The new market is worth up to $30 million for New Zealand growers and they are confident the appeal will be unsuccessful.
No appeal against a WTO decision has ever been successful so growers see the move as simply a delaying tactic.
"Australia has been tenacious about keeping us out of the market but New Zealand is just as tenacious at getting in," Ettrick grower Con van der Voort said yesterday.
The WTO found that all the quarantine measures applied by Australian authorities to New Zealand apples and challenged by this country were inconsistent with Australia's legal obligations as a WTO member.
Biosecurity Australia's concerns about the possible arrival of fireblight, European canker and apple leaf-curling midge on New Zealand apples were unsupported by scientific evidence, the WTO said.
Pipfruit NZ director and Ettrick apple grower Stephen Darling said New Zealand growers' long-held view that fireblight was not an issue was vindicated by the WTO decision.
The appeal was not unexpected, he said.
"The timing of this WTO announcement, on the eve of the Australian election and in the same week as the Australian pipfruit industry national conference, has resulted in some political manoeuvering by the industry to delay the imports. Clearly, it's a credibility issue now, for Australia."
Any new market was of benefit to this country's growers and there was the chance to grow the Australian market.
Australians ate relatively few apples, compared with consumers in this country, he said.
New Zealanders ate between 16kg and 18kg a person a year, while Australians ate 6kg.
"Australian consumers will benefit from our access into the market as there are lots of new varieties, that are great eating, especially ones like the Pacific series grown in Otago, that are new to Australian apple eaters."
Import access into Australia could happen as soon as next season, providing there were no further delays and New Zealand met the import requirements.
The "worst-case" scenario was for exports to Australia to begin in 2012.
Pipfruit NZ chief executive Peter Beaven said the appeal would be completed within six months and had to be based on points of law.
"We're pretty confident the appeal will be unsuccessful. Almost every WTO decision has been appealed and none have been successful."
The Australian market was worth up to $30 million to New Zealand and the outcome of the appeal could be a late "Christmas present" for this country's apple growers, he said.
"I believe they can't win this, but they can postpone things for us," Mr van der Voort said.
Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean said the positive resolution to this ongoing saga would mean much to the region's apple growers.
Access to the Australian market could be worth millions to Central Otago growers and had the potential to "turn the industry around," she said.
