Pick your own fruit farms in Queensland

What Queensland is famous for picking

Strawberries

Queensland turns the mainland strawberry calendar upside down, picking as a winter crop instead of a spring one. Brisbane/SEQ farms including Chambers Flat Strawberry Farm and Sunray Strawberries in Wamuran typically open from June through to October or November, while Bundaberg's Tinaberries and SSS Strawberries run a similar May-to-October window. The Granite Belt around Stanthorpe flips the pattern again, with Ashbern Farms and Eastern Colour (Baronio Family Farm) picking from October right through to May. See all strawberry picking farms in Australia.

Granite Belt apples, cherries and stone fruit

Stanthorpe's Granite Belt is Queensland's only home for u-pick apples, cherries and stone fruit, thanks to a cooler, higher-altitude climate the rest of the state doesn't have. Nicoletti Orchards at Pozieres picks apples from February to June and stone fruit like peaches and plums in December, while Eastern Colour (Baronio Family Farm) at Applethorpe adds apples in May and June on top of its long strawberry season. The Granite Belt is also Queensland's only cherry-growing district, with a short window centred on December. See all apple picking farms and cherry picking farms in Australia.

Sunflowers

Sunflower fields turn up across Queensland's southeast and north on scheduled open days rather than a long season. Warraba Sunflowers at Cambooya and Lilyvale Flower Farm near Toowoomba both charge a ticketed entry that includes a bunch of flowers to take home, while Brightly Sunflowers near Mackay and Tolga Sunflower Farm on the Atherton Tablelands charge per stem instead. Bloom dates shift with planting and weather, so most farms only confirm opening weekends via Facebook or Instagram a few weeks out. See all sunflower picking farms in Australia.

Christmas trees

Queensland's Christmas tree farms open for pre-tagging in November and harvest weekends through December, letting families choose and cut their own tree well before the mainland's big retail rush. Brisbane Valley Christmas Tree Farm at Mount Beppo and the Granite Belt Christmas Farm at Applethorpe both grow trees from around a metre tall to well over four metres, and the Sunshine Coast Christmas Tree Farm at Beerburrum takes bookings with a deposit that comes off the final price. See all Christmas tree farms in Australia.

Through the year in Queensland

Spring (September–November): Bundaberg and Wide Bay strawberry farms like Tinaberries and SSS Strawberries are in their last weeks by spring, most finishing around October, while Oasis Berries at Caboolture times its whole pick-your-own window to September and October around the local Strawberry Festival. Sunflower farms across the Darling Downs and beyond hold scheduled open weekends through spring, and Christmas tree farms in the Brisbane Valley and Granite Belt start pre-tagging from the first weekend of November.

Summer (December–February): The Granite Belt's short stone fruit and cherry window runs through December at Nicoletti Orchards, and its apple season gets underway again from February. Hampton Blue Organic Blueberries on the Darling Downs opens for a handful of u-pick days over the Christmas and January break, and Windy Acres Farm's lavender is ready to pick in December and January. Forest Dragon Fruit Farm near Brisbane keeps picking through summer, building toward its main February-to-May run.

Autumn (March–May): Dragon fruit at Forest Dragon Fruit Farm is at its best through this stretch, and The Longan Farm north of Brisbane opens for a short March-to-April longan season. Granite Belt apples are at their peak from February through to May at Nicoletti Orchards, and Eastern Colour (Baronio Family Farm) adds its own apple picking from May. Strawberry farms across Brisbane/SEQ and Bundaberg are still a couple of months from opening, making autumn a quieter stretch away from the Granite Belt.

Winter (June–August): This is peak strawberry season across the state's southeast, with Brisbane/SEQ farms like Chambers Flat Strawberry Farm and Sunray Strawberries and Bundaberg farms like Tinaberries and SSS Strawberries all picking from June, building to a July-to-September peak. Far North Queensland's Shaylee Strawberries in Atherton also gets underway in July and continues into spring. The Granite Belt's much longer strawberry season, which runs October to May, is in its final stretch by winter's end, and its apple season continues through to June.

Fruit-picking jobs in Queensland

Queensland has one of Australia's largest seasonal harvest workforces, and most of the actual paid work happens on larger commercial growers rather than the pick-your-own farms listed on this page. Bundaberg and the wider Wide Bay region are among the country's best-known hubs for backpacker harvest work, with demand running across much of the year for strawberries, macadamias and other crops, and the Granite Belt around Stanthorpe draws seasonal pickers for its apple and stone fruit harvest each summer and autumn. Many growers recruit through Working Holiday visa backpacker networks, and this kind of regional work can count toward the specified-work requirement for a second or third-year Working Holiday visa. If you're after paid picking work rather than a family outing, the guide to farm work in Australia covers how to find harvesting jobs, what pay and conditions typically look like, and how the visa rules work in practice.