Free canola field lets tourists take selfies without trampling crops

As an agricultural export, Australia's canola fields are big business.

Harvested for its oilseed, it is a $5 billion industry with product consumed locally and exported across the globe.

But it is the picturesque yellow backdrop created by the fields of flowers that has people travelling long distances to catch a glimpse or take a selfie.

"Tourists love it," said Craig Sinclair from Temora Shire Council in the New South Wales Riverina.

"There's something about the colour yellow I think that really makes people feel a sense of joy and happiness."

Protecting crops

But that photogenic popularity has long caused a headache for farmers, and the biosecurity risk from trespassers remained a major issue.

"Fungal disease can easily occur when they come in from another property or there's also weeds that can easily get caught up on people's clothes or their shoes," said FarmLink Research CEO Shaughn Morgan.

"By walking into another property, they could actually cost the farmer their livelihood.

After years of trying to educate the public about the risks and distributing "keep out" signage, Temora Shire Council and the non-for-profit group FarmLink Research has teamed up to create a public field allowing tourists to safely and legally get amongst it for free.

"Rather than people jump fences and get into paddocks that they shouldn't be in, why not actually put a paddock that people could go and visit and actually go and touch, feel, ask questions, be able to get photos taken?" Mr Morgan said.

Now in its second year and with flowering starting earlier than usual this season, Mr Sinclair said interest was growing.

"It's a particularly good year this year for canola," he said.

"There's blooms all around the countryside here in the Riverina and we're seeing lots of visitors coming from Sydney, from Canberra, some people just coming just for the day from Sydney to walk across the canola."

'Life-giving' tourism

Temora has also joined forces with the surrounding Coolamon and Junee shires on a tourism campaign that contributed to a significant increase in the amount of money spent in those areas during the spring flowering.

Last year, for the month of September, spending was up about 20 per cent on the previous year, with $4.6 million worth of revenue coming from tourism.

"Canola is the drawcard,"

Mr Sinclair said.

"That is the thing that has a limited window every year, the sort of six-week flowering season, and that is the bright lights that gets people here.

"But once they're here, there's so many other things that keep them here."

For local small business owners like Debbie Davidge, that draw card has been "life-giving".

"It puts a pep in our step. It gives us a reason to get out of bed. It's something that we discuss with people,"

she said.

Ms Davidge said her shop and café had been flat out since the public field opened this season.

"[Visitors] are just mesmerised by it," she said.

"Even in what we consider not a great season, people from away that have never seen this before are just amazed at what the country can produce and how it can look."

Trespassing a threat to food security

Shaughn Morgan said it was concerning that people continued to jump fences and wander on to private canola farms despite having legal alternatives.

"Food doesn't come from supermarkets, it comes from farms and it scares me that there are many people out there that don't realise the important role that farmers play within the sector to be able to ensure that their food is made," he said.

"The good thing about coming out along this road here, this trail, is to be able to actually see what it is that we're able to provide to the community and be able to show where the food is coming from."

For the farmers waiting to harvest their crop, Mr Morgan said the signs were "positive" but time would tell.

"Until it actually comes to the day where you actually are able to harvest, anything's possible," he said.

"A sudden frost could come, the rain may not occur, there are so many variables with the weather."