Our Australian fresh produce growing tradition began in the Granite Belt region in the 1930s. Founding father Battista Baronio left his hometown of Brescia in northern Italy’s Great Lakes region in 1927 and, like many Italians of the era, cut sugar cane at Innisfail, Far North Queensland.
After contracting dengue fever, he moved to the dry climate of the Granite Belt to recover. He met and married Vincenza, whose own family emigrated from Calabria, southern Italy in the 1930s when Vincenza was a small girl.
Together Battista and Vincenza raised their family including son and current owner Antonio Giovanni “John” who remembers a childhood spent tending to the vineyard, growing tomatoes and apples.
The Baronios were among many Italian migrants who settled in the Stanthorpe district and whose efforts contributed to Stanthorpe’s proud Italian heritage today.
Our region is blessed with some of Australia’s best climatic conditions for growing premium fruit. Our farm’s altitude of 930 metres above sea level means days are warm and nights are cool. Ours is the only region in Queensland that can produce strawberries and apples at this time. Our long summer daylight hours turn the starch in fruit into natural sugars, resulting in irresistibly sweet strawberries and juicy apples. That’s why Granite Belt-grown apples are considered the best flavoured apples in Australia.
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