Closed for the winter - reopening the 24th of September 2026
We're Nicole and Brendan, and we built the Berry Dairy in 2023 in the front paddock of our dairy farm in Maffra, Gippsland. The Berry Dairy is still new and continues to evolve each season, but our goal is simple: to help reconnect people with food, farming, animals and the farmers that make it all possible. We hope your visit helps you see and learn a little more about life on the farm.
In 2023, what is now The Berry Dairy was simply an empty paddock at the front of our dairy farm. We had no experience in hospitality or strawberry growing, but we could see a gap in the region.
Gippsland already had incredible wineries, breweries and places to eat, but there were fewer hands-on attractions, especially for families with young children. Our own children were only one and two at the time, and I wanted somewhere they could run and play while I could still enjoy good food and a glass of wine.
At the same time, we saw an opportunity to create a place where people could experience agriculture up close and better understand where their food comes from. So we took the risk and combined pick-your-own strawberries, a farm café, playgrounds and real agricultural experiences on our working dairy farm.
The Berry Dairy was built from the ground up from that original paddock, and we have continued adding new areas and experiences as the business has grown.
At The Berry Dairy, our strawberries are grown spray-free. Rather than relying on routine pesticide spraying, we use careful crop management, natural helpers and a lot of hands-on work to keep the plants healthy.
We regularly walk the patch and remove overripe, damaged or mouldy fruit before it can contribute to disease. Alyssum is planted around the patch to attract beneficial insects, while ladybirds, lacewings and predatory mites help control pests naturally. Bees and other pollinators are also essential for producing well-formed fruit.
Our raised strawberry beds improve drainage and are covered with plastic mulch to suppress weeds, retain soil moisture, keep the fruit cleaner and warm the soil. Between the rows, weedmat and woodchip provide further weed control, although considerable manual weeding is still required.
Every plant is planted by hand, and the crop is pruned, weeded, maintained and picked by hand throughout the season. In 2026, we planted 30,000 new strawberry plants sourced from a certified grower.
We also reduce food waste by feeding overripe fruit, damaged strawberries and strawberry tops from the café to our cows rather than sending them to landfill.
Growing strawberries this way takes more time and labour. The patch may not always be completely weed-free and every berry may not be perfectly shaped, but our aim is to grow great-tasting fruit while working with the farm environment and continually improving the way we manage the crop.
The Berry Dairy sits at the front of our working dairy farm, where around 550 Friesian and Kiwi-cross cows are milked twice a day and most of our calves are born in spring.
Dairy farming is what first brought our family to Australia. We moved from New Zealand in 2018 after seeing the opportunities available in the Australian dairy industry. Since then, we have built our farming business here, become Australian citizens, and have loved the opportunities dairy farming in Gippsland has given our family.
Our cows graze irrigated pasture grown on the farm, using water supplied from Lake Glenmaggie through the Macalister Irrigation District. We also supplement their diet with grain such as wheat and barley sourced from Northern Victoria.
Visitors can see this side of The Berry Dairy on our Dairy Farm Tractor Tours, which travel beyond the public areas and into the working farm, including a stop at the dairy during milking.