Christmas tree farm ready for the festive season

SOUTH Burnett farmer Debbie Bunker has turned her passion for the festive season into a growing business.

Christmas tree farmer Debbie Bunker with some of the trees almost ready to be cut. Picture: Will Hunter

SOUTH Burnett farmer Debbie Bunker has turned her passion for the festive season into a growing business.

Mrs Bunker started growing Christmas trees on her Benair property nearly a decade ago.

"I've always loved Christmas. My husband does a lot of other things on the farm and my kids were still home and I wanted something I could do on the farm,” she said.

"Nobody was doing it.”

Mrs Bunker is one of few Christmas tree farmers in Queensland, and supplies trees to families living in the South Burnett, Brisbane and Toowoomba.

"In Victoria and Sydney there are huge farms,” she said.

"It took a while to get people educated that in Queensland we can have cut trees in our home.

"Everybody associates it with cold weather.

"We grow a different variety that withstands our climate here.”

The cut Christmas trees start their life as little cuttings, which are potted.

Once the trees are a year old, they are planted in the ground.

"We have everything running on a three-year process. That's how long it takes once we get it in the ground,” Mrs Bunker said.

"We have trees growing at difference stages so we have continuity for cut trees.”

The farm also supplies potted trees to retail outlets across Queensland.

Mrs Bunker's farm will be filled with families next month looking to select their tree in time for Christmas Day.

"Little kids have flags and put them beside the trees they want and then they get to take them home,” he said.

"When people come out to the farm or deliver trees, that's the best part.

"They're so excited because they have a tree.

"It's a really intimate thing for some people and I get a real kick out of it.”