Banana growers say they'll see it through

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INNISFAIL, on Queensland's north coast, is the perfect place to grow bananas. Its tropical weather and deep, fertile, well-watered soils have brought banana growers to its sheltered valleys.

Over the past decade the banana industry has become so concentrated in the region that when Cyclone Larry hit on March 20 it wiped out over 80 per cent of the country's banana supply.

Evan Dodds farms with his brother Geoff and parents Margaret and Bruce at Innisfail.

His parents grew sugarcane until his father decided nine years ago that there was a better future in bananas. Since then Evan, a fitter and turner, and Geoff, a diesel fitter in the mines, have come back, to work on the farm.

"My parents would have just sold the farm a few years back," Evan says. "They got quite a good offer on the farm, but they decided not to, that is was the future for their sons.

"And we said, 'OK we are prepared to commit ourselves to it'."

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