CHAPTER 13 | 1900s – Federation
Although the Tyrrell family were still in business and expanding their vineyards, Edward ‘Uncle Dan’ Tyrrell was concerned about the impact of Federation on growers in the Hunter Valley. In March 1908, he wrote to the editor of the Maitland Mercury : ‘Since Federation we have had to stand the brunt of increased competition from other parts of Australia, where winegrowing was spoon-fed from its infancy, and an enormous amount of money paid to growers in bonuses, and as much more in establishing a market for their wines. Here in New South Wales, we have to do everything with our own capital and energy, and then fight the Government to get permission to sell our product. We were told that we still have the English market, if the local one is closed. The remark is not worthy of comment; but I must ask– What a poor advertisement that would be for Australian wine.’ In 1908, John Duce (1876–1930), who had established the strangely named Bbidecud vineyard near Bunbury in 1902, was very hopeful about the potential of Western Australia. He was reported in the Bunbury Herald on the 11th of June 1908 as saying the ‘South-West would be peculiarly fitted for producing clarets and Burgundies’ and that ‘capital results have been achieved’ by several Italian wine growers around Waterloo. But Duce’s vineyard and nursery would be the only effective commercial operation for another 60 years in that part of the world. The same year, Scottish-born railway entrepreneur James Angus, owner of Minchinbury Vineyards west of Sydney, ‘inaugurated the champagne industry’ in Australia. The word ‘champagne’ was used to describe sparkling wine made in
Australian Pavilion, Franco-British Exhibition, London, England, 1908. Valentine & Sons Ltd. [NLA obj-15309 4537-1]
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