THE AUSTRALIAN ARK – Federation to the Modern Era | 1900–1982
Every Australian wine family was affected by the conflict in some way. Labour shortages led to the abandonment of some vineyards. In 1915, the Carmichael family ceased to make wine and sold the rights of the Porphyry brand to Lindeman’s. Private Gavin Dixon Carmichael went off to war the same year, never to return. This story was to repeat itself, time and time again, as a whole generation of Australians left to join the empire’s great adventure. But the grim reality of war hit the wine industry heavily, especially after 1916, with the threat of submarines to shipping. Exports diminished drastically. Edward Ellis Henty of the 8th Light Horse Regiment and a grandson of Stephen George Henty, one of the founders of Portland, was killed in action at Gallipoli in August 1915. He had been married for only nine months. Leslie G Cosgrove, a 23-year-old private from Magill and an employee of Auldana Cellars, was killed in action in France in 1917. Eric Duce, of Bbidecud vineyards near Bunbury, and Thomas Cyril Hardy, a 22-year-old corporal from his family’s Thomas Hardy & Sons, were both killed on the Western Front at Bullecourt in the same year. So was Fred Chaffey, aged 23, of Mildura Winery and Distillery, who served with the Artists Rifles at Ypres. Corporal Lewis Wilkinson of Ryecroft was also killed in action in France. The Geelong-College-educated Aurel Louis Dardel, whose grandfather had established the Paradise Vineyard at Batesford in 1841, served with the 13th Light Horse at Gallipoli and was killed in action with the 12th Field Artillery Brigade at Norieul Gully, near Bullecourt, in 1917.
Penfolds, HR Five barrels of wine being sent to the Red Cross, a gift from Penfold & Co. of South Australia during World War I. [SLSA PRG-280-1 -10-38]
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