Algerian date palms gifted by French Government 120 years ago are being revived for fresh Riverland future

In a quiet corner of South Australia’s Riverland, four towering date palms hold a secret worldly history deep within their roots, but a local committee is working hard to bring them back to life.

Grown in Algeria, as a gift from the French Government to the colony of South Australia over a century ago, these Deglet Nour date palms in Barmera are the last survivors from an original collection of 50.

From humble beginnings in Biskra, which was French-ruled Algerian territory in the 1890s, the palms became part of an SA Government initiative to establish fruit growing along the outback rail and overland telegraph lines.

After leaving the French port of Marseille, on the maritime steamship Ville dela Clotat in 1894, the trees…