It costs up to $100,000 a kilo and Queensland farmers are growing it for luxury perfume

Being bundled into a minivan in Cairns and instructed by the driver to not tell anyone my movements feels more like a hostage situation than a luxury experience. I try memorising the route. A left turn, then a roundabout followed by cane fields, more cane fields, or is that the same cane field?

Discretion is required because the hinterland destination is home to essential perfume ingredients rivalling the roses in the south of France for value. Roses are rare in the Queensland tropics but Agarwood, which can cost more than $100,000 for a kilogram, smells much sweeter to grower Tim Coakley, executive chairman of Wescorp.

“Most Australians don’t understand how valuable this is, but occasionally, we see people slowly driving past,” Coakley says, surrounded by rows of Agarwood-producing Aquilaria trees arranged as neatly as the boxed citrus trees in the Orangery at Versailles. “We have cameras set up in the trees. If you go to Asia they have seven-foot walls and people wandering around with guns.”

Agarwood, extracted from Aquilaria trees, has provided the resin commonly known as oud to growers in Asia for centuries. Its smoke and leather notes were used in religious ceremonies before attracting the attention of perfumers such as Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Tom Ford and boutique Australian brand Goldfield & Banks.

The sweet-smelling wood is common in Vietnam, Cambodia and parts of India. In 2014, when a Malaysian fisherman caught a fragrant piece of wood in his nets, its value was estimated at $25 million, if it could be verified as Agarwood.

“The idea of Agarwood coming from Australia never crossed my mind,” says Goldfield & Banks founder Dimitri Weber, who specialises in fragrances that evoke the Australian landscape. The Banks in the brand name is a tribute to botanist Joseph Banks, who accompanied Captain Cook to Australia in 1770.

“When I read an article about Tim growing Aquilaria trees I couldn’t believe it.” After visiting the plantation Weber took samples of the organic oil to a trade fair in Milan. “People were mesmerised by the quality and the purity.”

“Many oud perfumes are manipulated to amplify the character of the perfume, giving a false oud. Only a few people have experience of what real oud is. This is special.”