Melons a true blue treat

For Oakey watermelon producers Mike and Margot Black - along with their four children Jessica, 12, Amelia, 10, Dominic, 7, and Rory, 6 - this meant juggling the festivities of Australia Day between harvesting their crop and putting their eldest daughter into boarding school for the first time.

However, like many rural families, the Blacks wouldn't have it any other way.

"I'm really proud to be an Australian," Mrs Black said.

"I am patriotic and passionate and I wish more people were.

"I wish I was putting my feet up and having a lamb roast or a barbecue and a beer, but Australia needs watermelons," she said.

Under the name Ruby Red Farming, the family own and run two watermelon operations - Ruby Downs near Oakey and Douglas Daly in the Northern Territory.

Harvesting for eight to 10 months of the year, the Blacks are always based at their Oakey farm for Australia Day.

Picking started at Ruby Downs in early December and is anticipated to finish late March.

"We actually had a shocking start," Mrs Black said.

"Without being ungrateful for rain - we were extremely dry and we were also desperate for rain - but we had 7 inches (17.5cm) in a week. We couldn't touch paddocks for 10 days so we lost a lot of fruit."

Mrs Black said worsening the blow of unfavourable weather conditions was an abundance of available fruit on the market that had left prices fairly "ordinary".

"We haven't finished blocks to know exact calculations but our tonnages per acre are extremely down," she said.

"Normally when picking crops we'll go through three or five times - there's a couple of crops that we've gone in once or twice and won't go back.

"You see the waste that we leave in paddocks and, with the market so low, there's no place for second-grade fruit - which we wouldn't send anyway."

Mrs Black said production obstacles were the nature of the game they chose to play as farmers.

But it certainly didn't dampen her spirits on Monday.

"I suppose being in the melon industry we're proud to be producing food to be feeding Australia," she said. "We love to be promoting eating fresh fruit to keep Australians healthy."