Pick Your OwnAustralia

Apple picking season in Australia: February to May

Apple picking in Australia is an autumn activity. The season opens with early varieties in February, runs hard through March and April, and finishes with the late keepers in May. If you have seen photographs of families picking apples in jumpers among turning leaves, that is the northern hemisphere in September: here it is the tail of summer.

Where to go

Bilpin, on the Bells Line of Road in the Blue Mountains northwest of Sydney, is the best known pick-your-own apple district in the country. It is close enough to Sydney for a day trip, and the orchards there run alongside a well-established trade in apple pies and cider.

Stanthorpe and the Granite Belt in southern Queensland are the state’s cool-climate pocket, high enough to grow apples properly, and several orchards there open for picking in the autumn.

The Adelaide Hills grow apples alongside their cherries, particularly around Lenswood and Forest Range. In New South Wales there are also orchards around Orange and Batlow in the Snowy Mountains foothills.

What ripens when

Varieties matter more with apples than with berries, because the season is long and no orchard has everything at once:

Most orchards publish which blocks are open on a given weekend. If you have a favourite variety, that is the thing to ask about before you drive out.

How to pick an apple properly

Cup the apple in your palm, lift it upwards and give a slight twist. A ripe apple comes away with the stalk attached and almost no effort. If you have to pull hard, it is not ready, and yanking it tears off next year’s fruiting spur along with the apple. Orchardists notice, and it is the main reason some farms have stopped letting the public in.

Do not climb the trees or use the ladders unless the orchard offers them, and keep to the rows you are pointed at.

Keeping them

Apples keep for months if you let them. Leave them unwashed, keep them cool and dark, and do not stack them deep enough to bruise. One rotting apple really will spoil the box, so pull out any with broken skin and eat those first.

See apple picking farms across Australia, or find one near you on the map.

Updated 27 August 2026

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After fruit you picked yourself? Find a farm in the pick-your-own directory, check what is ready in the crop calendar, or see what is near you on the map.