Cynthia Barbagallo

The Barbagallo farm is located in Mareeba on the Atherton tablelands and although it is petite at just 400 vines, the farm is beautifully laid out to overhead trellis.

The Barbagallo family are of Italian descent and hail from Far North Queensland. Dale & Cynthia met when Cynthia was just 16 years old and they have been together ever since. Life got an awful lot busier for the couple as they welcomed first daughter Lacey (now 9) then another daughter Maiya (now 7) into the world in the last decade. And it was this second child Maiya that helped to bring the couple into passionfruit farming four years ago.

Maiya has some special needs as she has been diagnosed on the autism spectrum and passionfruit farming gives Cynthia the opportunity to not only be her own boss, but to work to a timetable that she runs around Maiya’s needs.

Cynthia has always wanted a vineyard, but grapes simply wouldn’t work on the tablelands so passionfruit it had to be! Husband Dale still works away from the farm part-time and so it was critical to find a crop that Cynthia could manage on her own for most of the year.