THE BEGINNINGS OF THE WINE INDUSTRY IN THE HUNTER VALLEY by W. P. DRISCOLL Newcastle History Monographs No. 5 NEWCASTLE PUBLIC LIBRARY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEWCASTLE NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA 1969 994.42 DRISCOLL, William Patrick, 1936- The Begi nning s of the wine industry in the Hunter Valle y. Newcastle, Newcastle Public Library [in assoc. with Newcastle and Hunter Di strict Histor­ ical Socie ty] , 1969. 81pp., illus .. map, port. 23cm . (Newcastle history monographs, no .5) Ser. Newcastle Public Library Newcastle and Hunter District Hi storical Society WINE INDUSTRY AND TRADE - Hunter Valley - Hi s tory Registered in Australia for tr::n ~ mis:.ion by post as a boo~ Th e Author Mr W. P. Dri sco ll, B.A . (New England), Dip.Ed., i s a high school teacher at Wau chope, N.S . W. He wo n the Newcastle Public Library Lo cal Hi s tory Awa rd with t his essay in 1968 . Hi s research on the same subj ect is being co ntinued towards the submi ss ion of an M.A . t hesis to the Department of History at the University of Newcastle. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS THANKS are due, in the first place, to the staff of the vari­ ous libraries in which the author has worked, especially the Mitchell Library, the library of the University of Newcastle, and the Newcastle Public Library. Their effident help has been unfailingly given. To Professor G. A. Cranfield credit must be given for his advice and encouragement. Special thanks are due to Mr W. G. McMinn of the University of Newcastle for his advice and knowledgeable proofreading of the original man­ uscript. Fina)ly, the author wishes to express his gratitude to Mr C. E. Smith, the Newcastle City Librarian, for his care­ ful editorial work and, especially. his gathering of illustra­ tive material for this monograph. CONTENTS Acknowledgements 5 Introduction 9 The background 10 The early years in the Valley 23 Consolidation in the 1840's 30 The Hunter River Vineyard Association 49 Conclusion 62 Appendix, Tables I - V 65 References 71 Bibliography 75 Index 77 8 ILLlf>TRATIONS Map showing location of early vineyards 39 Irrawang vineyard and pottery 41 Distillery at Porphyry 42 Cawarra homestead and cellars 43 Dr Henry John Lindeman 44 9 THE BEGINNINGS OF THE WINE IND USTRY IN THE HUNTER VALLEY Introduction Th e Hunt er Valley ha s bee n a wine prod ... ci ng r eg ion s i nee the earlies t years of its se ttleme nt. At first the quanti­ ties of wine produced and the vine acreages were negligible, and even by 1850, the t erminal date for thi s essay, these had not made the dramatic increases that wer e to occur in the sec­ ond half of the ninet eenth century. But, during these years the pioneer wine grower s , in the main large landholder s with a few acres of vines , were laying the foundations for the fu­ ture . Thi s essay i s an attempt to do two things . Firs t. in view of the generally ske t chy and partly inaccurate writings on the early years , it i s designed to tell, as accurate ly as pos­ sible, what actually happe ned, within th e limitations imposed by length. At the same time it seek s to analyse the reason s for the growth of the indu s try t o a stage wh e re , by midcent­ ury, it had become s trong e nough to survive the gold ru sh years s ince many of the prer equi s ites for success had become es tabli shed. Th e important early years of the Hunter wine indu str y ' s growth are bes t seen in the co ntext of co lonial vine grow ing a s a wh ol e . Thu s the next section, while not seeking t o be a hi s tory of the wine indu s try in New Sou t h Wal es to 1830, gives the background for the activities of Hunt er Valley settlers in the 1830' s and after. Successive sections examine the wine indu s try in the Valle y in the 1830 ' s , to 1847, and t he years 1847 -50 in whi ch the Hun ter Ri ver Vin eyard Associ ati on became dominant . Wh i 1e a n y cu t o ff d a t e i s a n a r bi tr a r y ch o i c e . I 85 0 i s 10 convenient in several ways. It antedates the gold rushes and the achievement of respons ible government, both of whic h pro­ foundly affected t he col ony. More importantly. it enables a di scus sion of the gains achieved be tween 18'17 and 1850 which were so important to the indu s try and which wo uld have been omitted had, say . 1847 bee n chosen as a t erminal date. It has, therefore, a co nvenience rather greate r than t he fact that it represent s midcentury. The Ba ckground The first settler s came to the Hunt er Valley in about 1813, and by 1820 ther e were twe nty one farms on Pa t erson' s a nd Wal­ lis' s plains , all but three of which were held by co nvi ct s. 1 More important for the purposes of t hi ~ essay i s the arrival in the 1820 ' s of landholders of greate r s ub stance. with large grants, followi ng the orders given t o He nry Da ngar for a sur­ vey of the Valley. As T. M. Perry points out, the most so ught for locat ions for l and grant s were the alluvial rive r flat s , and by 1825 t he bulk of these on the Hunte r, Pate r so n and Wil­ li ams river s . and much of t he flanking areas. had been cho­ sen and. in many cases . occupi ed. The Valley attracted ag ri cul t urali s t s as wel l as graziers and, as the 1828 census revea led, a l most forty th ree per cent of the non co nvi c t adult ma l es were free immigrants. They were, on the whole, men of some pD s ition in society with e n­ ough capita l to e nsure l arge land grants. Jn 1820, ninety one holdings (or 17. 7 °o J of 191 occupi ed prope rt 1e s were l ar­ 2 ger than 1,000 acres. By 1829 the lfunt l'r Vall ey , though the las t of th<· settlr d district s t o be ope ned, was the most pop­ ulous a nd int!'nsivc>ly used. lt s set tlers were ' new immi­ grant s , whOS<' pntPrprise , co upl et! wit h the natural rcsourcc•s of the valley. producPd a rapid developm1• nt of both agricul- tun• and stork ra1s. 1n. g ... ' 3 11 It seems, on the face of it, unlike ly that immigran ts from the British I s l es should consider produci ng commercially a com­ modity which thei r co untrymen had no experience inmaking and, in general, little interest in drinking . Unl ike the European peoples, the British were not primarily wine drinkers, cert­ ainly not enthus ias t s for the unfortified wines for whi ch the Hunter Valley has become famou s. This, however, is only part of the story. The wealthi er classes of England and Scotland were by no means un acquai nted with the practice of drinking t able w1 ne , whatever the tas tes of the rest of the community. Moreover, the settlers were, in general, men with a s hrewd eye for the main chance . Th e ir aims, in t he earl y days, were to expe riment wi t h as many varieties of grazing and farming as t he y co uld. So, in addition to their sheep and cattle, the ir wheat, rye, and other crops and vegetables, t hey usually planted an orchard. So me went further and devoted up to an acre to grape vines, in ad­ dition to the other fruits planted. Th e future of any of these expe riments would lie in how well they were sui ted to the climate of the Valley, and the ext ent of potential mark ets . There i s no indication of who actually planted t he first vines in the Hun ter Valley . The first official returns did not appear until 1843 and li sted only acreages and production figures by co un ties. However . a l ist of vines planted in the co l ony by 1832 appears in manu script no tes on the flyl eaves of a copy of James Bu sby' s A Manual of plain directions for planting and cultivati ng vi ne yards and for making wine in New 4 South Wal es . • At thi s stage there were t en settlers on the Hun­ ter Rive r growing vi nes . Wil li am Ogilvie at Merton and James P. Webber at Tuca l had t hree acres each; George Wyndham at Dal­ wood and Town she nd at Trevallyn had two acres; William Kelman at Ki r k ton, Colonel Henry Dumaresque at St He lier s , J. Pike at Pi­ kering, Pilcher at Maitland and Little at Invermien, one acre; 12 Alexander Warren, near Wighton, half an acre.