Merriwa Ready to Harvest Rosemary

THE small town of Merriwa supplies 90 percent of the rosemary on ANZAC Day for the Sydney market and the town is preparing for next week’s harvest.

Michael O’Neill with rosemary bushes planted behind the Merriwa Museum.

The residents of Merriwa began growing rosemary five years ago when local herb farmer John Penninger said he needed help to supply more rosemary to Legacy.

This week residents are giving the plants some extra water in the dry conditions to make sure the sprigs they send are sprightly and next week residents will drop in their harvest to the RSL Club to be boxed and sent to Sydney care of the local IGA trucks.

Michael O’Neill said John Penninger had been growing rosemary for more than 20 years for ANZAC Day and locals were more than glad to help such a worthy cause.

“John came into the RSL Club with the idea of trying to encourage the RSL Club to get involved with it and we sat down with John and we took it up,” said Mr O’Neill.

“We strike the sprigs here at the cottage and give them away to anyone who wants to grow some rosemary,” he said.

“We got it at the cenotaph, in private homes, at the RSL Club, at the schools, the fire station and the Shire has put it through the parks and lane ways and so fourth and God looks after it from there,” he said.

“The people who are getting the benefit of it are widows and children of soldiers who have been damaged by war,” he said.

“It grows really well here, I don’t know why but you can put it in the worst ground in the world around here and it seems to grow well, you don’t water it for 12 months and it still grows well,” Michael O’Neill said.

The rosemary is given away for free on ANZAC Day, but donations are made to Legacy and last year they raised $150,000 in Sydney.

At least 50 large cartons are sent from Merriwa to Sydney and prepared into wearable sprigs by volunteers.