Sturgess family retiring after 47 years in the melon game

Murray and Wendy Sturgess have made a living from melons for almost five decades, purchasing multiple properties and funding their cattle operation, which they plan to fully divert to at the completion of this growing season.

Mr Sturgess said the rising number of regulations had been slowly stifling their family-run operation, and had finally become too much for them to continue in the industry.

"We just can't keep up with the cost of it for one, and then the red tape and bookwork of it all, it's just too much for a small family farm," he said.

"We used to do Freshcare for, I would say 20 years, and it was easily enough achieved and I would have thought that was good enough, but then the chain stores wanted to bring in their own systems.

"It's a big burden to get up to date with the audit, it's expensive and it's a lot of work for a family farm."

While Mr Sturgess runs the growing and picking side of their operation, Ms Sturgess is in charge of the packing and dispatch, and they hoped to one day pass the baton onto the younger generation.

"I would have thought that one of my grandkids would have taken over and kept going but I just can't see that happening now because once someone drops out, it's too hard to get back in and start from scratch," he said.

"We bought three properties out of melon growing and it's been really, really good to us, and it's not that we wanted to leave, I would say we're being forced out.

"It's not only melon growers, it's all fruit and veggies, we're all under the same banner.

"The smaller family farm that's grown quality fruit for so many years is in jeopardy, and I think in the next few years, you won't see many left."

Mr Sturgess said it was a huge shame for the Chinchilla district to see such a massive decline in melon producers over the last two decades, considering it had been known as "the melon capital of Australia" for many years.

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"I think it's a shame for the future of this area, because we've got plenty of places to grow good melons and Chinchilla has had a great place in the industry for so many years," he said.

"People here at the festival kept saying to us that they'd never tasted melon like this and that's true, Chinchilla has always had a great name for melons

"That's going to change because even the few growers that are left are questioning themselves on the workload and being able to keep up with it all.

"We've dropped from 25 odd growers, 20 years ago, where we used to have a fruit and veggie association in Chinchilla, to now only three growers left, and next year there will only be two."

In addition to the pressure of red tape, the Sturgess's said the labour shortage had also made things increasingly difficult, particularly around picking time.

Ms Sturgess said they generally had enough hands during the school holidays, as their grandkids and mates were always keen to get in and help out, but things became much trickier towards the end of the season.

The family completed their final pick last week, and were lucky that their grandson Drew could spare a few hours before his maths exam to help get the last of the melons out before they became too heat affected.

Now, the Sturgess family will look to focus on their 260 head Angus breeder herd, as well as making the most of more free time to travel.

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