Our Story

So, you want to know our story…

Well, it all started in 1990 when Anthony Staatz (the cheery guy below) founded Koala Farms and became the fifth generation in his family to become a farmer.

Anthony started working on his dads farm bagging spuds day in, day out and being paid in peanuts! Seeing how the business was being run made Anthony question weather there was a better way to do things. And so the journey begins, Anthony loaned an 80 acre block on the farm and started planting his own crops, but with a different approach to his dad.

After his first successful tomato crop, Anthony then started slowly growing the business and investing in new farm equipment and technology. This enabled him to be able to produce better quality produce at a lower cost, giving him a competitive advantage.

Now, Koala Farms produces for over 1500 acres and has around 80 employees! We have a great team that helps us to grow some of the best quality fresh produce including, Iceberg lettuce, Baby Cos, Gem Cos, Broccoli, Spinach and Rocket. We currently supply these products for supermarkets such as, Coles, Woolworths and Aldi as well as supplying the market all over Australia.

We pride ourselves on innovation, and always looking for better alternatives for our business, employees and the environment.

Anthony has grown this business with support for his wife Diane and 5 children.

Our Team

It takes a community of hard working passionate people to help grow fresh produce for Australia, all year round. Here at Koala Farms we believe that it is our people that make our business so great. We are really proud of our team and all of the incredible work they do! Below are just some of the crew that make it possible to get vegetables from our farm to your family.

Anthony plays an active role in the day to day operations of the business. You could find him out in the paddock giving a hand or in the office managing our sales. Adopting innovative technologies and systems to enhance the productivity of crops is … — Anthony plays an active role in the day to day operations of the business. You could find him out in the paddock giving a hand or in the office managing our sales. Adopting innovative technologies and systems to enhance the productivity of crops is what won Anthony farmer of the year in 2017!

Anthony staatz

CEO

Willem MYBURGH

Bathurst Farm Manager

Austin is our ambitious farm manager starting with us a few years ago with little experience he progressed to crew leader of baby leaf. Recently he was promoted to farm manager as part of our capability development program to support future expansio… — Austin is our ambitious farm manager starting with us a few years ago with little experience he progressed to crew leader of baby leaf. Recently he was promoted to farm manager as part of our capability development program to support future expansion. Now he is responsible for farming operations in Cambooya.

AUSTIN LENORD

Darling Downs Farm Manager

Michelle handles all of our HR. She has been pivotal in not only making Koala Farms the best place it can be to work, but also in helping grow the business. Having good work culture and happy employees is what we are all striving for!

MICHELLE FLOWERS

Human Resources Manager

SHAWN SHEARER

Lake Clarendon Farm Manager

ROHAN BONNELL

Nursery Crew Leader

NICK STAATZ

Baby Leaf Crew Leader

Adnan coordinates and manages all of our harvesting crews. We often have up to 3 harvesters running at one time cutting broccoli and iceberg lettuce. Adnan makes sure our produce is looking and tasting its best before it gets to you in the supermark… — Adnan coordinates and manages all of our harvesting crews. We often have up to 3 harvesters running at one time cutting broccoli and iceberg lettuce. Adnan makes sure our produce is looking and tasting its best before it gets to you in the supermarket.

Adnan ai yasiry

Harvesting Crew Leader

Brett and Simon are the men that asks you ‘Have you tried turning it off and on again?’ Working with Anthony, Brett and Simon help develop our internal IT practices to help streamline our systems.

SIMON THOMPSON & Brett killen

I.T

Mat manages our planting crew’s on the farm. We plant around 25 million plants on our farms every year and Mat makes sure they are transplanted with the best practice, to ensure they have the best chance at thriving!

Mathew Webb

Planting Crew Leader

Ali manages his harvesting crew and happens to be one of our oldest employees, not because of his age but because of how long he has been working with us! Ali has been a valued employee for Koala Farms from 1990! Ali ensures we cut, pack and send so… — Ali manages his harvesting crew and happens to be one of our oldest employees, not because of his age but because of how long he has been working with us! Ali has been a valued employee for Koala Farms from 1990! Ali ensures we cut, pack and send some of the freshest iceberg lettuce around Australia.

Ali bubba

Iceberg Harvester Crew Leader

Nic Edwards

Packing Shed Crew Leader

Julianne Buckel & Diane Staatz

Admin

Callum is in charge of our logistics crew. We have a lot of product that needs to be loaded onto trucks and Callum makes sure we are sending only the freshest product to our customers.

Callum Kilpatrick

Logistics Crew Leader

Craig is our farm mechanic. Along with his team they maintaining all of our farm vehicles and harvesters. Craig also helps design and make all of our custom fittings and fixtures for our harvesters and farm machinery.

Craig LINes

Mechanic Crew Leader

OUR FARMS

Our farm operations utilise the world’s best systems and practises to ensure we are consistent in producing high quality produce. We produce from over 1500 acres of land in the Lockyer Valley and the Darling Downs. This gives the business enough diverse climate to produce vegetables all year round.

While we have supplied different products to the international and domestic markets our primary focus is to consistently supply high quality produce to chain stores and wholesale markets on the east coast of Australia.

We do this by investing heavily in innovation, effective and efficient systems and continually looking at ways to use new technologies and farm practices that are safe and support environmental sustainability.

Lockyer Valley Farm

BACK PLAINS FARM

Darling downs Farm

BATHURST FARM

AWARDS

The New Inventors - 2005

In 2005 Anthony Staatz & Jamie Buckel entered competition, The New Inventors with the ‘Low Impact Harvester’ and came out on top. The pair designed and prototyped a harvester that reduced damage and bruising to product throughout the harvesting process. The new design cut out the use of a traditional conveyor belt and replaced it with individual cups that cradled a single head of lettuce at a time. We have been using this low impact system from 2005 up to this day!

Grower of the year - 2017

In 2017 Anthony Staatz won ‘Grower of the Year’ award at Hort Connections 2017! We were (and still are) so proud of Anthony winning this award. Through out the years Anthony has adopted innovative technologies and growing practices to ensure that Koala Farms was producing the best product we could.