There has been some talk about other ventures. Kevin Cullen had persuaded me, as I mentioned, to attend two meetings that I remember, one at a hotel and one somewhere in the Vasse. I think the main purpose was a bit vague but probably to produce a group vineyard effort. The main idea was for me to describe my idea of starting a vineyard to interested farmers, and others. By this stage, for various reasons, I had come to the view that this was not on, and that what was needed was a firmly directed individual effort that was reasonably well-informed and carried out and would take years of application to assess. There was nobody with solid vineyard experience at hand. Anyhow, I decided to go it alone and am now sure that I was absolutely right to do so.
It is only in the last couple of months that I have read in “The Australia and New Zealand Wine Industry Journal” of 2006 a contribution by John Gladstones in which he mentions a “large public meeting”, I think some time about May 1966, at which the idea of vines and wine in Margaret River was first developed. I was not there, and know nothing about it—I know I was in the country but could well have been away, and it was never mentioned to me at any time, then or since. He conveys the impression that this was the start of Margaret River as a wine area.
This is mentioned because I know of two small (half or 1 acre) plantings of cuttings round spring 1966. One was Bill Minchin’s round Jindong in the Vasse. Bill Jamieson and I tried to be helpful in its second year by pruning the vines but I had no further contact with it. Bill Minchin told me once that he kept the vineyard going until 1976 and made wine for a few years in a modest way. He had some very serious knocks at the time, I heard, and had to give it up.
The Junipers planted about half an acre of vines on their property in the spring on 1966. The land had been run over with discs and not otherwise prepared. I brought the cuttings down from the Swan Valley Research Station of the Department of Agriculture and they were kept in a sand pile on Vasse Felix only a very few hundred metres from Juniper’s planting, directly across the road.
Apparently I also purchased rabbit-netting although I do not remember doing this. I was trying to help, and this may well have been so. The main planting was done on a Saturday afternoon leaving the remainder for Sunday. I worked on this for two or three hours with Roderigo Dellavanzo, whom I had with me to work on my place. He stayed at Juniper’s for the remainder of the afternoon, to plant as only he and I had planted vines before and it was to be done properly.
It was foolish of me to try to help and I certainly would not do so again in such a hasty and unprepared way. Sue Juniper records her presence at the time.
I was concerned when these vines did not thrive as they were in the ground and unthrifty for about three years and a potential threat to my own if diseased. The Junipers eventually sold this land to Doug Brockman, who ploughed the land in.
Perhaps this is the “Cullen vineyard” that Gladstones refers to and I only write about this apparently irrelevant occurrence as some unusual claims are made about this planting. My main concern is that Gladstones recently published a statement that Cullens planted a vineyard in a pioneering spirit in 1966 and that it no longer existed because it had been mysteriously ploughed in “while they were absent in Europe”. I have never made any secret that I was far from displeased that it was no longer a threat to the health of my vines and am making these statements in case it was thought that I was involved in the ploughing. I thought the vines were Juniper’s on Juniper’s land.
It would be likely that the Junipers and Henry Wright and other locals could confirm what I have recorded, and I know that the Junipers recently recorded the actual events on this small planting.
A record of the general background and salient features : A record of some of the lesser-known influences and happenings : A first-hand individual record of events.
Part Nine:
For the Record...
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1:04 AM
Labels: 09 - For the Record...