Located on Queensland’s Southern Downs, the town of Stanthorpe and surrounding Granite Belt is Queensland’s apple and grape capital. The Granite Belt is home to a multi-million dollar horticultural and agricultural sector as well as a modern and highly awarded viticulture and wine industry. The Granite Belt produces superfine Traprock wool and is home to an increasing number of organic primary producers.
As a food and wine producing area, Stanthorpe and the Granite Belt is unique in Australia for these reasons:
· The Granite Belts northerly latitude, combined with its elevation, produce intense flavour in apples, pears and stone fruit. This combination of severe winter frost's overnight and warm Queensland sunshine daily during the ripening period is responsible for the intense flavours in the local produce.
· The Granite Belt's combination of cool weather and decomposed granite soils create the conditions which produce Queensland’s most awarded wines.
· These factors and the clean air combine to create an area favourable to growing a wide range of fresh produce. The Granite Belt is not a one-crop fruit or vegetable region. Nor is it a wine region with one single hero grape variety.
Download your copy of a comprehensive fact sheet on the Granite Belt food industry.
The diverse range of produce is reflected in Stanthorpe's average seasonal temperatures:
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