BAROSSA BLOODLINES At London’s Great Exhibition in 1851, South Australian wheat was lauded as the best in the world. The Barossa’s expansive fields of wheat are captured in a lithograph by the artist George French Angas, the son of George Fife Angas who was the largest landholder in the region and the founder of the South Australian Company, by far the most influential private enterprise in the colony. ‘Lynedoch Valley, looking towards the Barossa Range’ was published in the 1846 South Australia Illustrated to encourage investment and immigration. Accompanying the lithograph was an explanation of the image: ‘Between twenty and thirty miles from Adelaide, in a N.N.E. direction is situated Lynedoch Valley, a rich agricultural tract of land extending towards the Barossa Range. A considerable portion of land under cultivation is the property of the South Australian Company, producing some of the finest wheat in the world...’ This fine agricultural country, now known as the Barossa Valley, was the traditional land of the Peramangk and Kaurna peoples, but like many parts of Australia pastoral activities saw the landscape change and its traditional owners disappear. Cereal cropping diminished throughout the following decades as soil fertility declined and English-style agriculture damaged the fragile eco-system. The arrival of Silesian refugees and the development of the hufendorf system of mixed farming offered a better way to manage the land. The Barossa wine industry eventually prospered, thanks to the grand visions of Benno Seppelt, Sir Samuel Davenport and Yalumba, with massive exports to the UK beginning in the 1870s. The plantings of the 19th and early 20th century is a tangible legacy of this period. The Barossa boasts the most extensive plantings of 100-year and older vines in the world. This heritage is threatened by climate change and poor biosecurity. Barossa winemakers and growers, however, are far from complacent about this challenge. The Barossa Old Vine Charter, which was first proposed by Yalumba in 2007, highlights the heritage and importance of vine age. It encapsulates the fragility, wealth and cause of the Barossa. When it was released in 2009, it foreshadowed the community’s commitment to sustainability and the long-term future of winemaking.
Barossa 2024
11
Powered by FlippingBook