Overview

A Unique Tour | Created by Australians

This tour created by Agcolab Study Tours an Australian Based Leader in Bespoke Agricultural Study Tours & Events | www.agcolab.com promises an extraordinary journey that combines education & experiences across Australia.  In 2024 the team at Agcolab led an Australian delegation through Monatana.  While there the delegation met with some local Montana Grain leaders including past president of MGGA Boyd Heilig, Bing von Bergon at Heartland Seed & The Stevenson Family. 
See a clip from this tour | 2024: Grains Plains & Automobiles.  The inbound Montana Group in 2025 would meet with farm & leaders from across Australia

The Tour

Montana Grain Growers “Tour Down Under” starts on the east coast flying directly into Sydney where the group will spend a few days experiencing some quintessential Aussie highlights like Sydney Harbour, the Opera House, Bridge Climb & the famous Beaches, highlights nobody will ever forget.

We then begin our first of two ‘outback road trips’ where along with stunning rural Australian highlights the group can expect to be hosted by cutting edge Australian broadacre farmers as well as experts from agricultural enterprises & innovators.

We travel west to the stunning Blue Mountains Region bush camping overnight among kangaroos in The Megalong Valley before heading north to the first of our 5 farming regions, The Liverpool Plains. Often referred to as “Australia’s Food Bowl” the 12,000 square kilometres area is known for its highly fertile black soils, which are ideal for growing a variety of crops, including wheat, barley, and canola. Our home for the next two nights is The Goonoo Goonoo Station one of the Australia’s most prized and historical pastoral properties dating back to the 1840’s.

We continue travelling north through the Moree Plains Shire, an area known for wheat & grains as well as large scale cotton production. The unique area is also home to artesian hot springs, renowned for their therapeutic properties.

The group will then travel across the New South Wales Border into Queensland into the region known as The Darling Downs. The Downs have been described as 'four million acres of the richest soil in the world' and are sometimes called the 'Garden of Australia'. The Downs and adjoining areas grow most of the state's fruit, oilseeds and wheat, as well as producing maize, oats, sorghum, millet and other crops. Added to that it has pastoral areas famous for horse and cattle studs and wool production. The western and northern Downs are prime cattle country, producing some of the best beef in Australia.

With stays in both Moree and Toowoomba the group will conclude our eastern Australian road trip when we take a flight from Brisbane across Australia to Perth, the capital of the powerhouse state of Western Australia. We will overnight in Perth before taking a flight the next day out to the farming region of Esperance. Esperance is unique in that it has 3 distinct rainfall zones within the one region that boasts fertile sandplain soils, ideal for a variety of crops especially wheat, barley & canola. The Southeast Premium Wheatgrowers Association (known as SEPWA) are based in the region. The group play a critical role in improving the profitability and sustainability of grain growers in the region promoting agricultural trials and research, which help farmers adopt new technologies and practices. We’ll be based for 3 nights in Esperance where we will be hosted by local farm and ag leaders from the area, taking in not only farms but also the stunning region including some of the world’s whitest & most remote beaches and landscapes.

Following our time in Esperance we travel west to Ravensthorpe and the southern WA Wheatbelt with scheduled farm stops prior to overnighting in picturesque Bremer Bay. The next day we depart Bremer Bay travelling north and then west across what is known as the horsepower highway, a section of road that has been dotted every few miles with classic old tractors as a reminder of the strong history & farming roots that are part of the region. We travel though places like Gnowangerup & Katanning, home to the largest undercover sheep saleyards in the southern hemisphere. We will finish late in the day over in Margaret River, an area famous for it Cabernet wines and world renowned surf break.

Our next day will be spent exploring the stunning Margaret River region visiting some of the beautiful wineries before we head late in the day for a 3-hour drive up the coast to Perth where we stay in the Fremantle (or Freo) for our final 2 nights in Australia. A free day the following day in Perth with optional sites and ag related tours on offer prior to our farewell dinner. Options to return or to extend and explore another part of Australia on the return journey.

Note: Minimum numbers are required to commit to a creating the group tour (& finalising the group cost), so please take note of the timeframe.