At three sites totalling more than 6000 hectares in the Murray River Valley of north-west Victoria, 22 specially designed and manufactured Colossus harvesting machines are running around the clock for 10 weeks to harvest the olives at peak flavour and quality.

Cobram Estate’s parent company Boundary Bend Ltd, named after the location of the original olive grove planted by founders Rob McGavin and Paul Riordan, employs an additional 160 people at harvest, including those who drive the harvester in 12-hour shifts before switching out with another team.

Mr McGavin, who grew up on the grazing property Jubilee Park, Barcaldine Queensland (which he and brother Tim have retained), said his team closely monitored the fruits ripening, and although the sites had received big rainfalls in the past few weeks during the early stages of harvest, the quality would still be very high.

“Rainfall doesn’t impact the oil quantity much and it doesn’t reduce the oil in the fruit, but it does reduce the oil as a percentage, and the quality will be very good this year,” he said.

“This year’s harvest will be down (on last year but that’s because) with olive you have an on year and an off year and we’re in an off year, but we’re still on track to produce 10 to 10.5 million litres.”

Boundary Bend has grown to be Australia’s largest vertically integrate olive oil company. It is the largest olive grower , in fact it is one of the largest single owners of olive groves in the world – with some 2.4 million trees fully irrigated with computers drip systems.

In 2015 it had about 17 per cent of Australia’s total area of olive groves, but it produced a much higher percentage of Australia’s olive oil at 67 per cent.

Mr McGavin said the productivity was one of the core business drivers, and had been achieved through 15 years of “trial and terror”, from working out which varieties sourced from Israel perform best in Australia’s climate, through to overhauling an imported harvester, to constructing on-site plants that enable the olives to be crushed and cold pressed within four to six hours of being picked to maximise freshness and retain aromas and flavours. 

He said getting the mechanical harvester right was a vital piece of the puzzle in getting high quality, fresh olive oils to consumers at a competitive price.

“We can now harvest for 10 cents a kilogram, compared to $1/kg if we hand-picked the olive.”

One of their other competitive advantages was their processing plants, which use the latest technology (at a cost of $30 million for the Boundary Bend plant) to extract the most oil and to keep it at optimal conditions including temperature, and strict quality assurance and hygiene standards.

“We get 10 per cent more oil from the same fruit than any other processor in the world,” Mr McGavin said, adding it was the result of big advances and investment as well as an eye to detail such as replacing blunt blades.

Another challenge that shaped Boundary Bend was its involvement with managed investment scheme Timbercorp.

In late 2004, Timbercorp employed Boundary Bend to manage its more than 2500ha of olive groves and as their production increased, Timbercorp more than doubled its total area of groves.

Then in 2009, Timbercorp’s companies were placed into public administration and through lengthy legal proceedings, Boundary Bend was able to buy all its olive groves from the liquidator.

“If seven years ago you asked me what’s the worst thing that could happen to Boundary Bend, I’d have said Timbercorp going broke, but looking back if you said what was the best thing that could have happened to Boundary Bend seven years ago, I’d say Timbercorp going broke,” he said.

Mr McGavin has a self-confessed olive oil obsession and an evident commitment to quality. He is also quick to sing the praises of his staff, from food technicians, harvest co-ordinators, plant operators, etc.

He’s also on a mission to educate people on the health benefits of extra virgin olive oil (which he said was the natural juice from the olive without chemicals or supplements added); including its abundance of antioxidants and squalene.

“Health is what is driving it, those trends towards unrefined, natural health are strong and getting stronger,” Mr McGavin said.

“Consumers want to buy their product from the grower, trying to capture that as best as we can. A lot of work goes into traceability.”

He said a high quality olive oil not only made food taste better but it was also “...much, much better for your health thanks to the components in it.”

“Unfortunately a lot of consumers don’t know there is a difference between refined seed oils and extra virgin olive oil; they don’t realise it’s really the only mainstream cooking oil that is the juice of the fruit,” Mr McGavin said.

Last month, Cobram Estate was again recognised at the New York International Olive Oil Competition, the world’s most prestigious olive oil show. It was awarded one best in class, three gold awards and one silver award from a field of 827 oils from 26 countries. Cobram Estate’s newly launched US brand won the best in class for the Australian Select Extra Virgin Olive Oil.