Waikerie’s name is derived from the Ngawait word “wei kari” meaning “many wings”.

While this refers to the moths that flutter around the area after heavy rain, Waikerie has come to grow into its name further through its many far-reaching wings in agriculture.

Located on the banks of the River Murray, the town is home to the citrus packing and processing complex of the iconic juice brand Nippy’s.

Nippy’s sources local fruit from more than 100 growers around the region and delivers this to every Australian state and some 15 countries around the world.

“What we get from growers is all their fruit to pack, look after and sell to markets,” Operations Manager of the Waikerie complex Phillip Warner says.

“What we give back is employment and opportunities for locals, and we also feed money through our employees back into the town.”

Packing around 40,000 tonnes of citrus a year with 80 to 90 employees during peak periods, Nippy’s is one of the town’s biggest employers and offers an outlet for local growers to sell their produce in mass.

Just outside town, seed potato company Solan demonstrates the precision agricultural advances Waikerie has adopted.

The company is a premier supplier of seed potatoes, producing certified mini tubers that are distributed across Australia and the world.

“We produce about 60 per cent of Australia’s mini tubers going out to the national industry,” Solan General Manager Liteisha Lochert says.

“The facility here is an integral part of the entire potato supply chain.”

Liteisha says Waikerie is not only an excellent place to live, calling the town home for 30 years and raising her family there, but also to base the business in.

“The climate here is really, really good and I love living and working here,” she says.

“Everything that you want in life is here.”

Nippy’s is one of Waikerie’s largest employers. Photo: Lara Pacillo

With the Sturt Highway passing through, Waikerie is in an ideal location for transporting commodities across the nation, which has led to a diversity of products.

From stone fruits to exotic fruits, livestock to aquaculture, vineyards to nut farms, what was once a citrus town has expanded in variety.

Mayor Leon Stasinowsky says the millennial drought was a catalyst for this diversification and encouraged people to try new things.

“People started to stop and think ‘well what can we get and do to get the best dollar out of the water that we’ve actually got’,” he says.

As a dryland farmer and past member of the drought task force himself, Leon has seen and experienced the battering that the drought had on the town.

He speaks highly of the community’s resilience through this as well as through fruit fly outbreaks, from which the town has responded proactively.

Grape and olive grower Keryn Gorman decided to diversify her Illalangi brand by value adding and expanding into a gourmet range of products using local and native ingredients.

She opened a retail store on Sturt Highway to showcase her Illalangi products in 2011 and continues to add to her unique range of gourmet offerings, including dried fruit, gourmet fine wines, olive oil, dukkha and handmade jams and condiments.

“We have gradually grown and grown to four times our size and now we employ six locals,” Keryn says.

While she’s travelled around Australia and the world, it’s her love and passion for Waikerie that keeps her “home”.

“It’s clean, it’s green and there’s hours of sunlight that fills the fruit with so much flavour, taste and colour,” Keryn says.

Illalangi Gourmet Foods and its retail store tap into the expanding agritourism and tourism industry in the town.

With a newly upgraded riverfront featuring a boat ramp, houseboat facilities and a pump track; a retirement village expanding to 150 houses; a new caravan and holiday park; as well as majestic silo art added to the town’s attractions, Keryn says Waikerie is a place people want to be.

“There’s good energy going out, and to others that come here as well,” she says.

Waikerie High School is playing a big role in enticing young people to stay with its agriculture program offering practical knowledge and partnerships with local businesses.

Students learn skills from paddock to plate, and from root to wine glass too through the viticulture program.

“The idea is to upskill students in a way so when they go out to work in the industry, they know what to do,” agriculture teacher Paul Tripodi says.

“I love the strong community aspect of Waikerie, and it’s just that thing of making what you’ve done do more things and spread it out for all to enjoy.”

Waikerie is one of five finalists in the Agriculture Town of the Year Award sponsored by PIRSA to recognise South Australian towns that are excelling in agricultural practices and the flow on effect they have on communities. The winner will be announced at Solstice Media’s Regional Showcase Awards at the UKARIA Cultural Centre on Friday 4 November.