Chapter 1: What is the property featured in this episode?
It's the Real Estate Podcast, brought to you by Ray White, the largest real estate and property group in Australasia. And welcome to another episode of the Real Estate Podcast, available on iHeartRadio, also on Google and Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast from. And don't forget, coming up this Friday, we have another episode of the Let's Talk Property.
It's a podcast series with Rich Harvey from Property Buyer.
Well as we know the great let's buy property across the interstate borders and enjoy that cleaner easier going lifestyle is happening right around Australia at the moment and we featured yesterday for a second time Adelaide as an example and we've featured the Sunshine Coast also but the further north that you go the bigger patch of land that you can secure for yourself
and if you've got a growing family, for the kids as well. For example, a property that I just happened to discover yesterday, I think I'm saying this right in Mirrawinny, which is about an hour's drive from Cairns, is a five hectare property with a three bedroom home and, wait, there's more, 6,000 vanilla vines.
And if you were buying in New South Wales or Victoria, this property would probably be three times the price.
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Chapter 2: What makes living in Far North Queensland unique?
Also, in this sort of package, the plantation is well known. And the owners are Matt and Fiona. And Fiona is on the line with me.
Good morning, Craig.
Chapter 3: How long have Matt and Fiona lived on their property?
How are you today?
Not too bad. I guess the sun is shining. It's another beautiful day where you are.
It certainly is shining. It's actually the wet season at the moment, but we've been having all the beautiful weather while you guys have been suffering down south.
Nice that you've got the beautiful weather. I've seen your idyllic retreat.
Chapter 4: What breathtaking views can you find in their location?
Boy, you are going to miss this home of yours. Tell me how long you've been there and what you're going to miss the most about this property.
Well, we've been here 16 years and I guess the thing that really drew us to the place was the fabulous views. You come up the hill and you think, oh yeah, this is pretty ordinary. And then you walk around the side of the house and it's just, wow, you've just got this incredible view.
of the Great Dividing Range, so Queensland's highest mountain, Mount Bartle Frere, the river down the bottom of the property, the rainforest, the bananas, the sugar cane. Yeah, it's breathtaking.
And what about the, is it Babinda Boulders? They're pretty famous, pretty iconic and not too far away from where they are.
Yeah, so Babinda Boulders is one of our favourite swimming spots.
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Chapter 5: What recreational activities are available nearby?
It's crocodile free. It's beautiful, fresh, cold water. Well, it's one of the considerations up here. You know, you have to know your landscape.
Absolutely. You don't have to tell me that. That was my next question.
Well, so Babinda Boulders is gorgeous and when you become a local, you know which part to go to where it's a bit more private and a little quieter and got these gorgeous granite boulders and deep, clear water and there's turtles and fish and yabbies. And then we've also got Josephine Falls. Josephine Falls is not as well known, but it's a little bit closer to us.
Chapter 6: How did Matt and Fiona start their vanilla plantation?
It's probably a 10, 15-minute walk through the rainforest and you're at this gorgeous waterfall. and waterholes. So yeah, great places to go in the summer.
You're going to miss it.
Yeah, we will miss that. And of course, we always take our southern visitors there and they're equally wowed. You get the amazingly blue Ulysses butterflies fluttering through the canopy. They're just like jewels in the rainforest. They're gorgeous.
Oh, you're selling it nicely there, Fiona.
Chapter 7: What challenges do they face in growing vanilla?
Did I get that name right? Meriwini, is that how you say it?
Yes, Mirawini. It's got lots of doubles in it. M-I-R-R-I-W-U-I-N-N-I.
And did I get that right, that you're about an hour's drive from Cairns?
Yes, we are. And when we first came looking for property, we decided we wanted to be no more than an hour. So we just drew a circle on the map and this one was inside the hour. So yeah, it ticked the boxes.
Chapter 8: What is the asking price for their property and business?
Well, it certainly sounds like a great little spot there, Fiona. And Matt, no doubt you're going to miss a lot of this work that you've developed over the years on the property as you say goodbye to it.
Yes, I certainly will. It's been a labour of love for many years.
So tell us a little bit about the Vanilla Vines. And because this is not just a property, this is a business that somebody can further enhance what you've already done over a number of years.
Yes, I certainly hope so. We started the vanilla plantation with a small number of vanilla plants and we've allowed these to grow and grow. We now, as I think you mentioned initially, we have about 6,000 plants in the ground. And the vanilla itself is an orchid. It's a type of orchid which originally comes from Mexico. And the type that we grow is called vanilla planifolia.
It's commonly referred to as bourbon vanilla. And it's very productive in this climate. So we found that this was a very good plant for this particular climate. And it grows quite spectacularly here, particularly in the wet season. So right now our vanilla vines are growing perhaps, I'm guessing, maybe half a metre every week or two.
So they're really, it's quite extreme, you know, the growth environment.
And I heard that 80% of the world's vanilla is grown in Madagascar, but Matt, the local growers there have significant advantages by the sound of it with that half a metre growth.
Well, yeah, we're pretty good, actually. Madagascar does grow certainly more than half of the world's vanilla, but poor old Madagascar has been hit by two droughts and two cyclones in the last 12 months. So that's made prices for vanilla very volatile. There's a very strong upward surge at the moment.
In fact, we've discovered that in our experience here, when it comes to actually growing vanilla, we can't grow enough to meet the market demand in Australia alone. So...
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