How we look after our people and our fruit
Our policies are the reason our buyers can trust what is in the box and our crew can trust how they are treated. They are reviewed as the rules change, and our auditors see them every year.
Our policies
What we hold ourselves to
We are a family business, so most of what follows was written because something mattered to us, not because a form required it. These are summaries. If you are auditing us or putting together a supplier file, get in touch and we will send you the full documents.
Work health and safety
Farm work carries real risk. Machinery, heat, repetitive picking and long days during peak. We assess those risks on every site, train everyone before they start, and give our supervisors the authority to stop work when something is not safe. Every incident and near miss gets recorded and reviewed, because the near misses are where you learn something before somebody gets hurt. Anyone on our farms can raise a safety concern without going through their supervisor first.
Food safety and hygiene
Our strawberries go from our field to a shop shelf without much in between, so hygiene in the field is food safety, not housekeeping. Everyone handling fruit is trained in hand hygiene, illness reporting and how to keep picked fruit clean and cool. Anyone unwell does not handle fruit. We keep harvest and packing records that let us trace a pallet back to the block and the day it was picked, which is what makes a recall possible if it is ever needed. These practices sit under our Freshcare certification and are audited annually.
Agricultural chemical use
Only trained and accredited staff apply agricultural chemicals. We use registered products at label rates, record every application, and observe withholding periods before picking resumes. Spray records are available to our customers and auditors on request.
Fair work and treatment of our crew
Everyone who works here is paid lawfully under the applicable award, with correct entitlements and payslips, whether they came to us directly or through a labour provider. We use licensed labour hire providers only. No one working on our farms pays a fee to get a job here. We check work rights before anyone starts. If a worker has a problem with pay, hours or accommodation, they can raise it with us directly and we would rather hear it early.
Respect at work
Bullying, harassment, discrimination and violence are not tolerated, from anyone, including supervisors and visitors. Our crew comes from a lot of different backgrounds and that is normal here. Complaints are taken seriously, handled confidentially, and no one is punished for making one in good faith.
Illness and infectious disease
Staff who are unwell stay home, and no one loses their place on the roster for doing so. We follow current public health advice and adjust how we run sheds and transport when an outbreak calls for it. This replaces our earlier standalone COVID-19 policy, which now sits inside this broader approach.
Environment and water
We have farmed this ground since 1965 and intend to keep farming it. We manage irrigation to the water we are entitled to, look after soil health between plantings, and handle waste and chemical containers under the relevant Victorian requirements.
Privacy
We collect personal information from staff, applicants and customers only for the purpose it was given, store it securely, and do not sell or share it. Full detail is in our privacy policy.