Pathfinders Tilbuster Team took a group of young people on an excursion to Dorrigo last week in the lead-up to Pathfinders annual Pumpkin Run. Visiting the local Plateau Farm, where the team took a deep dive into commercial pumpkin farming.
The Dorrigo Plateau is situated at the top of the Great Divide and is well known for its rich agricultural and grazing land. The area boasts a number of large vegetable and dairy farms.
Visiting the Plateau Farm was a great learning experience. The local farm has been growing pumpkins commercially for a number of years distributing produce right across Australia. The visit was an opportunity for the team to learn about the industry and pick up some of the tricks of the trade.
After a tour of the farm’s greenhouses and fields, our young people had the opportunity to ask some questions about the industry and the different techniques used by the farmers for the best results.
Over the past few years at Tilbuster Station, our teams have grown tonnes of pumpkins for donation to our annual Pumpkin Run. Each year the team works hard to grow our pumpkins and to manage the weeds that grow between and around the pumpkin plants. Our team took the opportunity to discuss the different techniques and strategies that the farmers have been using to control the weeds.
After the tour, the team stopped off for lunch under a 900-year-old Tallowood tree, to expand on the work the team have been doing back at Tilbuster Station. Over the past few weeks, the team have been cutting and clearing trees at Tilbuster Station. Our team chose to stop for lunch to show the young people, just how impressive trees really are and why it is important to know the difference between species, before cutting down trees. The Tallowood trees are common to Eastern NSW and can grow to a height of 40 – 60 meters tall. For some of the young people on the excursion, this was the first time they had seen such a large tree, and were blown away by it size.
