Blessed with sunshine and warm weather, Bingara residents gathered in Finch Street on Friday to carry out a zesty, 60-year tradition.
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Hundreds of ripe oranges were harvested from the trees, planted as a living memorial to Bingara's fallen in World War I and II.
Running things a little differently this year to abide by COVID-19 regulations, colour-coded trees were assigned to certain school age groups, while others were open for public picking.
But that did not take away any significance of the day, as children and adults were spotted smiling and laughing as they searched for the biggest oranges on each tree.
Bingara Central School students play a huge role each year in protecting the trees to ensure no fruit is picked until harvest time.
After 13 years as an orange police officer, Friday was Year 12 student Jacqueline Coombes' last harvest with the school.
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"The significance [of the day] is as a community remembering and acknowledging the sacrifice past generations have made; that means a lot to me," she said.
Her favourite memory will always be running as fast as she could to the tree she thought grew the biggest oranges.
And although the great dash wasn't able to happen this year, her piece of advice for students in the following years was simple.
"Run as fast as you can and find the biggest one," she laughed.
Meanwhile, for Kindergarten student Mason White, Friday was his first official harvest as a Bingara Central School student.
When asked how many oranges were on the trees, a quick count in his head gave the answer of- "I think there is 100 oranges".
Not giving away his insider information as to where the biggest oranges were located, he said "I don't know.. maybe in front of the school".
Okay Mason we'll take your word for it. And as for his plans for the first school student harvest? "I'll make orange juice," he said.
Bingara Lions Club will be collecting leftover oranges and delivering them to locals in isolation unable to attend the harvest so no one misses out on the tradition.
Unfortunately, the Bingara Happy Days Orange Festival had to be taken off the town's calendar for 2020 due to COVID-19.
