Pick your own around Perth: the Swan Valley and the Perth Hills

Perth has the shortest drive to a self-pick farm of any Australian capital. The Swan Valley starts about twenty minutes from the centre and holds one of the largest clusters of self-pick farms in the country, with the Perth Hills rising behind it and adding a cooler, later set of orchards.

Strawberries and citrus in the valley

The Swan Valley’s mainstay is strawberries, and the Western Australian strawberry season is long: a valley farm can be picking from spring through to autumn, which is a far wider window than the eastern states manage.

Citrus is the other valley crop, and it runs the opposite way to the berries. Navels come in through winter, Valencias carry into summer, so there is nearly always something on.

The hills run later and cooler

The Perth Hills sit higher and pick later. Apples, plums and stone fruit are the crops there, running from summer into autumn. If the valley has finished a crop, the hills are often still going.

Heat is the planning constraint

This matters more here than anywhere else on the site. Picking in Perth in February at midday is genuinely unpleasant and hard on the fruit.

Go at opening. Most farms open early for exactly this reason, and the fruit is firmer and easier to pick before the sun is on it.

Take more water than you think. Rows have no shade.

Get the fruit out of the sun immediately. A closed car in a Perth car park will cook a punnet of strawberries in fifteen minutes. An esky in the boot is not optional in summer.

Practical notes

The valley is flat, easy driving, and farms are close enough together that two in a morning is realistic. The hills are winding and further apart, so plan one, not three.

Many valley farms sell containers to fill rather than pricing by weight, so pack carefully. And check before you drive: strawberry farms in particular close for a week mid-season while a block recovers.

Updated 10 September 2026