wine industry was no more than a cottage industry, with fragmented colonial markets and limited investment. But the Great Exhibitions in London (1851) and Paris (1855) highlighted the potential of Australia as a source of very good commercial wine. Even The Times of London predicted that ‘in a few years we hope to see the names of Camden Park, Irrawang, Tomago, Lochinvar, etc. [all New South Wales wines] rank as high in the wine-market as Lafitte [sic], Latour, Château-Margaux’. Whilst these names did not endure, others, like Grange, Hill of Grace and more, have. It is worth noting here that technology in the form of steam engines to drive factory equipment, steamships and steam trains rapidly altered economies and shuffled the political landscape. This was an age of great inventions, scientific discoveries, and improvements in sanitisation and health. It was also a period of extreme uncertainty, with the German States and Russia flexing their muscles. The Southern Confederate States, powered by slave labour, attempted to split from the United States of America. Rapid change at every level created opportunities and threats of ginormous proportions. Amidst all of this argy-bargy of rapid transmission was the spread of pathogens and pests – which originated from America – although at the time of these unfolding series of catastrophes, no one knew the origins. The first devastation was the blight that spurred the Great Irish Famine, which began in 1845, accelerating the country’s mass poverty and famine in a country with one of the most fertile soils in the world. It caused over one million deaths and
Our Place in Wine 103
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