THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
exaggeration because housewives of that time did not regularly buy wine for home consumption – their menfolk mostly purchased it. All the same, the Australian press also promised a dry Christmas for the people of Sydney and elsewhere. Bottle shortages threatened to curtail Christmas celebrations throughout Australia. According to Ken Hardy of the Federal Viticultural Council, ‘The trade could do with another million bottles’. Consumers were encouraged not to hoard their empties. Typically, bottles were recycled by returning them to the producer. The bottle shortage, however, was caused by industrial action and, as the Brisbane Telegraph reported in ‘“Dry” Christmas for Sydney’ on the 18th of November 1946, there was ‘increased demand for glass containers as a substitute for tin – because of a tin plate shortage’. Beer supply was also affected by limited glass availability because the crown seals were made of tin. A scarcity of coopering (barrel making) also contributed to wine shortages because hogsheads were needed for transportation. Some wineries, though, used imaginative ways to keep the flow of supply. In Melbourne, wine merchants clamoured for more sherry and port to urgently fill Christmas orders. Six hogsheads of wine from B Seppelt & Sons Ltd were flown from Adelaide to Melbourne by ANA (Australian National Airlines, later incorporated into Qantas), stating that ‘this was the first occasion in
fixed for proprietary brands. You are also offered “Australian wine” – whatever that means – at 45 shillings a bottle, and a phoney sherry at 50 shillings a bottle, whereas the official price is 15 shillings.’ Because of these labour and bottle shortages, thousands of gallons missed the Christmas trade. By January 1947, there were attempts to divert distribution ‘by allowing sales from casks in British public houses.’ According to a representative of the Australian Wine Board in London, the bottle problem was, ‘at present, insoluble’. The media reported that ‘if she wanted wine, the housewife found there were thousands of gallons from France, Australia and South Africa, but there were not enough bottles’. Of course, this was an
Hogsheads being delivered to Henschke Cellars, Keyneton, Eden Valley, South Australia ca 1940s. [Henschke Collection]
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