Agricultural scientists and volunteer gardeners are reviving a heritage-listed orchard on the University of Tasmania's Newnham campus in Launceston, where some apple and pear trees date to the 1800s. The state government has supplied the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture with more than 140 heritage apple trees, to be planted beside the institute's new $20 million growth facility now under construction.

The varieties are ones colonial settlers brought to Tasmania more than a century ago and that survive only in backyards and old orchards — fruit that may not store as well as modern apples but carries rich, complex flavours. Eleven more varieties from the Grove Research Station in the Huon Valley have been added as an insurance population, among them Delicious Royden Red, Bryant Gravenstein, Goldspur, Yoko, Cox Makatdar, Early Stayman, Fuji Ogura, Fuji Brazil, Charden and Lys Golden.

Entomologist Justin Cappadonna, who is growing fruit trees from the ground up for the first time, said the team will also record when each variety flowers, what pollinates it and when it is harvested — baseline data that had been lost over the years. Modern growing techniques will be applied to some of the new trees to compare fruit production.

Local volunteers help maintain the collection and in return learn about lesser-known apples, pruning and pest control. Community garden coordinator Jeff McClintock runs the workshops to break down the barriers people feel about coming onto a university campus; Launceston gardener Chris Davey, six months into volunteering, has learnt about codling moth and pruning to encourage fruiting.

For a century Tasmania was marketed as the Apple Isle. The living library will double as an outdoor classroom for agricultural science students — and staff, asked to pick a favourite among so many varieties, mostly name the Cox's Orange Pippin, introduced to the Huon Valley in the late 1890s: juicy, crisp, sweet and a little tart at once.

Source: ABC Rural