Striking Oil
WHEN TANUJA Sanders and
her husband Keith relocated to rural Western Australia in the late 1990s, making olive oil was not part of the plan.
The pair had been sub-contracted by Transfield
to work on the expansion of the Worsley Alumina bauxite mine and decided to put down roots in the area.
They purchased a picturesque 40 ha property near Bunbury and set about building a house.
At the house-warming party, a neighbour suggested to Sanders that she plant some olive trees on a 12 ha parcel
of empty land at the front of the property.
“I ended up buying 2500 trees,” she says, laughing. “I thought it could be a fun hobby.”
That hobby would eventually become the Sathya Olive Company, a thriving enterprise that now cultivates about 30 t of olives per year.
Overseen by Tanuja Sanders, whose background
ENGINEERSAUSTRALIA.ORG.AU
is in project-managing
power plants, the company produces extra virgin olive oil that has won awards from Perth to the US.
Some of the couple’s success can be attributed to the location of their property, atop sandy soil in a sun-drenched corner of WA.
“We’re blessed with beautiful weather and land that is very conducive to growing olives,” says Sanders.
Because sandy soil drains more freely than clay-based earth, the couple’s trees are less susceptible to common diseases caused by water logging.
But sandy soil poses challenges, too.
“Because the soil drains so easily, the trees require frequent watering,” says Sanders. “And
all that water leaches essential minerals from the soil.”
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