Wine History in Australia

Early Days

Captain Arthur Phillip introduced grapevines to Australia in 1788 on the First Fleet. Unfortunately the original vines fell victim to neglect and disease before a single wine was made, but by 1791 Phillip had planted three acres of vines at Parramatta River, near Sydney, New South Wales.

Australian wine took a long time to get under way, but soon had enough to send by sea to England. Australia became known as ‘John Bull’s Vineyard’.

New South Wales

George Blaxland is another pioneer of Australian wine. He planted some land with the ‘claret’ grape between 1816 and 1818 and shipped a barrel of port to England in 1822, which was awarded a Silver Medal, setting the trend for Australia’s considerable overseas wine success. Five years later Blaxland’s wines won Gold Medals in London.

In 1820 John MacArthur founded Australia’s first commercial vineyard on his return and had twenty acres under vine at Penrith. By 1827 his vineyard was producing around 20,000 gallons, or ten thousand cases of wine in modern terms.

James Busby studied winemaking and viticulture in France and arrived in Sydney with a collection of vines which was finally planted in the Botanic Gardens. MacArthur procured some cuttings, and others went to the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, where they provided much of the early material for South Australia’s wine beginnings. Busby was an important contributor to the education of many early vignerons, and published helpful and practical manuals to assist the would-be winemaker of the day. One of his books was titled ‘The Culture of the Vine and the Art of Wine Making’.

Busby’s first recorded plantings in the Hunter Valley were in 1830, as were George Wyndham’s. There were 461 acres of vines planted in the Hunter Valley by 1852, with an annual production of around 60,000 gallons of wine and 1000 gallons of brandy.

Victoria

William Ryrie planted Victoria’s first vines at Yering in the Yarra Valley in 1838. By 1868 over 3,000 acres were planted in Victoria, establishing Victoria as the premier wine state of the day. Many vineyards were planted around Geelong and Bendigo by the middle of the century and the first plantings in Victoria’s north-east were around Rutherglen in the 1850s. By 1860 Rutherglen was Victoria’s main wine region, with its full-flavoured sweetish table and fortified wines.

The vine disease, phylloxera, which had recently devastated the vineyards of Europe, was unwittingly infiltrated into Australia. By 1875 it had moved from Geelong to Bendigo and to the State’s north-east. This problem was made worse by the excess of vineyards and wine in Victoria at the time. Thanks to a worldwide depression the overseas market had dropped off and the colonial population, which was still too small to support its wine industry, preferred the sweeter, stronger wines of Rutherglen the lighter wines of the State’s southern regions.

South Australia

In the face of phylloxera South Australia imposed a quarantine law on all incoming grapevine material and managed to escape the disease. As a result South Australia now dominates the Australian wine industry. John Reynell and Richard Hamilton were the first to make wine in South Australia, close to the centre of Adelaide. Both had vineyards by 1840.

The Barossa Valley was first planted in 1847 when Johann Gramp planted his first vines at Rowland flat in 1847 and Samuel Smith, an English Brewer, founded Yalumba in 1849.

South Australia asserted its fortunate position by exporting wine interstate in the early 1900s, at prices that could not be matched by the other States. This contributed to the industry’s decline in other areas, particularly the Hunter Valley.

In 1914 the Commonwealth Government established a scheme with the State Governments of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia to create the huge irrigation area between Blanchetown in South Australia and Swan Hill in Victoria. This huge wine region now produces most of Australia’s wine. Around Griffith, the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Scheme has created another large ‘riverland’ area suited to the production of large volumes of quality commercial wine.

Other States

Although much of its development has been in the past twenty years, especially with the revival of the Margaret River by Tom Cullity, Western Australia has been a wine producer since the 1840s. Wine was made in Tasmania during the very early days of its settlement, but the emergence of a viable, stable industry is relatively recent. Its real rebirth was the first planting of Claude Alcorso’s Moorilla Estate, near Berriedale, Hobart, in 1960. Please login to post comment