WANATCA #

The West Australian Nut & Tree Crop Association was brought into existence in 1975 by a small group of people passionate about growing nut trees (the original name was the West Australian Nutgrowing Society). A few years later, fruit and other tree crops were added to the brief. At that time, the variety of nut and fruit trees available to the public was very limited, as was information about the horticulture of growing and propagating exotic plants and the use and processing of their products.

The Association flourished, with four meetings per year, plus field trips and other events. Quandong magazine was a quarterly newsletter that grew into a substantial publication: the last ten issues are presented here. The twenty-seven Yearbooks contained more detailed articles. Digitization is now complete.

ACOTANC, the Australasian Conference on Trees and Nut Crops, was twice hosted by WANATCA in Perth, Western Australia. Papers from the ninth conference in 2001 are displayed on this website.

In 2007, WANATCA was dissolved due to falling membership. There are now many more species and varieties of fruit and nut plants available and a great deal of information can be obtained on the internet. Unfortunately, it is now extremely difficult and expensive to import plant materials into Western Australia due to rigorous quarantine restrictions.

Members of WANATCA felt that the information contained in these publications is of considerable value, so provisions have been made to ensure this material will continue to be available to the public.

In 2024, Benedict Noel (David Noel’s son) recreated the original website and has scanned all past copies of the Quandong Magazine that are available to download for free.