Blooming business in Bligh policy sights
04.06.2009
By: Tony Koch
ANIMATED discussions about the qualities of Hot Rio Night, Sexy Pink and Caribaea seem somewhat incongruous in a secluded rainforest paddock a couple of kilometres from the centre of Hopevale Aboriginal community on eastern Cape York.
But that is daily fare for grandmother Esme Bowen as she displays row upon row of heliconias with their majestic flowers which, in a few weeks, will be on sale in Brisbane and Sydney florists.
Towards the back of the small farm, there's also a transportable sawmill. Here Neville Bowen dresses magnificent Moreton Bay Ash logs, providing white-ant resistant hardwood for buildings in the community, as well as for road bridges. Neatly stacked piles of sawn timber with the pungent aroma of fresh sawdust are waiting to be transported.
Flower production is a new venture, which Esme and Neville Bowen began 18 months ago with an investment of $21,000 to cover the land cultivation, setting up an irrigation and sprinkler system for each of the 350 plants and providing the initial fertilising. A smaller section of the farm is devoted to growing passionfruit, tomatoes and cucumbers.
``We are doing this so we can be self-sufficient,'' Ms Bowen said. ``If we can establish the business properly, it is something we can pass on to our children and grandchildren.''
The flowers sell for about $6 a stem and each plant bears between 20 and 100 stems.
``We cut and trim each by hand, pack them and send each picking to Cooktown, where they are then transported to Mareeba and from there to either Brisbane or Sydney,'' Ms Bowen said. ``We are learning all the time about the proper care of the crop and you need to be constantly among the plants, but it is enjoyable.
``The only real problem we have had is bush rats eating through the polythene irrigation hose to get at the water.''
But Ms Bowen is concerned new Queensland Government regulations could destroy her family's ventures before they get properly established. Of greatest concern are laws declaring rivers on Cape York ``wild rivers'' that need legislative protection to keep their pristine status.
Aboriginal people accuse the Bligh Government of taking the action to appease conservation groups in a deal to secure their support in the recent election.
``We have not been told how it will affect us here -- whether we will be stopped from taking water from the bore or whether we will be stopped from expanding our production,'' Ms Bowen said. ``We are on Carroll Creek which feeds into the Endeavour River and it has not yet been declared a wild river, but we understand that all river catchments and river basins are now to be included, so we have no idea where we stand.
``It would be awful if we were stopped from providing for ourselves on our own land. I don't understand why government meddles like this in people's lives. They want Aboriginal people to provide for themselves and when we do it, we find that somebody else wants to interfere.''
