THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
Château Tahbilk has in the past been a productive and profitable vineyard property and can be so again. The soil and climate are admirably suited to the vine and I do not think any other form of cultivation could show the results the vine is capable of on the vineyard portion of the estate. Tahbilk is very well suited for the production of a class of wine that is becoming less plentiful in Australia as time goes on. ––––––
Château Tahbilk vineyard had suffered greatly from the arrival of phylloxera since its arrival in late 1900. The pest had already swept through numerous vineyards in Victoria in preceding years. Farm manager William Wilson had been aware of this threat and had planted new vineyard blocks during the 1890s on well-drained sandy soils. As a consequence, many of Château Tahbilk’s vines survived because of phylloxera’s aversion to the sandy nature of the subsoil. A replanting program followed in 1927. After the return of Eric Purbrick to Château Tahbilk in 1931 with his new wife, Marjory, and young son, John, the winery’s fortunes improved. Many upgrades were made, including installing modern winemaking equipment and cleaning up the cellars. Although wine quality was variable at first, Château Tahbilk soon began to win show medals. At the 1933 Melbourne Wine Show, the winery won first and second prizes for its light dry red wine. This success continued with the help of François de Castella. Eric Purbrick would also spend three or four days, every six weeks, selling jars and small casks of wine off the back of his truck to neighbouring countryside pubs and licensed stores. Impressed by his son’s application and hard work, London-based Reginald Purbrick would transfer his ownership of the estate to Eric in 1934 through the establishment of Tahbilk Proprietary Limited. . . . In 1926, Albert Julius Henschke (1888–1955), a stonemason, sculptor, and artist, and the son of Paul Gotthard Henschke and grandson of Johann Christian Henschke, founder of Henschke winery, embarked on a six-year project carving reliefs of angels from Angaston marble for the National War Memorial in Adelaide. During this time, he also worked with the British sculptor and director of Sydney Technical College, George Rayner Hoff. As a side project, he scaled up Hoff’s model of New Zealand artist and filmmaker Len Lye, which won the Wynne Prize in 1927. He would also carve Australian Venus in 1932, which is still displayed in the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney. Neither sculpture is acknowledged as the work of Henschke because of conventions surrounding original artworks, concepts, and design.
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