NOTICE: Hard copies of the Australian New Crops Newsletter are available from the publisher, Dr Rob Fletcher. Details of availability are included in the
Advice on Publications Available.Agricultural engineering and farmer innovation have played a major role in the commercial development of many new crops in Australia. Crops such as tea, chickpea, coffee, pyrethrum, essential oils and macadamias are unlikely to have become comme rcially viable under Australian conditions had there not been suitable machinery developed for mechanised production, particularly for harvesting.
There are a number of organisations and companies working in the area of machinery development. In the following articles, we feature work undertaken by two of these groups. Chris Norris, Craig Lemin and Peter Walsh report on work undertaken by enginee rs and horticulturists in the Queensland Department of Primary Industries in developing the coffee harvesters now being used to harvest the commercial coffee crops on the Atherton Tableland. Mr Bruce Rowse of Williames High Technology International, an en gineering company based at Warrigal in Victoria, gives details of their operations and the role that they have played in the development of a tea harvester.
Any claims made by authors in the Australian New Crops Newsletter are presented by the Editors in good faith. Readers would be wise to critically examine the circumstances associated with any claims to determine the applicability of such claims to their specific set of circumstances. This material can be reproduced, with the provision that the source and the author (or editors, if applicable) are acknowledged and the use is for information or educational purposes. Contact with the original author is probably wise since the material may require updating or amendment if used in other publications. Material sourced from the Australian New Crops Newsletter cannot be used out of context or for commercial purposes not related to its original purpose in the newsletter
Contact: Dr Rob Fletcher, School of Land and Food, The University of Queensland Gatton College, 4345; Telephone: 07 5460 1311 or 07 5460 1301; Facsimile: 07 5460 1112; International facsimile: 61 7 5460 1112; Email:
r.fletcher@mailbox.uq.edu.au[
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GK; latest update 6 June 1999 by: RF