THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
few chief winemakers are involved in the nitty-gritty of winemaking. Their role is to lead, shape, and define their master’s wine agenda. Scotty Ireland, a contemporary of Norm Walker and Ray Ward at Roseworthy, went on to other things. For instance, he oversaw the building of the Arrowfield winery in 1975, at the time one of the most advanced winery designs in Australia. The Australian economy accelerated after the war with new investments and hopes for the future. For example, Owen Redman, who had returned to Coonawarra after serving with the 2/4th Armoured Regiment in New Guinea and Bougainville, took up a 35-year lease on unused land that had been made available through South Australia’s Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act 1934– 1940. (He would later purchase the land outright in 1954.) And in 1948, after service with the RAAF 458 Squadron in Europe, Herbert (Bert) John Oliver returned to McLaren Vale and replanted the nearly 100-year-old Taranga vineyard with cuttings taken from the grubbed-up shiraz vines. Wine shows around Australia, which had been paused during the war, resumed in 1947. As the economy geared up, many agricultural regions began to mechanise. Frank Osborn of Bundarra Vineyards, later d’Arenberg, purchased the first rubber- tyred tractor in McLaren Vale. But horses were still used in the vineyard, especially for pulling incinerators to burn cuttings, until the early 1960s. They would later be replaced by rotovators, which would mulch the cuttings and work them into the soil. Frank’s son d’Arry, who would build-up d’Arenberg winery’s reputation during the 1950s, observed that downy and powdery mildew seemed to appear more regularly after the vineyards stopped burning cuttings. But it was the end of an era too. In 1947, Fred Kay at Amery Vineyard (Kay
Barrels on old truck, Eden Valley, South Australia, 1940s. [Henschke Collection]
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