What's in season for picking
Australia's picking seasons run all year across its climate zones. Jump to any month, or start with what's ripe this September.
What's picking this weekend — the farms whose own season dates cover right now, each with the date we last checked it.
Ripe to pick this September
Browse by month
Why Australia has no single picking season
Australia runs from the tropics to the Southern Ocean, so the picking calendar is not one season but a stack of overlapping regional ones. In the southern states the pattern is the one most people expect: berries and stone fruit through spring and summer, apples and pears into autumn, then a quiet winter. Tasmanian strawberry farms typically run statewide from around October to May, and Victoria's Yarra Valley and Geelong districts are much the same.
Head north and the calendar inverts. South East Queensland grows strawberries as a winter crop — Brisbane and Scenic Rim farms usually pick from about June to October, and Bundaberg from around May — because a Queensland summer is too hot and too wet for the plants to hold fruit. That inversion is the reason picking is open somewhere in the country in every month of the year, and why a single national season date would be misleading. The month tiles above are the fastest way in: December is the broadest month across the south, while August is largely a Queensland and northern NSW story.
Altitude and the coastline matter as much as latitude
How far north a farm sits is only half of it. Elevation and distance from the sea routinely shift a window by a month or two inside a single state. Queensland is the clearest case: while the coastal strawberry farms pick through the cooler months, the Granite Belt around Stanthorpe sits high enough to run the opposite season, roughly October to May with a December to February peak. Same crop, same state, opposite halves of the year.
The effect turns up everywhere once you look. In Victoria, apple orchards in the Yarra Valley and the Dandenongs generally run February to May, while cooler Gippsland orchards around Bunyip and Cardinia often start in April and pick into June. In NSW, blueberries on the Coffs Coast are a winter-into-spring crop of about June to November, while South Coast patches get a short summer window from December into late January. Over in WA, Perth Hills orchards can stretch apples from January all the way to July on late-keeping varieties. Check the region and not just the state before you lock in a date.
Why every date here is an estimate
The month ranges on this site are typical-year estimates drawn from farm and grower sources — they are a planning tool, not a promise. Frost during flowering, a run of hot days, or a wet fortnight at harvest can move an opening by weeks in either direction, and hail can close a window outright. Most farms only confirm their opening date a few weeks ahead, once fruit is genuinely setting, which is why so many of them post patch updates on social media rather than publishing fixed dates.
Short-window crops are where this bites hardest. Cherries are the classic example: Orange picks from about mid-November into January, the Adelaide Hills from mid-November to mid-January, and the Perth Hills only late November into December. Some windows are tighter again — raspberries on SA's Fleurieu Peninsula are essentially an early-December affair, and one Riverland mulberry patch opens for a single weekend each October. The practical order of operations is simple: shortlist from a month page, read the individual farm's page for detail, then ring the farm or check its feed the day before you drive. Our season calendar guide has the crop-by-crop tables, and first-time pick your own walks through what a visit actually involves.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a picking window and a peak?
A window is the whole stretch during which a farm might have fruit worth picking — October to May for Tasmanian strawberries, for instance. The peak is the shorter block inside it when the crop is heaviest and most reliable, which for those same Tasmanian farms is roughly December to February. Visiting near the edges of a window can still be a good day out, but rows are thinner, and a farm may close early if the crop finishes ahead of schedule. If you only have one weekend to spend, aim for the peak.
Which crops have the shortest picking windows?
Cherries and the more delicate berries. Cherry orchards usually get six to eight weeks — Orange from about mid-November into January, and the Perth Hills only from late November into December. Raspberries on South Australia's Fleurieu Peninsula can be an early-December window measured in days rather than weeks, and one Riverland mulberry patch opens for a single weekend each October. Sunflowers in WA's South West are compressed into January. For anything on that list, ring ahead or book before you commit to the drive.
Does the same fruit ripen at the same time everywhere in Australia?
Rarely. Apples are picked from February to May in Victoria's Yarra Valley but often April to June in cooler Gippsland, while Perth Hills orchards can carry them from January through to July. Strawberries vary even more: a cool-season crop around Brisbane and Bundaberg, a warm-season one in Tasmania and the Adelaide Hills, and both patterns at once inside Queensland once you count the high-altitude Granite Belt. Match the crop to a state and region rather than assuming a national date.
Are the colder months worth a picking trip in the southern states?
They are quieter, but not empty. Citrus is the dependable cold-weather crop — oranges and mandarins run roughly May to September around the Hawkesbury and in WA's Chittering Valley, and about June to October in the Yarra Valley. Perth Hills apple orchards keep going well past midyear on stored and late varieties, and pumpkin and vegetable patches fill in around them. If you want abundance rather than one particular fruit, though, the southern calendar is built around spring and summer, so plan the trip accordingly.