Grown at Gorge Creek Orchards near Mareeba in Far North Queensland, our lychees are carefully harvested and handled for freshness, flavour and quality. During the season, we offer our Premium Grade fruit directly to local customers.
Anyone can describe their fruit as premium. At Gorge Creek Orchards, we prefer to let our history, our handling and the fruit itself tell the story. We have been growing tropical fruit near Mareeba for decades, with a focus on producing lychees we are proud to put our name on.
One of our proudest achievements came when lychees grown by Marcello and Katrina Avolio at Gorge Creek Orchards became the first commercial shipment of Australian fresh lychees to the United States.
Reaching the US market required strict quality, handling and export protocols. It was not simply a matter of putting fruit in a box — the orchard, fruit and packing process had to meet demanding requirements before the shipment could proceed.
That experience reinforced something we still believe today: quality starts in the orchard and continues through harvest, handling and packing. For our farm-gate customers, we choose to offer Premium Grade lychees only.
Lychees are small round to oval tropical fruit with a distinctive pink to red skin surrounding sweet, juicy white flesh.
Unlike some fruits, lychees do not continue to ripen after they have been picked. Harvest timing is therefore important, with fruit picked when it has developed the appropriate colour, size and sweetness.
Lychee harvesting in Far North Queensland generally begins during spring and continues through the summer months.
At Gorge Creek Orchards, harvest timing varies from year to year depending on seasonal conditions and fruit maturity.
North Queensland is one of Australia's important early-season lychee growing regions.
Fresh lychees are easy to enjoy. Simply peel away the outer skin, remove the sweet flesh from around the seed and eat fresh.
The brown seed inside the fruit is not edible.
Lychees are particularly enjoyable eaten fresh, but can also be used in fruit salads, desserts and a variety of sweet and savoury dishes.
Fresh lychees are best kept refrigerated in a sealed plastic bag or container to help retain moisture and freshness.
The skin may naturally become brown when exposed to air during storage. This does not necessarily mean that the quality of the fruit inside has deteriorated.
Lychees can also be frozen for longer-term storage.
Our lychees are grown at Gorge Creek Orchards near Mareeba in Far North Queensland.
From flowering through to harvest, our orchards are carefully managed throughout the growing season to produce quality Australian-grown fruit.
Good fruit can lose quality after harvest if it is not handled carefully. That is why our attention does not stop when the fruit leaves the tree.
Our lychees are picked while field conditions are cool and then packed in our air-conditioned shed to help maintain freshness and quality.
A closer look at lychees grown here at Gorge Creek Orchards near Mareeba.
Premium Grade trays are available for farm pickup during harvest. Check the current tray price privately — there is no obligation to buy.