Imagine, Every Tropical Fruit in the World All on One FarmPrepared by Harold Stephens
Travel Correspondent for Thai Airways International
We who live in Thailand know our tropical fruit. We couldn’t survive without papaya and rambutan. We love our mango and sticky rice and, for breakfast, it may be pomelo. For dessert, it’s custard-apple, chilled. And there’s more, much more.
Indeed, we all know our tropical fruit – or do we? At least that’s what I thought when I was visiting Brisbane on the Australian Gold Coast, when my Australian friends, for an afternoon outing, insisted we visit a tropical fruit garden.
Were they serious? I didn’t come all the way to Australia to see some tropical fruit trees and plants, but when the kids of my friends jumped up and down with joy at the thought; I had to go along with the idea. After all, I was their guest. What resulted was something I totally didn’t expect.
The place where they took me is a few miles north of Brisbane, a 165-acre farm called Tropical Fruit World, a truly fitting name. The farm boasts of having, in cultivation, every tropical fruit on our planet. What is even more remarkable, it was founded by one man, Bob Brinsmead, who had a vision. At first it was a wild idea, maybe even a bit crazy. Mr. Brinsmead was visiting South America and became fascinated by some of the fruit he found growing there. He brought a few saplings back to his farm north of Brisbane and planted them. That was more than thirty years ago. He found the climate suited the saplings well; and then came the idea, and the quest was on. In the course of several years, travelling the world over, he brought back fruit plants from every continent, including South America and Africa. Soon he had the largest collection of tropical fruit trees and plants in the world.
Growing new kinds of tropical fruit, however, was more than placing a sapling in the ground and watching it grow. Horticultural enterprise was needed. These new arrivals required a lot of experimentation and observation. There was the concern about animals, both wild and domestic, that feasted on the crop requiring the plantation to be fenced in. Vast areas had to be netted overhead to keep birds at bay. In the early days, avocados and lychees were the new rage. Today, of course, they are as common as mangoes. Then about 20 years ago, they started to grow many other new things such as Black Sapotes, Casimiroas, and Sapodillas. These are now well known within the exotic fruit industry. Hard work and patience were required and it paid off. The Brinsmeads work closely with Queensland and Southern Cross Universities researching new fruit crops and new uses for the many fruits grown on the plantation. Their most recent discovery of a new use for an old-time favourite fruit is the Tropicology skin care range based on avocado oil. There are 14 different research gardens.
At Tropical Fruit World you not only see the fruit trees and plants up close but you can also taste the various fruits. Every afternoon after Malcolm Harm, the Tours Supervisor at Tropical Fruit World, returns from conducting a train trip around the farm he cuts up fruit for visitors to try. And I guarantee there will be some that visitors have never heard of before, like Cuisaro and White Wax Jambu. The list is endless.
There are more gardens in Fruit World than one can imagine—South Pacific, Indian, Aztec, Chinese, Amazon, rare fruit garden, and some odd gardens like Bush Tucker Garden, Medical Garden and one called the Miracle Fruit Garden. I was fortunate to have Malcolm Harm to lead the small group that I was on. He had us stop at one garden called the Miracle Garden and try some of the Miracle fruit. I didn’t think much about it, some rather bitter seeds that Malcolm asked us to suck on before splitting them out. After a ten-minute drive he stopped the tractor, took out a few lemons and sliced them into quarters, and asked us to suck on them. Low and behold, the lemons were like sweet oranges. The Miracle fruit did it.
Later Malcolm clued us in on the Miracle Fruit. The plant produces berries that, when eaten, cause bitter and sour foods (such as lemons and limes) consumed later to taste sweet. It is truly a miracle fruit. According to Malcolm, an attempt was made in the 1970s to commercialize the ability of the fruit to turn non-sweet foods into sweet foods, but ended in failure when the FDA (Food and Drug Act) in America, under pressure from the sugar industry, had to turn it down.
Another discovery is the Black Sapote fruit, which tastes like chocolate sauce but with fewer calories. There's also the Tropical Passion gourmet food line created by Bob Brinsmead’s daughter, chef Sally, who also creates exotic taste sensations based on fruit and Australian produce in the Rainforest Café at Tropical Fruit World.
But there is much more than sampling the fruit. Visitors can tour the plantation by tractor, boat and even a miniature toy train. We traveled all three means and got an education while doing so. We saw fruit under cultivation and stopped now and then to crush some cashew nuts and taste lichen right from the trees.
The walking tour is a pleasant way to get around and learn about tropical fruit. Depending on the season, you may discover the world's largest avocado in winter, 50 different varieties of mango in summer, dragon fruit in autumn, and in spring the incredible Aztec Garden with groves of chocolate pudding fruit, chewing gum fruit, mamey sapote, canistel, star apples and sleeping trees. There are a number of different walking tracks through the rainforest–Koala Way, Possum Way, the Hidden Lake Circuit, Red Gum Lane (fitness climb) and so on. The Circuit goes around the Hidden Lake, so called because it is nestled in a little valley and surrounded with trees and cannot be seen until the walker is at the water’s edge of the water catchment. This place is a bird watcher’s paradise. It also happens to be an idyllic fitness trail for some of the people who work at Tropical Fruit World. It is also the home of many wild bush turkeys that build large compost heaps out of leaves to hatch their eggs
If walking is a bit much, another way is to travel is by tractor train for a safari through the plantation. The trees and plants are well marked so there is no mistaking them. And then there is the Miniature Train. Everyone, it seems, wants to be young again and ride the train. The engineer will stop to let passengers watch koala bears feast on the eucalyptus that hover over the train track. Or else he will halt the train to let a water dragon scramble across the track and plunge into the rainforest waterway.
There’s still another way to get around and that is by taking the Jungle River Cruise. It’s all aboard the “Waterdragon” for a cruise along a jungle river teeming with wildlife. From the comfort of the riverboat, you can feed the wild birds, spot the strongest bird in the world, and keep an eye out for waterdragons, turtles and often a carpet snake coiled contentedly on a branch just out of reach.
Tropical Fruit World has a Fauna Park where there are farm and native animals waiting for a friendly pat and a handout. You can meet Sherman, the biggest draft horse imaginable, and Jacko, the smallest breed of horse in the world. Needless to say, my group took delight in going into the fauna enclosure to feed the kangaroos and emus. Food is on hand to feed the animals.
The shopping facilities at Fruit World include a Farm Fruit Market and Nursery, and Gift Shop featuring their own Tropical Passion range of jams, sauces and teas, and Tropicology Avocado Skincare beauty products.
In 1992 Tropical Fruit World won the Award of Distinction for Environmental Tourism in Queensland. This plantation paradise is situated on the rim of the largest extinct volcano in the southern hemisphere and offers breathtaking views of the Tweed Valley and McPherson Ranges. And it’s only ten minutes away from the Gold Coast Airport that welcomes both international and domestic visitors to an authentic taste of Australia. Tropical Fruit World is open daily from 10:00am to 5:00pm.
As a last word, before going to Tropical Fruit World I used to hold that tasting is believing. Now I ask: Is it?
Next week I will be guiding readers on another adventure, searching for World War 11 wrecks. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERSQ. Thank you very much for mentioning last week about the coming Orchid Show on 15-17 March 2009 at Inle Lake in Myanmar. I am enclosing a photo of the lady Thai reporter, Chanida, for TTR Weekly, with one of our Inle Lake orchids. I know, it’s difficult to determine which is prettier, the lady of the orchid. –Phyoe Wai Yar Zar, Managing Director, All Asia Exclusive, Yangon
A. Thank you for the photo. I agree, it’s a difficult choice.
Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail: ROH Weekly Travel (booking@inet.co.th)
Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited. | 
