Beef capital shoots Bowen arrow, claims mango too
Published on 10 March, 2011
There's an old joke that Bowen is known for three things ... the Bowen mango, the Bowen tomato and the Bowen arrow.
Now some folk in Rockhampton are suggesting the beef capital can lay claim to be the birthplace of the $140 million mango industry. Are they joking too?
The claim has gathered some momentum, as Rockhampton history buffs establish a web presence in homage to French botanist Anthelme Thozet, who established a sweeping experimental garden estate called Muellerville.
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There's some suggestion that a mango tree in Rockhampton's Mason Street was the very first one planted in Australia. Thozet is said to have grown the first cotton in Australia and the first wheat in Rockhampton, as well as pioneering the study of Aboriginal bush tucker. The estate helped introduce other commercial crops to the region, including tea, sugar, coffee, pepper, spices and olives.
The Australian Mango Industry Association is not picking sides, although its Industry Development Manager Trevor Dunmall says Bowen is accepted as the home of the mango, due to the association between the term 'Bowen Mango' and the popular Kensington Pride variety.
Trevor says there's a belief that horse traders brought the mango into Australia in the mid-1800s. The industry is now predominantly based in the Mareeba, Dimboola, Burdekin and Bowen regions of Queensland, with around 30% in the Darwin and Katherine regions of the Northern Territory.
"There's also smaller production regions throughout Australia, including Western Australia and central south-east Queensland, with a few trees down to northern NSW," he says.
"Australia produces about 7.5 million trays which equates to about 50,000 tonnes and that's just the fresh market. Another 15-20% of production goes into juice and processing fruit."
More details at: http://www.mangoes.net.au/