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Outlined below is a diagram showing the locations of some of the olives groves belonging  to  the Tasmanian Olive Council members. 

Grove number 10 has an "about" page link with a contact listing. If you wish to access this for more information, please click on the No10 box, or the link on the left hand side of the page.

Tasmanian Olive History

Commercial planting began in earnest in the mid 90's, but there are areas such as the East coast and inland at Campbell Town, where a few olive trees where planted considerably earlier than this.

Tasmania has approximately 120,000 olive trees in the ground and new planting, which slowed in 2000-2002, have increased  considerably.  Interest in commercial plantings started about 1996. Cool climate varieties of olives are growing successfully in most areas of the state except the West coast and central areas above an elevation of 200 metres.

Another contributing factor to the interest is that as more olive grove's production comes on line, we are more frequently entering state and national premier olive oil tasting events and winning many awards. The most recent was at the 2007 Australian Olive Association, where Carol and Tony O'Neil won best of the show for their olive oil. It is not the first year that  they and others, such as Rob and Annie Ashbolt at Plenty, near New Norfolk have received gold medals at past Expos.

In 2003, a RIRDC 3 year survey report was released. This report was called the National Olive Variety Assessment project. It involved national sampling and analysis of olive fruit to determine which varieties were suited to which locality.  Factors such as oil yield, fatty acid component profiles, and fruit size were assessed. The report findings, amongst other things determined that the more southerly locations had fruit with higher levels of oleic acid. Increased oleic acid generally indicates that the fruit is more nutritious and has enhanced oxidative stability.

The report did state that in the northern hemisphere there have been many studies to determined that oleic acid level in the fatty acid profile increases progressively with increased northerly latitude. It did point out that there hasn’t yet been a similar study in Australia .

Interest in Tasmania's olive oil chemistry profile has increased considerably. We are finding that we can produce world beating concentrations of oleic acid, which is the main highly nutritious mono-unsaturated fatty acid in olive oil. Olive trees in warmer climates have higher growth rate and fruit yield per annum of tree maturity, but unfortunately they have higher concentrations of saturated fat.  Our long winter dormancy and slower ripening of fruit produces unsurpassed nutritional outcomes.

The fruit polyphenols contain some important anti-oxidants. As olive fruit ripens, the polyphenol concentration peaks then falls approximately three weeks before the maximum oil yield is achieved in the fruit. Therefore,  if commercial decisions about oil volume are the main consideration, many extra virgin oils may not be as nutritious as others. Unfortunately, the International Olive Oil Council has not set a value for polyphenol content in their definition for Extra Virgin Olive Oil. 

Cool climate olive oil has increased oxidative stability. Subject to optimum harvesting and processing technique, we can produce an oil with considerably longer shelf life than many oils produced elsewhere. As an added bonus, it also contains higher levels of Vitamin E.

In 2005 a South Eastern Tasmanian grove discovered that their olive oil was just over the world accepted maximum benchmark of oleic acid content for extra virgin classification. The oil also had a very low free fatty acid level (F.F.A) and was high in fruit polyphenols. 

The FFA is a measure of the degree of rancidity. Up to 0.8% is considered suitable for Extra virgin Olive classification, over 2.0% is considered to be rancid. Low FFA levels after processing, are a good  indication that the oil will have a longer shelf life. 

The owner of the S.E grove patented the process (Approved AUS patent 20051009700) and created the term Ultra Virgin Olive Oil, which guarantees high levels of nutritious mono-unsaturated fatty acids and polyphenols, but with very low levels of free fatty acid. The world maximum for EVOO is less than 0.8%, Ultra Virgin Olive Oil rates below 0.2%. 

 Most Tasmanian olive groves can produce ultra virgin olive oil standard,  providing attention is given to harvesting time and oil extraction techniques. Primarily it is our climate and modern technology, that gives us this capability to produce world beating, highly nutritious olive oil.

There are dozens of olive varieties, but in Tasmania most growers have planted cool climate types suitable for oil end use.  However, there are still some table fruit varieties, which are more prevalent in low altitude coastal areas.

Olives here are harvested in late May to July. More elevated frost prone areas harvest in May.  Around the State we have 7 olive oil processing centres. They are located near New Norfolk & Wilmot (both  expect to be operating for the 2008 season), Swansea, Campania, Hobart (2) and Huonville. 

Most processing machines are the modern hammermill and horizontal centrifuge type, which have been found to reduce oxidative exposure during oil extraction. The Huonville processing centre uses the traditional technique of stone wheel, mats and hydraulic press.

Previously two-grower associations existed in the state. At the request of the Tasmanian Government DPI and the Australian Olive Association they agreed to the logic of a merger, which occurred  in 2005 and created the Tasmanian Olive Council.  

Send mail to bhinson@tasmanian-olives.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: May 07, 2008