Picking mangoes in the Northern Territory is hard work.
With the harvest season in the build-up to the wet season, workers have to battle searing heat, high humidity and sticky sap from the fruit that can burn their skin.
And in the past few years, many growers have faced mounting pressure to find workers to get their crops picked.
But some farmers and researchers are trying to find solutions to the industry's challenges.
More growers harvesting at night
As the Northern Territory mango season winds down, it is likely more fruit than ever will have been picked at night this year.
"It means we can harvest more fruit in a limited amount of time," said Marie Piccone, managing director of Manbulloo, which started night harvests for the first time this year.
"And mangoes don't just hang on the tree — they'll fall off if we don't get to them in time," she said.
As one of the region's biggest growers, Manbulloo has significant quantities of fruit to pick during a busy harvest period — sometimes as short as four to six weeks.
A few other growers have picked their entire crop at night time for years — mostly to prevent an issue known as "under skin browning", which impacts Honey Gold mangoes more than other varieties and becomes an issue when the fruit is picked during the heat of the day.
But Ms Piccone said Manbulloo were harvesting their Kensington Pride and R2E2 varieties both day and night, as long as the temperature was below 38 degrees.
"We've got very expensive harvesting machinery, and [night harvests] mean that we can utilise one machine for more hours of the day," she said.
"It also means it's cooler for the people who are working out here at night, [which] increases their productivity and their comfort."
Beating the heat
One of the Manbulloo's mango pickers, Moses Skeva agreed.
"[Night harvest] is good. It's better than day [harvesting] because the daytime is too hot," he said.
Mr Skeva said this was his first year picking mangoes at night, with shifts from about 7pm to 4am.
Despite the Northern Territory heat, Mr Skeva said he preferred picking mangoes than other crops like grapes, bananas, tomatoes or kiwi fruit in cooler climates.
"It's hot [in the NT], but it's okay. Because we come to work to get some money to take back home… to help my family," he said.
Are robots the answer?
Nevertheless, labour shortages continue to plague the NT mango industry — and researchers are looking to robots for a long-term solution.
After years of trials, the world's first robotic mango harvester is nearing commercialisation, according to researcher professor Kerry Walsh from Central Queensland University.
Professor Walsh said the robotic harvester would complement existing forms or mechanisation on farms, such as harvest aids that washed and processed fruit as they were picked.
"You've still got eight or so people around [the harvest aid], picking the fruit one by one in the middle of summer at 40-degree heat," he said.
"What we're trying to do is add the mechanical hands that take the fruit from the tree to the harvest aid."
The auto harvester is currently being trialled near Katherine and Professor Walsh said it could be commercially available within three years' time with enough interest from growers.
When Mitchael Curtis saw a prototype of the world's first automatic mango harvester a few years ago, he wasn't convinced of its commercial potential.
"I looked at it and thought, 'Wow, that's pretty slow. I can't see that happening,'" Mr Curtis said.
Now the Katherine mango grower is looking at how his orchards can be designed to accommodate the emerging technology.
"We're going to have to change the way we grow our trees … to structure our trees to suit the automatic harvesting so that it becomes far more efficient," he said.
"Every step is going to create a lot more questions and at least we're moving in the right direction."
