Getting cuppa’s

IN the hills south of Hobart is the world’s southernmost tea plantation, home of Australia’s oldest commercial grower and processor of Japanese green tea.

With an eye on caring for the environment, the tea grown by Gordon and Jane Brown at Allens Rivulet is certified pesticide free, with solar energy powering the irrigation pumps and tea processing plant.

The couple has created Tasmania’s only tea plantation, with 4000 bushes on half a hectare, and developed the brand Tassie-T.

Tasmania’s cool temperate climate is ideal for producing supreme quality leaves.

Innovation is in the DNA of the Browns, Gordon has a Masters degree in agriculture from the University of Sydney, a Doctor of Philosophy degree from the University of Western Sydney and a graduate diploma in education.

Jane, who has more than 30 years of experience in food re- search, has a Bachelor of Education degree specialising in food and nutrition and holds a Masters degree in Science Education through Curtin University.

About 28 years ago, Dr Brown, who specialised in post-harvest horticulture, when working for the state Department of Agriculture was tasked with investigating the process of turning the fresh green leaves of camellia sinensis into tea for drinking.

The project was shelved but Dr Brown pressed on with his own plantation.

“It’s been an ongoing process of innovation and improving on what we do,” Dr Brown said.

The plants in their tea garden are a Japanese variety of the Chinese native camellia, which in their natural state can grow to almost 5m high.

“The bulk of the black tea drunk in the world is from the Indian native camellia and green tea is dominated by the Chinese native,” he said.

Dr Brown said that from planting it took about five years for first harvest, hitting full harvest within the next five years.

“Even though I’ve been involved in horticulture all of my life, this is the first crop I’ve ever felt inspired to grow,” he said.

The Browns were at Huon Small Farms Expo at Ranelagh yesterday to talk to people about setting up a small holding with a focus on tea.

“I believe we have real potential for growing quality tea in Tasmania as it has a temperature profile very similar to Darjeeling in India. The most important thing in growing tea is irrigation. Tea is so resilient and we have no major pests and diseases here in Tasmania,” Dr Brown said.