Pick your own in Orange and the Hilltops

The central west of New South Wales grows fruit because it is high. Orange sits above 850 metres and the Hilltops district around Young is not far behind, which gives both the cold winters that stone fruit and apples need and an autumn that the coast does not get.

Cherries at Young, apples at Orange

The Hilltops district is cherry country and holds one of the largest sets of self-pick cherry orchards in Australia. The season is short and summer: roughly November into January, with the peak around the Christmas weeks.

Orange carries cherries too, but its longer suit is apples, running through autumn into May, alongside plums, blackberries and stone fruit. Because apples and cherries sit at opposite ends of the year, the district is worth visiting twice.

This is a weekend, not a morning

Both districts are three to four hours from Sydney. That changes the planning: you are choosing a destination rather than fitting in a farm on the way home, and it makes checking ahead more important, not less. A wet week that closes the cherry orchards is a wasted weekend rather than a wasted hour.

Practical notes

Cherry weekends are busy. The district runs cherry festivals and the roads and orchards fill accordingly. Book where booking is offered.

Autumn is the quiet season and the better one for apples. Orange in April is cool, the orchards are calm, and the fruit is at its best.

Altitude means cold mornings even in summer. A jacket at opening time is usually needed and usually shed by ten.

Frost is the risk the growers watch. A late spring frost can take out a cherry crop months before picking, which is why a district that was excellent one year can be thin the next. If a farm’s listing shows no season this year, that is often why.

Updated 10 September 2026