THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
was soon purchased by John Wilkinson of Coolalta, but that ownership did not last for long. In 1903, Edward Capper acquired the valuable Coolalta estate and renamed it Catawba after the American writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1857 poem ‘Catawba Wine’. The Wilkinson family remained the largest vineyard owners in the region with their properties Maluna, Côte d’Or, Mangerton, and Oakdale, but this acquisition foreshadowed further changes in the Hunter Valley. Over the next 30 years, Penfolds expanded at an extraordinary pace. In New South Wales, it acquired new cellars in Sydney and purchased the prized Dalwood vineyards in 1904. Eight years later, Penfolds bought the colonial Minchinbury Vineyards and Winery at Rooty Hill, near the Penrith and Parramatta districts of Sydney, a magnificent property first farmed by Captain William Minchin in 1819. (To further highlight these changes, Lindeman’s would acquire the Catawba vineyard from the Capper family in 1915.) In 1901, there were still great hopes for a Queensland wine industry, even though the newly federated Australia brought new concerns and anxieties. Without protection, the local markets were now open to competition with wines from the southern colonies. There was a belief that wineries would need to invest in newer technologies and equipment, including crushers and stalkers, refrigerating apparatus,
Another political alliance took place soon after Federation. With the Penfold family having no male heir, the Hyland family adopted the surname ‘Penfold Hyland’ in 1905 to preserve continuity of the Penfold name. Thomas and Georgina (née Penfold) Hyland’s sons, Frank Astor Penfold Hyland (1872–1948) and Herbert Leslie (1875–1940) were each educated in Australia and England. Frank entered the Penfolds business in 1892, and after a stint in Europe studying winemaking methods and buying machinery and equipment, he established cellars in Sydney in 1901 to take advantage of the post-Federation trade boom. Herbert Leslie Penfold Hyland took over management of the South Australian cellars and vineyards in 1905. Meanwhile, John Wyndham of Dalwood vineyards in the Hunter Valley died in 1901, and the property
Herbert Leslie Penfold-Hyland, a son of Thomas Hyland and Mary Penfold was a director of Penfolds and a successful amateur golf player winning the South Australian Amateur Golf Competition in 1905 and 1906. [Penfold s ’ Collection]
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