your attempts to control red scale in particular as they protect scale to benefit from the honeydew that they produce. Talk to your agronomist or chemicals supplier for recommendations suited to your farm for dealing with ants in the vines.

It is suggested to scout your crop every 2 weeks from planting, checking for any signs of new pest activity. The Field Guide is particularly useful to take with you – and the new Grower Forum can also be handy to take pictures of anything you’re unsure about to seek diagnosis advice from other growers and the technical advisors we have on board.

Other small snippets of really useful include:
* consider swapping out Mancozeb for Copper, or reducing its frequency of application as Mancozeb is known to have an adverse effect on beneficial insects
* when you’re not harvesting fruit, only mow alternate rows so that the beneficials have flowering grasses to breed within, helping to keep your numbers healthy
* Seasol is actually a plant stimulant not a true fertiliser and is compatible with many other sprays
* Seasol can be very useful at planting as it stimulates the development of healthy roots and help plants to cope with heat, drought and cold stress

The day finished with a practical demonstration of the patented drone delivery system used by Drone Agriculture to efficiently spread beneficials supplied by Bugs for Bugs.

If you’d like to understand more about how beneficial insects can assist your IPM programme, give them a call on 07 4646 2628 Monday to Friday 7am – 4pm

Drone Agriculture can provide a full service of insect supply and spreading from the smallest farm to the largest – contact Paul Hubbard 0427 283 422

Regional Field Day: Soil Health, Bundaberg 25 July 2018

The second Regional Field Day of the new programme was held in Bundaberg on Wednesday 25 July. The day was attended by 32 people, with growers coming from as far away as Northern NSW, as well as the sunshine coast and SEQ.

After the introductions were over, Allan Mahoney from MultiKraft gave us an introduction to the role of probiotic bacteria in soil health – as well as a passionfruit regime that can be applied to any farm using products from the MultiKraft range. The same regime can also be applied using a range of products available from other suppliers – its the fundamentals of understanding the role of bacteria in soil and plant health that is important.

We then heard from Bree Grima – the MD of Bundaberg Fruit & Vegetable Growers – who gave us an update on activities in the region and a brief presentation about the Blue Energy Exploration Permits that are potentially being renewed that would allow shale gas exploration in the area.

After a superb roast lunch provided by Louise & the team at Innes Park Country Club, the group moved 2km down the road to Tinaberries – a local farm owned by Bruce & Tina McPherson. Bruce & Tina lead the tour of the passionfruit part of the farm growing grafted Misty Gem passionfruit. The farm also grows exquisite strawberries and is a macadamia nursery – mainly for future planting on the home farm here in Bundaberg.

The afternoon ended with cold drinks, afternoon snacks and some presentations from supplier sponsors about their product ranges and how they could be used to improve the soil health on farm. At the very end of the day, participants completed an anonymous feedback sheet to help us to continually improve the field days and the supplier raffle was held with very generous donations from our participating sponsors.

RFD_Bund_250718_11 — Tony Gordon (Agri-Land Australia) & Paul Walters (Northern AgriServices)

RFD_Bund_250718_14 — Allan Mahoney (MultiKraft)

RFD_Bund_250718_15 — L-R: Ross Brindley, Sean Russell, Aidan Hutton, Mike Blasco

RFD_Bund_250718_16 — Peter Griffiths (Widebay Passionvine Nursery) & Patrick Rooney (Northern AgriServices)

RFD_Bund_250718_112 — Tina McPherson & Louise from Innes Park Country Club

RFD_Bund_250718_119 — Sea Energy & Sea Guard from South Pacific Minerals

RFD_Bund_250718_135 — Attentive audience

RFD_Bund_250718_151 — Simon from Northern AgriServices

RFD_Bund_250718_153 — Jane Richter demonstrating the Roll-in purple passionfruit harvesting tool

Regional Field Day: Soil Health, Beerwah 28 March 2018

Elders_Greev_Valley_Agriculture — L-R: Scott & Jade: Green Valley Agriculture, Anthony & Amanda: Elders

Peter_Korczynski_Jim_Gordon — Peter Korczynski & Jim Gordon

Soil-health-preso — Soil Health talks - Beerwah Community Hall

Jade-King_soil-game — Jade King leads Soil Biology Interactive Exercise

Anton-Stretch-farm-tour — Anton Stretch - Farm tour at Passiondale

Anton-Stretch-farm-tour-3 — A hot afternoon at Passiondale

Rollin-Demo — Roll-in harvesting tool demonstration

Supplier-expo-elders — Supplier Expo: Elders & Zadco

Supplier-expo-katek — Supplier Expo - A great spread from Katek

Anna-Geddes_Rowena_Beveridge_Growcom_Anton_stretch — Growcom team: Anna Geddes & Rowena Beveridge tasting Anton's wares

Supplier-expo-OCP-Jason-Vella_David-Constable — Jason Vella from OCP talks with David Constable

The first Regional Field Day of the new programme was held in Beerwah on the sunshine coast on Wednesday 28 March. The sun made an appearance for the whole day, something that is not occurring frequently this year so far in this area. The day was attended by 45 people, with growers coming from as far away as Bundaberg and Northern NSW, as well as the sunshine coast and SEQ.

After the introductions were over, Jade King a local agronomist and grower from Green Valley Agriculture, lead the participants through an interactive exercise designed to help explain the complex biological and chemical systems which determine the health of your soil.

Second up to the podium was Tony Pattison from the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (QDAF). Tony is an expert in soil health and leads the soil health team at QDAF as well as being the Principal Nematologist. His talk was highly informative and his passion for the topic was very evident.

We then heard from Cynthia Godden, from QRIDA, providing an overview of the financial assistance schemes available to primary producers in Queensland. And finally, Anna Geddes from Growcom gave a brief overview of the Hort360 programme and some of the funded activities currently available to assist growers to understand their farm operations, water flows and soil types using exciting new technology such as LiDar and drone surveillance.

After lunch, the group moved 2km down the road to Passiondale – a local farm & nursery operation owned by Anton & Marcia Stretch. Anton lead the tour of the farm which included a visit to their new nursery facility providing Sweetheart grafted black/purple passionfruit for growers in the SEQ/NNSW areas.

The tour also included a demonstration of the Roll-in units which are used at Passiondale and other farms for harvesting black/purple passionfruit from the ground removing the need for bending over.

The afternoon ended with cold drinks, afternoon snacks and the chance to talk to the supplier sponsors about their product ranges and how they could be used to improve the soil health on farm. At the very end of the day, participants completed an anonymous feedback sheet to help us to continually improve the field days and the supplier raffle was held with nearly everyone walking away with a free item to try.

The new Passion Vine magazine

We hope you’re enjoying the new format and look of The Passion Vine magazine. With advances in digital technology, the magazine is now cheaper and faster to produce. The hard copy of the magazine is digitally printed, saving money and enabling the really vibrant colours to be used throughout the magazine instead of just on the covers.

The content of the magazine is designed to have a broad appeal across the passionfruit industry, with something for everyone – including the kids!

It’s your magazine, so please send us your suggestions for topics you’d like to be covered or people that you’d like to hear about.

READ THE LATEST EDITION

Marketing terms explained

What is a media clip?

A media clip refers to a single article, editorial mention or social media piece which includes information, a recipe or a photo created as a result of the PR and Social Media campaigns carried out by the Hort Innovation team.

What is reach and how is it calculated?

In the application of statistics to advertising and media analysis, reach refers to the total number of different people exposed, at least once, to a message during a given period. It is calculated by looking at the readership of each medium the message is shown in and adding those together across each piece of coverage.

What does ‘opportunity to see’ mean?

Opportunity To See or OTS is a measure in advertising which denotes number of times the viewer is most likely to see the advertisement. It is basically frequency of media exposure.

What are ‘page impressions’?

Tracking page impressions can tell our Marketing team which pages on our website or social media feed have interesting content, as well as indicating the overall site popularity. A page impression is literally the number of times a page is loaded.

If you have other suggestions for marketing terms that need a layman’s explanation, please let us know