Karl Seppelt

STATE LIBRARY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA J. D. SOMERVILLE ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION OH 692/147 Full transcript of an interview with KARL SEPPELT on 28 June 2000 by Rob Linn Recording available on CD Access for research: Unrestricted Right to photocopy: Copies may be made for research and study Right to quote or publish: Publication only with written permission from the State Library OH 692/147 KARL SEPPELT NOTES TO THE TRANSCRIPT This transcript was donated to the State Library. It was not created by the J.D. Somerville Oral History Collection and does not necessarily conform to the Somerville Collection's policies for transcription. Readers of this oral history transcript should bear in mind that it is a record of the spoken word and reflects the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The State Library is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the interview, nor for the views expressed therein. As with any historical source, these are for the reader to judge. This transcript had not been proofread prior to donation to the State Library and has not yet been proofread since. Researchers are cautioned not to accept the spelling of proper names and unusual words and can expect to find typographical errors as well. 2 OH 692/147 TAPE 1 - SIDE A NATIONAL WINE CENTRE, WOLF BLASS FOUNDATION ORAL HISTORY PROJECT. Interview with Mr Karl Seppelt at Springton, South Australia, on 28th June, 2000. Interviewer: Rob Linn. Well, Karl, let’s begin by talking about the Seppelt family. KS: Right. Well, if you go back a few generations—in fact, about five to start with. I understand that my great great grandfather found himself marching off to Moscow with Napoleon. About that time he was married and he had some sons, one of which he hadn’t seen until he came home. And he was away for something like, I believe, about eleven years. Lord knows what he did in the meantime. Because I think Napoleon came home in the first year but they must’ve had to find home some other way. What he did, I don’t know. But he must’ve had a good time. So it was about eleven years before he got back home and saw one of his sons for the first time. And his son was called Joseph Ernest Seppelt, who in those days, of course, got a reasonably good education because they were merchants and they travelled all over the world. They were good on music and arts and things like that. And he had to learn his business the hard way, I suppose, or the way they did in those days, which was to travel around from merchant to merchant, and they’d spend a few weeks or months there and learn the various types of techniques that were used in the sorts of businesses they were in. And he travelled around Germany, Austria, Italy, and was passed from one establishment to another. Somewhere in the family archives we’ve still got what would’ve been a passport in those days I suppose. It was only a piece of paper with stamps on it, saying that he was a recognised gentleman and he 3 should be looked after wherever he went, between the various provinces around Europe. Well, the business and the associations they had, of course, was tobacco and snuff. They distilled spirits and they made liqueurs. And Silesia in those days was just going through a thirty year war, and there were riots and religious persecutions all over the place, and I think the family decided that it was time to get out. So around about 1849 old Joseph Seppelt and his wife, two sons and a daughter, plus a number of his workers, and their families, set sail from Hamburg. I think their original intention was to go to Chile but for some reason or other they found that there was civil war going on in those places and decided, maybe no, that wasn’t a good idea. So eventually turned around and decided they’d come to Australia. Well, the great grandfather at that stage was about thirty-six years old, and the second son that he had was about two years old when they left. They did arrive. I don’t know where they landed first but they certainly got to Adelaide in January of 1850. And from what I heard from various people in the old days he missed out being an old colonial by about a month. They were called old colonials up until about 1850. 1850, yes. KS: So he dipped out on that one. Initially a lot of the Germans went out to Klemzig, one of the little suburbs around Adelaide now. And they sort of settled there for a while until they found their bearings and decided what the heck they wanted to do. And before leaving—I think they must’ve been encouraged by the early English settlers to take up land. And I think my grandfather and great grandfather had a town acre, which I understand was somewhere between North Terrace and Rundle(?) Street as part of the deal. But once that they decided they wanted to go out in the country and set up in their farming practices and start their businesses, he sold his town acre for a horse and cart, I think. Would be nice to have it today, of course. It’d be worth more than a horse and cart I think. 4 Anyway, off they went, and they bought some country up in the Barossa Valley, around 1852. They got 150-odd acres, which they purchased for about £1 an acre. Some of it might’ve been cleared by then I think, but in the early stages the family settled in Tanunda for a couple of years, and they went out with their workers and cleared the land and started it going. And it was only a couple of years later, I think, before they finally built a house out there, which is still there today. And the property then became known as—or the nucleus of it was called Seppeltsfield. A lot of the workers that they brought with them all went out together, and even today a lot of the families, their names are still around in that area. So they obviously all stayed and worked with him for quite a long time. Well, a few of the good years followed after they went up in the Barossa. Gold rush started off in Victoria, and wheat prices went up to about £1 a bushel, which must’ve been an enormous price in those days, which really set them on their feet. Oh, yeah. KS: From then on it wasn’t too much trouble to start developing their business. Well, by about 1867 they were farming, they had grazing things going for them, they had a few vineyards they’d put in. The tobacco, which they started with, hadn’t work. It was too dry up there and it obviously went mouldy or something like that. And they had really good mixed farming. The workers, of course, were all kept and fed on the place. They all lived in little cottages around Seppeltsfield. They’d been given a little bit of land like the Germans used to have. And the early winemaking was started off in the old grandmother’s cellar, of all places, in the early stages. But it wasn’t very long before they were able to expand. One of the earliest markets they had, of course, were up in the Burra with the miners, and all the bullock tracks, and people that used to go backwards and forwards carting the copper. So it must’ve been reasonably lucrative in those days for them, and they were able to develop their business fairly well. 5 One of the interesting little heresays that you get from time to time from the oldies was that in those days the Aborigines were still tramping backwards and forwards. And they used to pull up along the creeks and things. They started at night to have corroborees and things. It used to get a bit dicey. And they would demand wine, you know, from the old grandfather, and he used to be pretty nervous about this. He didn’t want to get speared. So apparently one night he decided that, well, he’d fix them properly. So instead of giving them the wine that they wanted, he went down the vinegar factory and gave them some vinegar instead. And if the story is true, they didn’t come back for any more. (Laughs) And away they went. And that was another one of the early things that they used to do. They started making vinegar amongst - Oh, yes, I was going to ask you that. KS: - the products they had. Because in those days, everybody pickled their own vegetables and things, and their meats. And so they got into that, which turned out in later years to be a very lucrative business. Well, it wasn’t very long after that that finance must’ve been a bit of a problem in the country areas, and the great grandfather decided, with a lot of the other entrepreneurs around the place, that they ought to start a bank. So they got a prospectus together to develop what they called an agricultural bank. Well, it never came off. I think the banks in the cities decided they’d better get up there anyway, which they did.

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