Collaboration cultivates grower learnings across the state
Throughout 2025, 130 horticulture growers across the Great Barrier Reef Catchment - from Gympie in the south to Tolga and Mareeba in the north - rolled up their sleeves for hands-on, peer-to-peer workshops focused on sharpening pest management practices.
Targeting spray efficiencies, IPM, and practical plant pest control, the workshops delivered tools growers could apply immediately - while supporting improved Reef water quality.
IPM prevails over pest problems
Integrated Pest Management (IPM) specialist Dan Papacek from Bugs for Bugs, presented at workshops in Mareeba and Bowen, tailoring content to regional production systems - tropical tree crops in the Far North and vegetables in the Burdekin.
Discussion covered key IPM strategies including beneficial insects, mulching, pruning, companion planting, weed management and crop rotation. Growers explored practical scenarios critical to building beneficial populations and strengthening natural pest suppression, such as:
When is the right time to release beneficials?
How do you assess existing natural predator populations?
What small management changes can shift pest pressure?
In Mareeba, the workshop also incorporated insights from Spotting Bug and Oriental Mite research. Delivered with Gulf Savannah NRM it brought together perspectives from government, industry, growers and NRM stakeholders.
Spray precision in practice
Following strong grower interest in pests and spray technology, Growcom’s Hort360 GBR Facilitator Paula Ibell collaborated with spray consultant Don Thorp from HortSpray to deliver eight small-group Spray Precision in Practice sessions across Far North Queensland, the Burdekin, Central Queensland and Bundaberg.
These hands-on sessions provided field-based training where growers were able to test their own spray units using water-sensitive paper to assess coverage, observe and discuss results, and make adjustments in real time.
In Bundaberg, Dr Liqi Han from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) added another layer, demonstrating how LiDAR scanning can simulate changes to spray set-ups to improve coverage and reduce drift.
Subsidised through the Queensland Government’s SmartAg Queensland initiative, delivered by the Queensland Farmers’ Federation, the sessions provided growers with access to high-level expert support at a fraction of the commercial cost.
Working together for better outcomes
Hort360 GBR Facilitator Paula Ibell, said the strong participation by growers highlights the benefits of fostering relationships between industry experts, academic and government researchers, and growers, to address on-farm needs.
“When you get the right people in a room talking about relevant and practical issues that impact productivity you know growers are going home with tools in their tool kit to help address the everyday issues and decisions that they are dealing with,” Paula said.
“While there is no silver bullet for pest management there are a range of strategies that can be used together to improve tree health and fruit quality, for better production outcomes, and minimise their operations’ impact on waterways to help reduce impacts on Reef water quality.”
Growcom’s initiative in delivering this series demonstrates what can be achieved when complementary, government-funded programs are aligned – combining resources, expertise and industry networks to deliver meaningful outcomes for growers, our industry, and Reef water quality.
Growers in the GBR catchments interested in participating in future activities of the Hort360 GBR project are encouraged to reach out to the team.
The Hort360 GBR Project is funded through the Queensland Government’s Queensland Reef Water Quality Project.
