stay out of the canola<\/a>, as they risk their personal safety and farm biosecurity.<\/p>\nShashika and Sachana Samith travelled two hours from their home in Notting Hill in Melbourne’s south east to visit the canola at Cornella.<\/p>\n
“We wanted to experience the countryside,” Mr Samith said.<\/p>\n
“We live in a quiet place with a small garden, but this is something completely different.<\/p>\n
“Seeing this landscape covered in yellow flowers is so natural and beautiful.”<\/p>\n
Mr Samith said escaping the city was part of the appeal.<\/p>\n
“We live in an apartment where it’s noisy and busy,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Out here it’s calm and peaceful. It’s mesmerising.”<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
Shashika and Sachana Samith captured drone footage of the crop. (ABC News: Nate Woodall)<\/p>\n
The couple brought along a drone to get aerial shots.<\/p>\n
“Around where we live there are lots of restrictions because of a nearby helipad,” he said.<\/p>\n
“Here we can fly legally by following the regulations and capture amazing footage.”<\/p>\n
Deanne Jeffers lives in Shepparton, about an hour’s drive away.<\/p>\n
“We see canola from the roadside all the time, but being able to walk through it is exciting,” she said.<\/p>\n
“For people from the city, it’s a chance to immerse themselves in scenery they don’t usually experience.”<\/p>\n
Fellow visitor and friend Jim Sutherland had also seen the canola while driving.<\/p>\n
“Standing in the middle of a field is completely different,” he said.<\/p>\n
“You get the smell, the earth under your feet, and a totally different perspective.”<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/8d624c6ad4b60e1a5ea6c4617b150b6b.jpeg\")
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Friends Jim Sutherland and Deanne Jeffers enjoyed being in the canola crop. (ABC News: Nate Woodall)<\/p>\n
Opening up the canola paddocks to visitors was an extension of the agritourism business already established on the farm, said Mr Spencer, who also runs a winery and offers grape-picking.<\/p>\n
“We thought, well, we got a [canola] crop, we got a car park, we got toilets, and we can probably sell a bit of wine and beer if they like as well,” he said.<\/p>\n
“So we carved a simple track into the crop the first year and parked an old truck out there so they could climb up on the back of it.”<\/p>\n
But he was blown away by the enthusiasm of the crowds.<\/p>\n
“Overwhelmingly, there’s this sense of just being part of a joyful experience for a lot of people,” he said.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/101eb53740fc603b88f396b159cf26a6.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Brian Spencer says people have travelled from as far away as Indonesia to have photos in the canola. (ABC News: Nate Woodall)<\/p>\n
Tourism boost<\/p>\n
Campaspe Shire Mayor Daniel Mackrell said the surge in visitors to the Cornella canola fields had helped the region, which had dealt with floods and fires in recent years.<\/p>\n
“People come for the spectacular fields of colour, but while they’re here they’re also visiting cafes, wineries, accommodation providers and other local attractions,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a fantastic example of agritourism at its best, bringing together our agricultural heritage, landscape and local business community.”<\/p>\n
Agritourism is a growing industry for Australia, with visitors spending $20.3 billion in 2024, according to the latest report by Tourism Research Australia.<\/p>\n
It makes up 14 per cent of the total tourism spend across the nation.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/0b550953ccdd2b0136af279ada66c1d6.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Daniel Mackrell says the tourism boost in Cornella benefits the whole region. (Supplied: Campaspe Shire Council)<\/p>\n
Ballarat-based chair of industry group Australian Regional Tourism, Joel Chadwick, said agritourism diversified farmers’ income and expanded the understanding of the work they did.<\/p>\n
“Experiences such as the Canola Walk give visitors a reason to explore beyond the traditional tourism offering and see a working agricultural landscape in a different way,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Chadwick said the sector was continuing to grow.<\/p>\n
“Agritourism is also now identified as a ‘Signature Experience’ by Tourism Australia so it is becoming increasingly recognised as a sector with great opportunity and potential growth,” he said.<\/p>\n
Ms Jeffers said she valued the opportunity to learn about farming.<\/p>\n
“It’s great to see primary producers making the most of their land while giving people the chance to learn more about farming and regional communities,” she said.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/163d787509fde15b0c511b02d586c7bc.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Canola started blooming earlier than usual in Victoria this year. (ABC News: Nate Woodall)<\/p>\n
Weather variables<\/p>\n
One of the big challenges of agritourism operations, particularly crop-based visitor attractions, is the weather.<\/p>\n
Mr Spencer said his team have had to bring forward their opening times this year, because of early blooming.<\/p>\n
“Last year it was a very dry start to the season, and you really wondered whether you were going to get a crop and then it didn’t start till the end of August,” he said.<\/p>\n
“This year we were about a month earlier than last year with the flowering.<\/p>\n
“But how long it runs, who knows? Some farmers say it’ll still keep going through ’til the end of September, others say it may finish a bit earlier.<\/p>\n
“You’ve certainly gotta be flexible, and it certainly puts you under pressure when your whole timeline changes by a month.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Farmers usually try to keep selfie-seekers out of their canola crops, but in Cornella, near Heathcote in central…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,32716,397790,199780,44,2185,54767,397791,397789],"class_list":["post-823640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-canola","tag-cornella","tag-instagram-photos","tag-news","tag-rural","tag-selfies","tag-shiraz-republic","tag-yellow-flowers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n