Mango season kicks off

Sweet memories: Laurence O’Reilly, of Theresa Creek, and his mother, Frances, in front of the old mango trees that have been growing outside the family home in Johnston Street, Casino, for as long as anyone can remember.

Jacklyn Wagner

LAURENCE O’REILLY fondly recalls the halcyon days of mangoes when his roadside stall in front of their house in Johnston Street, Casino, would pull in serious pocket money.

Mr O’Reilly’s mother, Frances, still lives in the house and he has vivid memories of the summer holidays which revolved around the mango trees still overhanging the footpath today.

“People would be pulling up on their way through from Victoria and Sydney because they didn’t have mangoes down south back then,” he said.

“I can still remember when the Aquarius Festival was on at Nimbin and us kids were sitting out there and all the hippies were coming through from down south and stopping at our stall.”

Yesterday, the mango season officially kicked off when the first box went under the hammer at the Sydney Markets charity mango auction for the princely sum of $30,000.

The proceeds will go to the Children’s Hospital Institute of Sports Medicine and the Prostate Cancer Foundation of NSW.

While the price paid was well under last year’s record of $40,000, this year’s season, while running about three weeks late across the tropics and Northern NSW, is shaping up to be a good one, according to industry pundits.

Mark Napper, the Northern NSW representative for the Australian Mango Industry Association, said it was early days yet for NSW growers.

He said the first mangoes were coming in from the Northern Territory, and the Far North Queensland harvest would soon hit the market, but that NSW growers wouldn’t start their harvest until next February.

“Last year was a great season, with the hot, dry spring giving local mango growers a lot of confidence,” he said.

“That was the first good season for some time, but this season is shaping up well, too.”

Last year the exotic fruit was in such abundance it was literally being given away, or rotting on the ground, as North Coasters struggled to keep pace with the record harvest.

Wheelie bins full of discarded mangoes from household trees were weighing in at more than double the load limit, creating havoc for local council workers trying to empty them.