On a property so secretive that people need coordinates to find it on a map, a Brisbane couple is entering into an emerging food and tourism industry in Queensland.

Charlotte Brierley and her husband Brady are about to plant 3,500 trees inoculated with the truffle fungus on the Granite Belt in the state's south.

Because truffles are so rare and expensive — at about $3 per gram retail — truffle hunters need to be very protective of their stock.

Ms Brierly said particularly in the start-up phase, they were worried about their young trees being stolen.

"Once you're looking at big oak trees that are a couple of metres tall that's not feasible to take, so during those first three months our farm will be heavily trafficked with people living on site, which diminishes a lot of the risk," she said.

Bob Bona and Carol Hooper will harvest their first truffles this winter.

"We actually fenced our property because we were having problems with rabbits and wallabies," Ms Hooper said.

"We don't want animals and we don't want people who think they can profit from what's under the ground."

City slickers try hand in truffle trade

A number of city folk are making the move to the Granite Belt to try their hand in the truffle trade.

Bob Bona and Carol Hooper will harvest their first truffles this winter. ( ABC News: Jennifer Huxley )

Ms Brierley and Brady (last name withheld) are young professionals hoping their venture will turn into a commercial export business.

"Brady's a doctor and I'm a lawyer, so we're not traditional farmers," she said.

"I didn't know anything about truffles other than they grew in Italy, and I think the genesis for it was that Brady always commented on how this area had such an Italian climate."

In Europe, truffles have been a popular ingredient in the culinary world for centuries, but were only harvested for the first time in Australia in 1999.

Granite Belt has ideal climate for growing truffles

The Australian truffle industry is still maturing, with Western Australia producing about 90 per cent of the nation's produce.

The Granite Belt also has the ideal climate for growing the fungus, because of its cold winters and warm summers.

Mr Bona and Ms Hooper, who bought their property about 12 years ago, are now retired, but previously owned newsagencies in Brisbane.

Mr Bona said when they bought the property it was mostly scrub.

"We cleared a paddock up here and had really no idea what to put in because we're from the city," he said.

After a trip to Italy, they planted 200 trees inoculated with the truffle fungus.

"I found truffles by crawling around under the trees, and looked for signs, looked for the root of the tree and sniffed the ground," Ms Cooper said.

If successful, they too plan to sell their produce commercially.

"If 10 per cent of our trees produce truffles, we'll be happy," Mr Bona said.

Dogs used to sniff out truffle treasure

Unlike mushrooms, truffles grow on the roots of the trees.

Hunters traditionally used pigs and more recently dogs to sniff them out.

Dog trainer Matt Hibberd and his truffle-hunting dog Conan. ( ABC News: Jennifer Huxley )

Lawdogs Australia founder Matt Hibberd has been training canines to truffle-hunt.

"It can be quite simple [to train them]," he said.

"It's teaching the dog to associate finding the smell of the truffle on the ground with their favourite ball or toy appearing."

Queensland's expanding industry has attracted so much interest, Mr Hibberd recently launched a new tourism venture at his training facility in Stanthorpe.

"The truffle industry in Queensland is quite secretive, no-one is open to the public like they are in other states," Mr Hibberd said.

"We decided to open something where we had security onsite, with Lawdogs Australia and their protection dogs, and make tours available."

The Truffle Association of Australia said production in Queensland was still relatively small compared to other eastern states.