NDFHS

In the late 1880's, and throughout the 1890's, South Australia was gripped by what the press of the day called a "Vine Mania". In 1881 there were 4,337 acres of vineyards, but by 1891 the area devoted to vines more than doubled to 9,535 acres. The mania for planting vines continued unabated, and by 1901 there were more than 20,000 acres of vineyard in the colony. As might be expected, the amount of wine produced increased no less spectacularly. In 1881 313,000 gallons were produced; this rose to just over one million gallons in 1891, and 2.8 million gallons in 1901.

Another look at the Statistical Registers of South Australia shows the reason for this vine mania. Total exports of South Australian wine in 1881 were a mere 55,000 gallons, whereas in 1891 they were 285,000 gallons, and in 1901 they had risen to almost 600,000 gallons. A closer look at these figures reveals the importance to the colony of the London market. This accounted for less than three per cent of the colony's wine exports in 1881, yet it rose to 78 per cent in 1891 before falling back to 74 per cent in 1901, having peaked at 84 per cent in 1897.

It wasn't the old established names alone which profited from this expansion - Davenport, Gillard, Hardy, Jacob, Penfold, Salter, Seppelt and Smith, to name a few. New names emerged, new capital was found, and new wineries were established. The pattern of the industry in the 1860's and 1870's, when it seems almost every small vinegrower had attempted to be his own winemaker, with disastrous consequences in many cases, was completely overturned. The 1891 census returns show that there were 19 wineries in South Australia with 261 male and 58 female employees. There were, moreover, 26 licensed distillers with 29 male employees. The definition of winery here is not certain, for there were more than 19 wineries in South Australia in 1891, and the assumption is that this figure refers to wineries of a scale approaching the complex at Seppeltsfield in the Barossa Valley. This was one of the showplaces of the day and, in common with other large wineries, it had its own distilling complex.

Whatever the size of the winery or distillery, there were few that did not buy grapes from independent vinegrowers. In the boom years following the successes of Australian wines at exhibitions such as those at Melbourne (1881) and Bordeaux (1882), but particularly London (the Colonial and Indian Exhibition) in 1886, many farmers were persuaded to invest part (at least) of their capital in vines.

The offer of free rooted vines tempted both farmer and smallholder. This scheme was one of the recommendations of the Select Committee appointed to report on the Vegetable Products of South Australia in 1887. By August 1892 the Conservator of Forests reported that more than 136,000 had been distributed to 610 applicants, and that only a few thousand vines remained at the Mount Gambier Nursery. Later in the same month he could report that every rooted vine had been taken.

The South Australian government's intervention here cannot be understood without reference to the rural economy in general. Briefly, intensive wheat farming between the 'sixties and 'eighties, coupled with a general ignorance of the value and use of superphosphate, resulted in declining yields and economic recession. Farmers pushed north beyond Goyder's Line (which marked the limit of reliable rainfall of an inch a year), but after a few seasons they were pushed back again by the elements. When the exodus began again eyes were cast on the Wimmera region of western Victoria. This was the crisis point where the government had no option but to intervene to stem the flow of its rural population.

Government was as culpable as the farmer. In 1875 a Royal Commission on agriculture recommended the establishment of an experimental agricultural college. When it opened its doors to students in February 1885 Roseworthy Agricultural College focused its attention on improving wheat yields. An experimental vineyard was begun in 1885 also, but it was a token effort; and the only lecturer on viticulture and winemaking at the college was the self-taught Thomas Hardy, who provided his services gratis. However, as the crisis worsened the need for a permanent solution became more evident.

Albert Molyneux, editor of the Garden & Field, was a man with a mission to propel South Australian agriculture towards, and into, the twentieth century. A hard-nosed pragmatist, he wrote in 1881:

The total absence of any scientific principle in the method of farming pursued in this Colony calls for improvement. We cannot keep on everlastlingly cropping the ground with cereals and returning nothing to the land in the shape of manure, alternative crops, fallow, etc. It will be our duty to point out this error until rectified.

The 1887 Select Committee on Vegetable Products took note of Molyneux. His recommendation to establish an Agricultural Bureau was the single most significant outcome of the report. A Central Bureau was established in Adelaide in March 1888, and it quickly developed a network of branches throughout the colony numbering over one hundred. The raison d'etre of the Central Bureau was to stimulate debate. It was a clearing-house for accurate and informed opinions on improved agricultural, horticultural and viticultural techniques. An annual congress was held in Adelaide, and rural branches held regular meetings where speakers gave members the benefit of their own experiences on a number of subjects. The Central Agricultural Bureau functioned effectively for many years.

Another Select Committee report, this time on the issue of providing bonuses to the agricultural, dairying, fruit and wine industries, was published in 1890. One of its recommendations, the appointment of a viticultural expert to be based at Roseworthy Agricultural College, was pursued. Until an appointment could be made, however, senior members of the wine industry were prevailed upon to offer guidance, and at the Annual Congress of the Central Agricultural Bureau in June 1891, Thomas Hardy presented a paper entitled, The vine: when, what, where, and how to plant. (This was published by the Adelaide Observer on the 11th of July 1891 and is reproduced following this introduction.)

Neighbouring Victoria stole a march on South Australia with the publication in May 1891 of a Manual on Viticulture, written by the government viticultural expert Francois de Castella. The value of such a manual to South Australian vinegrowers was evident; it was one of the recommendations of the Select Committee on Bonuses. But it was not taken up immediately, so at the monthly meeting of the South Australian Vinegrowers' Association in August 1891, the following motion, proposed by H.J. Scott, was carried:

That the Government invite reports from practical wine-makers of this colony on the subject of vinegrowing and winemaking, and that they also offer prizes for essays on the culture of the vine and winemaking; such reports and prize essays to be embodied in the handbook to be published officially by the Government.

Thus prompted, the South Australian government commissioned George Sutherland to write a manual similar to Castella's. The South Australian Vinegrower's Manual was published in July 1892, the same month that the government's viticultural expert, A.J. Perkins, arrived to take up his appointment at Roseworthy. The fact that it was distributed free by the Central Agricultural Bureau made Sutherland's Manual an immediate success, and a second print run of 500 had to be made within two months.

The title page of The South Australian Vinegrower's Manual acknowledged the "Co-operation of Practical Vinegrowers of the Province", and the one appendix it contains is a list of vinegrowers, which is prefaced with the words:

The following list, compiled by Mr. L.H. Scholl, the Government Statist, and supplied by him to the Central Agricultural Bureau, gives the names of the districts in which vineyards of over one acre in extent are situated, together with the names of the holders or occupants of the same, on the date of the census of 1891.

A total of 998 growers were named in the appendix, a figure exclusive of vineyards within the limits of corporate towns. They have all been indexed here. In a sense the manual was dedicated to every one of them.