Moondarra Blueberries is a family run business located in Gippsland about two hours east of Melbourne, in the beautiful foothills of the Great Dividing Range. We pride ourselves on our integrity and quality of product. Everything that is done on the farm and in the business, always takes into account how it affects our customers, our employees, our family, our way of life and the environment.
The 160 acre farm at Moondarra was purchased back in 1976 by Mal Deveson and his young family. Looking for an alternative to beef cattle farming, Mal came across blueberries as a crop that was fairly new to Australia, and would potentially suit the beautiful red soil at Moondarra. In 1979 he bought his first plants and subsequently, Moondarra Blueberries was “born” the following year.
Moondarra Blueberries is now well established and has the reputation for producing the finest certified organic blueberries and as propagators of quality blueberry plants. Today, as Mal steps into a mentoring role, the farm is managed by Mal’s son, Joel, with daughter, Kate, as Business Manager. Fruit and plant production is managed with the help of a small, but dedicated, employee group – Joel’s partner, Suzy, and good family friend, Adam.
Production Seasons
Unlike many other blueberry farms we have two different phases to our year. We have our harvest season over summer from Christmas time to around May, then our plant propagation season starts. During plant season we collect cuttings, prune our blueberry blocks, pot up plants, despatch plant orders to other growers and complete many other projects until around October.
All berries are hand-picked and graded to ensure they meet expectations and large part of our resources goes into training our casual picking staff to meet this expectation. Our aim is to produce the highest quality, best tasting berries possible.
First planting 1980
The little boy in this photo went on to become the Farm Manager, Joel Deveson.
Joel in 2003
Joel brushcutting the same row he planted with his mum in 1980.