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Produced and published by the School of Historical & Philosophical Studies, The University of Melbourne
Published July 2008
Published July 2008
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Viticulture was practised extensively in the Melbourne district in the 19th century. Fresh grapes were valued from the earliest times, and in the 1860s a vogue for wine, available land and a favourable climate saw vines planted in commercial market gardens and around the homes of well-to-do citizens, whose estates resembled those of latter-day hobby farmers. Vineyards remain a feature of Melbourne's hinterland, attracting tourists to the Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula.
Skene Craig is believed to have planted Melbourne's first vineyard in Collins Street west in 1836. Melbourne had 89 acres (36 ha) of vines in 1859, 597 acres (239 ha) by 1865, and 848 acres (339 ha) in 1871 (including Sunbury). Many were located in eastern and southern suburbs, notably in present-day Kew. Wine was offered for sale in 1861 by Melbourne building surveyor T. J. Everist, whose Spring Hill vineyard was bounded by Kildare Street, Auburn Road, Barkers Road and Harcourt Street. Journalist Andrew Murray coined the term Balwyn ('home of the vine') for his property (now Fintona Girls School) and so named the district. Ivanhoe had similar roots, with architect Charles Maplestone making wine at his property Ivanhoe Lodge. Vineyards were developed on the Punt Road hill, along Gardiners Creek, and at Windsor, Brighton and Moonee Ponds, where Welshman John Davies' Ngarveno ('sunnyside') vineyard grew to 16 acres (6.4 ha) in 1883. Ngarveno, Davies and Vine streets mark its former location.
The 1880s saw many suburban vineyards disappear, wiped out not by grape phylloxera, which affected other Victorian districts, but by suburban expansion during the land boom. Vines reappeared from the 1950s, trellised in the backyards of southern-Europe immigrants and planted by a new generation of enthusiasts on Melbourne's fringe. Solicitor Reg Egan's Wantirna Estate vineyard was one of the first of the latter, in 1963.