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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
National
Aston Brown & Photography by Blake Sharp-Wiggins on Lord Howe Island

They’re 600km off the coast, but farmers on Lord Howe Island say ‘we can’t compete with Woolworths’

Larry Wilson with his banana plantation on Lord Howe Island
Larry Wilson with his banana plantation on Lord Howe Island. Photograph: Blake Sharp-Wiggins/The Guardian

Everyone who was around in 1974 remembers the runway going in. From above, the kilometre-long tarmac strip resembles a faded scar through the belly of Lord Howe Island, a tropical jewel of conservation 600km off the New South Wales coast.

For longtime locals such as Robert Jeremy, its completion marked the end of a wilder era.

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