Katherine might be famous for its mangoes but the banana industry has also been bearing fruit for the region.
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In 2013, the banana industry was wiped out around Darwin to stop the spread of banana freckle disease, however the Katherine area was kept exempt from eradication zones.
Banana plants around Darwin, Ramingining and the Tiwi Islands, were destroyed under the program, the largest plant pest eradication ever attempted in Australia.
But bananas will be back on the menu across the Top End as restrictions on growing, moving and selling banana plants will be lifted in early July.
David Chandler has lived in Katherine since 1974 and has been farming bananas on his Zimin Drive property for more than 30 years.
“The banana freckle did not affect me, they came down and had a look but it was all okay,” Mr Chandler said.
“I believe some big banana farms will start up down Mataranka way soon, but I’m not sure.”
Mr Chandler, a former grain farmer and sheep shearer, took up the banana trade by chance.
“I only started doing bananas because a guy brought some over from Innisfail and planted them here,” he said.
“1986 I think he planted them.
“After a while, his wife died and he got sick of it, instead of pulling them all out of the ground I decided I would have a go.”
Mr Chandler’s wife Catherine Chandler said the bananas had to be planted in a particular formation in order to yield a good harvest.
“You have to grow them in a certain way so they shade each other, they have to be in rows so they make a canopy, they can’t just be planted all randy pandy,” Mrs Chandler said.
“The rows are about four metres apart, then you plant the bananas every two metres, two by four they call it.”
Mrs Chandler said it takes about nine months before you are able to start picking fruit.
“It is like being pregnant,” she said.
“It is a good time of the year to plant now, you really need to allow 10 or 11 months.”
Mr Chandler said his home grown bananas were remarkably different from the supermarket variety.
“I taste them to make sure they are ripe, you go taste the ones at Woolies though and they taste completely different,” Mr Chandler said.
“Bananas in the supermarkets, they are bigger because they use fertilizer on them.
“Ours are smaller, we call them lunchbox bananas, everyone loves our bananas, they are very sweet.
“We pick them, pack them and ripen them all here. It takes four days from the day they are picked to yellow.”
Mr Chandler said he ran a roaring banana trade back in the 80s and 90s but has slowed down in recent years.
The couple planned to sell the farm back in 2014 but instead reduced it down to about three hectares.
Mr Chandler said the farm would likely fold soon if they were unable to find helpers.
“To carry on with the bananas I think we will need some volunteer help,” he said.
“People pay all that money to go to the gym, they could just come and help me out instead.”
The pair grow a variety of produce on their property, and love snacking on the fruits of their labour.
“We have a lot of bananas with our ice cream but I love mangoes the best,” Mr Chandler said.
“We grow mangoes, tomatoes, bananas, all seasonal vegetables we grow.
“Things are not growing as well as they used to though, it wasn’t great this year or last year, but we don’t know why.”
If you want to help out the Chandler’s banana farm contact them at 8972 2975.
The man behind the orchid
Mr Chandler originally hails from Gundagai, NSW.
“I had a farm in Gundagai, we had sheep, peas and sweet corn, now it produces grapes for Yellow Tail wine.
“I spent 30 years shearing sheep, I was pretty competitive, I once did 23,000 in a year.
The couple settled down in Katherine in 1974 and have witnessed many changes in town.
Mrs Chandler owned the coffee shop in the Katherine Arcade for a few years.
Mr Chandler used to produce sorghum on 9308 hectares off Florina Road in Katherine.
“They built him a little road and called it Gundegai Road because that is where David comes from,” Mrs Chandler said.
“My son put in all the pavers in the main street, I helped cut the bricks,” Mr Chandler said.
The banana grower has six decades of farming experience under his belt.
“I worked pretty hard all my life, I milked a lot of cows when I was young and would ride my bike seven miles to school,” he said.
“My dad was a dairy farmer and before that he was a gold miner, he was also shire president when the Snowy Mountains shire started.
“I drove pigs as well, I don’t know anyone else who has done that.
“One of my brothers went off to war, the other went to grammar school and I stayed home and did all the work.”