The Australian fruit-picking season calendar, month by month
Australia runs several fruit-picking calendars at once: Queensland picks strawberries in winter while Tasmania sits under frost, and cherries ripen six weeks apart in the Adelaide Hills and the Yarra Valley. Here is what is typically ripe each month, state by state, so you can plan ahead.
Why one national calendar doesn't work
Most "fruit season" guides assume one climate. Australia has at least four relevant to u-pick farms: the subtropical belt around Brisbane and Bundaberg, the temperate south-east (the Sydney basin down through Victoria), the cool highlands (Adelaide Hills, Orange, the Granite Belt, Tasmania), and the semi-arid interior. That is why South East Queensland grows strawberries as a winter crop, from roughly June to October, while South Australia and Victoria pick the same fruit through summer and into autumn. It is also why there is no single national cherry season: the Adelaide Hills typically run mid-November to mid-January, a similar window to Victoria's Yarra Valley, while the cool Granite Belt around Stanthorpe doesn't get going until late November. The practical upshot: treat every month range below as a starting point, not a booking. A hot spell or late frost can move a farm's opening by two or three weeks either way.
Summer (December to February)
This is peak season almost everywhere except the sub-tropics. Cherries are in full swing in the cool-climate regions: the Adelaide Hills and Victoria's Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula typically run from mid-November into January, and Tasmania's statewide cherry season sits in December and January too. In the Adelaide Hills, Harben Vale Cherries charges around $8 entry for adults ($4 for under-12s) plus cherries priced per kilo, and on the Mornington Peninsula, Ripe 'N' Ready Cherry Farm runs an all-you-can-eat-in-the-orchard model for about $25 a head. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries are all picking through summer in NSW, Victoria, SA, WA and Tasmania, alongside peaches, nectarines and plums, which peak from December to January in most southern orchard regions. Sunflower fields open across January and February in the Adelaide Hills and Barossa districts, while South East Queensland's sunflower season (a summer crop there, unlike its winter strawberries) runs roughly December to March. Queensland's own strawberry patches close over summer and won't reopen until the cooler months.
Autumn (March to May)
Autumn is orchard season nationally. Apples peak from March to April across most of the country: the Yarra Valley, Perth Hills, Orange in the NSW Central West and southern Tasmania all run some version of a February-to-May window, and Perth Hills orchards such as The Fruit Corner stay open into July, with Granny Smiths and Pink Ladies typically priced by the kilo on top of a small per-person entry fee. Pears follow a similar rhythm, usually a few weeks either side of the apple peak. In the Adelaide Hills, Paracombe Premium Perry charges around $4/kg for pears picked. Figs are an autumn crop in the Adelaide Hills and NSW's Bilpin district, typically ready from February into April, and Victoria's Grampians and Ballarat district grows a run of pumpkins through March to May. By late autumn the southern states' citrus season is starting to open, with the Yarra Valley's oranges and mandarins typically running June to October, the opposite window to Queensland and the Northern Territory, where citrus is a dry-season, mid-year crop.
Winter (June to August) — this is when Queensland leads
Winter flips the usual picture: this is when South East Queensland and Bundaberg strawberry farms are open, running roughly June to October while southern strawberry patches are dormant. At Chambers Flat Strawberry Farm south of Brisbane, adult entry is around $15 (including a 500g punnet) with extra fruit charged by weight, and further north at Wamuran, Sunray Strawberries runs a similar winter season. The cooler Granite Belt around Stanthorpe runs an opposite, warm-season strawberry window (October to May) to the coastal SEQ and Bundaberg farms, so Queensland effectively covers strawberries most of the year across its different climate zones. Northern NSW's Coffs Coast blueberries are also a winter-into-spring crop, typically picking from June through November, well ahead of the summer blueberry windows further south. Meanwhile the temperate south is quiet for u-pick, since this is the off-season for most Victorian, Tasmanian, SA and southern-NSW berry and stone-fruit farms.
Spring (September to November)
Spring is the ramp-up for the southern states. Strawberry season gets underway in the Sydney basin and Hawkesbury from around September, in Perth's Swan Valley from August (Sue and Tim's Strawberry Farm at Wanneroo typically opens late July into November, selling roughly $15 boxes), and in Victoria and the Adelaide Hills from October or November. Blueberries on the NSW Central Coast typically start in October: The Giving Farm at Jilliby sells punnets for around $12 once its season opens, and raspberry season in the Orange district and Illawarra usually begins in November. It's also when the first cherry-blossom and orchard-tour events start in Victoria and SA ahead of the December cherry harvest, and when Queensland's Lockyer Valley and Scenic Rim run their spring sunflower and flower fields, typically September to November.
Master table: typical picking season by state
This table is a national at-a-glance summary, not a substitute for a farm's own page — individual properties inside each region can run a few weeks earlier or later than the typical window shown here, and every range below should be read as "typically", not guaranteed.
| State | Headline crops | Typical season | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | Strawberries, apples, cherries, blueberries, citrus | Strawberries Sep–Jul (Hawkesbury); apples Jan–May; cherries mid-Nov–Jan | Season length and start vary a lot by district — Bilpin and Orange run on different clocks |
| VIC | Cherries, strawberries, apples, stone fruit, blueberries | Cherries Nov–Jan; strawberries Oct–May; apples Feb–May | The Yarra Valley and Dandenong Ranges are the two biggest u-pick hubs |
| QLD | Strawberries (winter), mangoes, cherries, apples | SEQ/Bundaberg strawberries Jun–Oct; Granite Belt cherries Nov–Dec | The only state with a genuinely opposite strawberry season to the rest of the country |
| SA | Cherries, strawberries, apples, figs, flowers | Cherries mid-Nov–mid-Jan; strawberries Oct/Nov–Apr/May | The Adelaide Hills is the state's signature u-pick district |
| WA | Strawberries, apples, cherries, stone fruit | Strawberries Aug–Dec (Swan Valley); apples Jan–Jul (Perth Hills) | Perth Hills apple season is unusually long, often running into July |
| TAS | Strawberries, cherries, raspberries, apples | Strawberries Oct–May; cherries Dec–Feb; apples Feb–May | Cool-climate season runs slightly later than mainland equivalents |
| ACT | Apples, pears, cherries | Apples late Jan–late May; cherries Nov–Jan | Canberra's Pialligo district is the region's main orchard area |
| NT | Mangoes, melons | Mangoes mid-Aug–Nov (Top End then Katherine); melons Jun–Sep | Mostly farm-gate sales rather than a formal u-pick model |
How to actually use this calendar
Treat every date range on this page, and on every farm listing, as a normal-year estimate. Frost, heatwaves and rain can shift a season by weeks in either direction, and a patch can be picked out on a busy weekend even mid-season. A few habits make the difference between a wasted drive and a good day out:
- Check before you drive. Call the farm or check its Facebook or Instagram on the morning you're going — most update daily on what's actually ready.
- Book where it's required. Popular strawberry and cherry farms near capital cities, especially in school holidays, often need an online booking for a picking session.
- Go early in the window if you can. The first few weeks of a season usually have the most fruit on the vine and the shortest queues.
- Cross-check the specific farm's page. This calendar is a state-level guide — each farm listed on this site carries its own individually verified season window, prices and booking rules.
- Have a backup crop in mind. If your target fruit is between seasons, check our what's in season this month page — there's usually something else ripe nearby.
Related reading
Once you know roughly when to go, our crop guides cover the how-to and state-by-state detail in more depth: the strawberry picking guide, apple picking guide, cherry picking guide and sunflower picking guide each go deeper on one crop. If you're planning a first trip, what to bring fruit picking covers the practical side, and pick-your-own etiquette is worth a read before your first visit to someone else's farm.