31 Oct 2025
The second half of our Murray Darling camp took us to an irrigated tomato farm in Echuca. The Kagome farm grows tomatoes that are taken to their factory nearby for dicing and canning, producing tomato paste and many other items, along with supplying pizza sauce to businesses like Domino's.
Whilst in Echuca, we boarded the PS Pevensey paddle steamer for a cruise along the Murray River to learn of the history of the area.
In Deniliquin, we had a presentation by Murray Irrigation Limited about the innovation utilised to supply environmental water efficiently to prevent water wastage whilst supporting biodiversity and responding to changes in the climate.
We also stopped in at a paddock to plate butchery to learn the process of getting livestock from farms to retail, along with the complexities of running a business within the Australian Food Industry. Here our students sampled house made cabana and jerky and helped prepare our lunch, freshly minced buffalo and pork burgers!
We stopped by one of Nice Rice's rice farms to discover more about sustainable rice growing practices in Australia and got a chance to visit their recently established niche rice mill. Here we viewed large scale production equipment and learned how rice is transformed from farm to the grains packaged for retail.
Our last stop before home landed us at the Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory. Here we viewed production and packaging equipment and learnt of the processes and selective distribution of a high-end product. There were of course lots of samples, which made for a sweet end to a valuable trip.
This camp addresses multiple syllabus points for our collective subjects, providing real world examples of content. Some of our students study all three, providing a cross-curriculum experience. We would like to thank South Eastern Livestock Exchange SELX, Murray Irrigation Limited, Kagome Australia, Pattison Pastoral Butchery, Nice Rice by Honestly Riverina and Junee Licorice and Chocolate Factory for taking the time to share their knowledge with us. A big thank you to Aimee Snowden (and Phil!) of Little Brick Pastoral for her tireless work organising our industry visits.
