THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
and the low cost of Australian wine encouraged merchants to use it for blending. ‘This does not help in building goodwill’, he said. Gramp feared that Australian wine would suffer a similar fate to that of South African wine in 1861 when the removal of tariff preferences saw annual gallonage drop from 700,000 to 12,000 in just a few years. He also complained about wines being shipped to Britain when too raw. . . . During the early 1930s, the wine industry in Western Australia was also on the move. By this time, there were around 400 settlers in the Swan Valley growing grapes. The most important wineries were Yalumba, Houghton, and Valencia. But there were smaller ventures, too, including the newly established Swan River vineyard by Croatian winemaker Jim Talijancich and his wife, Ljubica Svetanovich. The Talijancich family made largely fortified wines from muscat and shiraz from vines first planted in 1932. Third-generation James Talijancich still produces wines from these biodynamically farmed vines today. In March 1932, the Barossa-based Yalumba officially opened its new winery near Midland Junction in the Swan Valley. The official duties were carried out by Premier Sir James Mitchell, Walter Grandy Smith, and his son, the hugely popular ‘Wyndy’ Wyndham Hill-Smith (whose surname was prefixed at Saint Peter’s College to differentiate him from 12 other Smiths at the school). Seventy-six hogsheads of ‘sweet white wine of muscat style’ were exported by S Smith & Sons on the steamer Baradine in October 1932, and another 152 hogsheads (a little over 10,000 imperial gallons) of the same wine were sent the following month. There was also a push for local Western Australians to help their country by drinking Yalumba wines. . . .
‘The presence of Mr Wyndham Hill-Smith as manager of Yalumba’s local interests makes the new venture doubly welcome for he is the dashing left-hand batsman who played a sterling innings for the State against South Africa’. – The Mirror , Perth, 26th of March 1932
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