Otway Blueberries

23/07/2026

14/07/2026

SOLD OUT!

We are getting a lot of enquires about our frozen blueberries. Yes, we have sold out and all stockists have likely run out by now.
How did we run out, you ask?

Well, we didn’t have a great season. Let us give you a little run down on how our blueberry plants produce. We grow Northern Highbush mostly in the Otways (for us this is our Brigitta variety), but Northland is actually specific hybrid cross between the Northern Highbush (Vaccinium corymbosum) and the Lowbush (Vaccinium angustifolium) species. They only produce one flush of blueberries per year. This means we need them to flower and get pollinated in Spring and then they ripen in Summer. If that doesn’t happen, we must wait a whole year to go again.

Last Spring we didn’t get a lot of sunshine. This means less flowers and less pollination because the bees come out and do their thing when its sunny. We have other native pollinators helping, but overall, we need sunshine in Spring. The next requirement is not too many hot days in summer. Sunny mild temperatures help ripening. When it gets too hot, the blueberries go into survival mode and stop ripening and often get sunburnt. Finally, as we pick right into Autumn, so if we get too much rain, the skins start to split and we loose those berries completely. If we look at the summer we just had, we had multiple days of close on 40 degrees or over, and then we got a lot of rain at in February and March. But to top it all off, we had bush fires surrounding our property which meant our staff were evacuated and we couldn’t pick for a week (which probably meant more berries dropped on the ground than usual). All these factors have led to a much lower production year.

Next, it’s best to understand why we have a frozen product at all. These are the berries that we deem not good enough for fresh sales. So not all 40 to 60 tonne we pick go into frozen packages. Most is sold as a fresh product, with the soft berries going into frozen. Once frozen, you would never know they were not good berries in the first place. They still taste great and, in some cases, and even better because they are so sugar rich.

The other factor is our product has increased in popularity in the last 12 months as consumers are placing a greater importance on pesticide free blueberries. We don’t need to spray our blueberries in the Otways to keep away Queensland Fruit Fly like our northern counterparts do. Our sales drastically increased after the ABC reported about pesticides on blueberries in September 2025. We thought we would have at least an extra 9 months of stock, but it sold out in 3 months.

Do we hope next season will be better? Absolutely! We also have a new planting that is progressing nicely. That will help produce more.

Thank you for your patience. Farming is always subject to the weather and unfortunately, we can only wait to see what the next 9 months brings us.

18/03/2026

Our Pick Your Own season is over. But there is still plenty do do in Gellibrand this weekend. The local footy team has a practice match against Corio on Saturday. Get down and show some support. On Sunday the annual Otway Trail Run is happening again. A beautiful run along the Beechy Rail Trail. A great reminder of how beautiful this region is. After a challenging summer, Gellibrand would love a visit from you to show your support!

We would like to remind our customers that we are pesticide free (nothing sprayed onto the blueberries at all), despite a recent viral video talking about "all supermarket blueberries". It's simply not true. The chemical discussed is used in other parts of Australia to control Queensland Fruit Fly. Many farms do choose to use it, but some don't. We don't have QFF in the Otways, so we have no reason to use it. We have also made a decision that we would never spray our crop. It's a very concious decision.

We still have frozen seconds available. Please call our message to arrange a time for pick up. Only available at the farm gate for $10/kg.

28/02/2026

We are almost finished for the season. We don't have many Brigitta ripe, they don't seem to get a chance to ripen before they are picked red. So that's making it hard for everyone who wants blue blueberries!

The Northland are only inside the bushes, and there are not a huge amount left. Allow longer picking times if you want over 5kgs.

What we do have, is a couple of tonne of frozen seconds at $10/kg. So bring an esky and load up your freezer.

The last day will be March 9th.

14/02/2026

We have lots of frozen seconds available. $10/kg.

Our Brigitta are very light on, but there are plenty of Northland inside the bushes. The easy berries on the outside have been picked already.

Open 9am to 5pm daily.

$17/kg or $14/kg if you pick over 5kgs.

10/02/2026

The annual trip to Otway Blueberries. We have watched this family grow over the last several years. The kids are top notch pickers!

04/02/2026

Please take note. Put Gellibrand into your GPS or google maps, then follow the yellow signs. Google shows our road is closed, but it's not between Gellibrand and us. If you go the way Google suggests, you will be on dangerous dirt roads through the national park which are closed.

Please call if your maps don't make sense and you feel it's wrong. We don't want you ending up on the national park roads.

02/02/2026

We are open! After having lots of lovely visitors for the past 9 days, we can now bid them goodbye and welcome back our loyal customers. Please be careful on the roads and come from the Colac Lavers Hill Rd. The Gellibrand-Carlisle Rd is still closed further down from us while they continue to contain the fire and analyse trees.

These photos show a little summary of what it was like to be at the blueberries for the last 9 days. We could include a lot more, but I think you get the idea.

Again, we would like to thank the efforts of the fire crews to contain and manage this fire. In particular we would like to thank Gellibrand CFA and all the strike CFA teams that came to help the little town of Gellibrand. It was a pleasure to have you and provide your trucks with water.

See you tomorrow for some blueberry picking.

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30/01/2026

The roads are still closed. We believe they might open in 3 days. Emergency services need time to do safety analysis of damaged structures, fix the town water supply (we aren't personally connected to town water, so that's not affecting us) and assess dangerous trees. They don't need extra people in town while all that is going on.

Once they give us the all clear we will reopen. Other businesses in town such as the Gellibrand Hotel, Gellibrand General Store and will need your support while you are here.

Thank you for all your well wishes while you patiently wait for your blueberries.

We would also like to thank all the volunteers that have come from a long way away to look after our little town. Please if you have the desire to donate, go to the CFA website and nominate your local CFA. Those individuals have been amazing. If you don't have a local CFA, please consider donating to Gellibrand CFA. They could do with an improved facility.