‘They got greedy’: Turf wars for Coffs Harbour’s identity

Coffs Harbour made its name on the back of banana plantations. Now they are few and far between but there’s a change in the wind - and even the local fun park just wants to find a worker. Are you the one they are looking for?

The position vacant at arguably the world’s most famous banana farm at Coffs Harbour is a signpost for an industry that has gone from its heyday to near its knees on the Mid-North Coast, and is now climbing back off the canvas.

In a nod to modern ways, The Big Banana tourist destination has been using social media to try and find an experienced grower to join its ranks and look after the long established plantation that sits within the fun park.

Applicants for the 25 hours per week casual posting are advised: “The Big Banana was built in 1964 as Australia’s first ‘Big Thing’ and has developed into a regional fun park with rides and attractions for all ages, but long before this transition, it was, still is, and will continue to be a fully operational banana plantation.”

That the Big Banana needs a worker comes as no surprise to local grower Jeff Eggins who owns and runs a 13-acre plantation at Woolgoolga together with his cousin Max Eggins.

“There would have been 400-plus growers from the Clarence to Nambucca back in the day, but now I would guess there’d be only 25 or 30,” Jeff said.

Douglas, Frank and Barney Cowin at a banana plantation at Valla, circa 1940.

The banana farms which once covered the hills west of Coffs Harbour have been gobbled - either turned into blueberry plantations or swallowed by concrete in the residential housing creep.

While the Eggins boys do all of their own work, Jeff said it was near impossible to find skilled labour in 2022.

“The days of going into the bar and finding someone willing to work, with skills, are long gone. They just don’t exist,” he said.

Flashback: Department of Primary Industries banana industry development officer Matt Weinert and grower Jeff Eggins. Picture: David Barwell / Coffs Coast Advocate.

Jeff said many who had turned farms over from banana to blueberry were now having second thoughts - with some changing back.

“They got greedy. They (blueberry growers) started off with five to 10 acres and then went bigger and that brought a glut in the market and prices dropped,” he said.

He said blueberry growers also faced much higher overheads than banana farms.

Flashback: Fourth generation banana growers Domic Canale and Jason Gentle deliver some their banan bunch entries for the Coffs Harbour Show. Picture: Trevor Veale / Coffs Coast Advocate.

“Blueberries are very labour heavy. They need a lot of chemicals and fertiliser and then you need the pickers,” Jeff said.

“Bananas are coming back, some of the original Indian growers are changing back.”

The Australian Banana Growers’ Council has the big picture view - and acknowledges the changing face of the industry on the Coffs Coast.

The Coffs Harbour region and Northern Rivers of NSW were the main growing areas until the late 1900s, when North Queensland began to ramp up production, the council’s communications officer Amy Spear said.

The Queen and Princess Ann looking at a bunch of bananas at Coffs Harbour on April 11, 1970. Picture: John Rotar Collection.

Today, NSW accounts for about four per cent of national production, providing just over 16,000 tonnes of banana in the 2020-’21 financial year.

“While the industry is now predominantly placed in Far North Queensland, there is definitely still demand for subtropical bananas,” Ms Spear said.

“Plenty of people enjoy the taste - bananas in subtropical regions take longer to grow, resulting in a sweeter fruit. As well as cavendish, growers in the Coffs region produce other varieties including lady fingers and ducasse.”

Coffs Harbour's Big Banana has been a tourist drawcard since day dot.

Jeff Eggins said while the local industry faces challenges - particularly with a “poor” price return from the major supermarkets - he’s confident of its future.

“We supply a shop in Grafton direct so we’ve taken out the middle man and that has kept us in business,” he said, “and if we have any excess in summer we send it to Sydney.”

No tourist trip to Coffs Harbour was complete without a tramp around The Big Banana.

Back at The Big Banana, they’re looking for someone who is “motivated, hardworking and physically fit to join the team in arguably, the most famous banana plantation in the world”.

As evidence of the park’s commitment to the crop which gave it its name, the ‘Big Banana’ out the front has recently had a fresh lick of paint - more than 30 litres all told.

The sizeable job at the must-do photo stop for tourists took a team of four from NAC Painting two-and-a-half days.

All done: NAC Painting has the nation’s original Big Thing looking fresh as.

While it’s not quite the ask of recoating the Sydney Harbour Bridge - a running Australian joke - the team revealed it will be giving the icon a fresh dress of mostly yellow every five years.

All the materials for the job were supplied by Inspirations Paint Coffs Harbour, a locally owned business who didn’t want to miss the chance to have their product on the nation’s first Big Thing.