Watermelon Season

Watermelons are available year-round in Australia, peaking from December to May when summer and early-autumn crops come in from Queensland and New South Wales. The best deals and the freshest fruit are usually between December and March. From May through to spring, supply thins out but doesn't disappear. The Northern Territory and Western Australia keep a steady trickle of melons moving to market through the cooler months.

Watermelon is in season year-round in Australia, with peak supply in summer.

Watermelons need a long run of heat to develop sweetness. The optimum growing temperature is around 30°C and germination requires soil above 20°C. Night temperatures below 15°C slow growth and reduce fruit size. A crop planted from seed takes roughly 10 to 16 weeks to harvest, according to the QLD DAF Crop Summary. Most production is outdoors on free-draining raised beds, with trickle irrigation and reduced watering in the week before harvest to concentrate sugar. Bees are essential for pollination. Most commercial growers bring in at least two hives per hectare once about 10% of plants are flowering. Unlike stone fruit, a watermelon's sugar content is fixed at harvest. It doesn't continue ripening once picked.

According to Melons Australia, the industry is concentrated in four states. Queensland leads at around 32% of national production, followed by NSW (26%), the NT (25%) and WA (12%), with SA and Victoria sharing the remaining 5%. Queensland production runs from Bowen and the Burdekin in the north down through Rockhampton, Bundaberg, Gayndah-Mundubbera and Chinchilla-St George, each with its own planting window. Chinchilla, four hours north of Brisbane, is probably the country's most famous melon town and hosts a biennial festival running since the early 1990s, as ABC Gardening Australia notes. NSW production comes mainly from the Riverina and Sunraysia. NT Farmers puts the Territory's dry-season window at May to October, filling the gap when southern states can't produce. WA grows year-round in its northern regions for steady off-peak supply.

According to Melons Australia, the watermelon industry produced 211,921 tonnes worth $217.5 million in 2024/25, up from 165,723 tonnes worth $158.3 million in 2022/23. Watermelons account for around 63% of total melon industry value. Around 140 growers farm approximately 8,500 hectares nationally, running production year-round by moving north and south with the seasons. Exports reached 7,847 tonnes valued at $22 million in 2024/25, mainly to Japan, Singapore and New Zealand. Fresh imports are effectively zero, per DAFF.