SECRETS OF SOUTH PACIFIC’S TRULY TREASURE ISLAND

David Ellis

HOW romantic it would be to think that a dreamy South Pacific atoll that Robert Louis Stevenson's wife fell in love with in 1890 would inspire him to write his immortal Treasure Island.

But in truth he had published his famous tome some seven years before they set eyes on this South Pacific treasure from aboard the old iron steamer Janet Nicoll, on their way to a new life in the Cook Islands in the hope the forever-poorly author could regain his health in warmer climes.

Yet that tiny half-square kilometre speck that Fanny Van de Grift Osborne wrote of as "the most romantic island in the world," was indeed a truly treasure island – with as many mysteries, shootings, intrigues and treasures that her master story-teller husband could ever dream of.

For while Robert Louis may have mused that Fanny had discovered her treasure island in the little dot of land called Suwarrow, little was he to know that 38 years earlier treasure had been found there in the way of a rusty steel box laden with gold and silver coins, precious necklaces, brooches and other jewellery.

Nor that there was more to come.

In 1850 an American ship, the Gem loaded with barrels of whale oil had run aground on Suwarrow Island's fringing reef. The crew was unharmed and made their way to Tahiti, from where a salvage team was sent to recover the whale oil.

But the captain of the recovery vessel, Livingston Evans already knew rumours of buried treasure on Suwarrow, and while his crew recovered the oil barrels, he himself went off in search of that treasure – remarkably finding a cache of Mexican and Spanish coins buried behind a beach and believed to have been worth then (1852) around US$15,000.

Wisely, after returning to Tahiti, Evans quietly disappeared with his considerable fortune.

Then three years later in Samoa, a German trader bought details from a drunken beachcomber of other treasure he said lay buried on Suwarrow. When the trader arrived there he followed those leads… to uncover US$2,400 worth of Spanish coins at the base of a tree.

Meanwhile others were showing an interest in the tiny atoll as a trading outpost, one company building a defensive fortress surrounded by coral walls on which it mounted two cannons facing into the atoll's lagoon.

But two of the traders fell out and in 1878 in an attempt to hose-down a dangerously escalating feud another vessel was sent to sort out the problem. A gun fight broke out as yet a third vessel arrived with a New Zealand crewman aboard named Henry Mair, a friend of one of the protagonists and thus ordered by his captain to remain aboard.

But in dead of night, Henry Mair slipped overboard to help his friend, and after a long swim crawled up the beach on Suwarrow, momentarily laying there to regain his breath. But startled by a scraping sound, in the moonlight he saw a turtle digging in the sand – it's flippers scratching on a battered metal box, from one end of which spilled countless coins and sparkling jewels…

Mair hurriedly dragged the box to a safer place and buried it deeply in the sand with his bare hands before going off to help his friend, and eventually returning to his ship; he later wrote to his brother about his buried treasure and said he had left instructions as to where it lay in a box of his personal possessions to be opened only upon his death.

Sadly Mair was murdered soon after in the New Hebrides while recruiting labour – his box of personal possessions with its precious leads to his buried treasure, never found.

It's believed Suwarrow's treasures most likely came from Spanish ships that foundered there while returning to the Philippines after raids on then-wealthy Mexico.

But untangling the web of how to find Henry Mair's treasure on Suwarrow today – and any others buried there as well – would seem more the provenance of the fertile imaginings of Robert Louis Stevenson himself, than that of reality itself.

(Suwarrow is a National Park of the Cook Islands 825km north-north-west of Rarotonga; its population is two – caretakers who maintain basic facilities for occasional visiting yachts or charter vessels from Rarotonga.)

PHOTO CAPTIONS:

[] TINY SUWARROW Island with its vast fringing reef – Stevenson's wife Fanny described it as "the most romantic island in the world." (Samoa Tourism)

[] ROBERT Louis and Fanny with family and friends at their Rarotonga home, Vailima. (Wikimedia.)

[] THE house soon after the Stevenson's moved in. (Samoa Tourism)

[] THE Stevenson's house is a museum to them today. (Samoa Tourism)

[] TWO buildings maintained on Suwarrow today for visiting yachties and occasional tourists from Rarotonga. (Flickr)

The Mysterious Digger of Reykjavik

See updates in footer

from Roderick Eime in Iceland

This little tale reminds me why I enjoy museums so much. Especially the tiny folk museums many of the major tours overlook.

Once when I was a kid, we stopped at a tea house gallery near Gawler and my Dad sprang up in surprise when he saw a photo of his grandfather hanging on the wall.

Today I stumbled on a tiny cottage in the historic harbour district of Reykjavik, called Hafnarfjordur. [www.Hafnarfjordur.is]

It was a time capsule left behind by a prominent local woman who died in 1980 and decreed her house not be touched and left it to the people as a little museum. Quaint kitchen utensils sat on the wood stove, vintage furniture still in place while family photos adorned the sideboard. 

As I surveyed the sepia-toned gallery of family portraits and candid snaps, something immediately caught my eye. It was a studio photograph of a striking young soldier in uniform. So what? Well it was very obviously an Australian soldier of the First World War complete with signature slouch hat and 'rising sun' emblems on his collar.

The obvious question: what was a WWI digger doing on a mantlepiece in Iceland?

The young lady who was attending the house on this drizzly Sunday morning put forward various theories. One was that he was an unfulfilled romantic interest of the spinster and only child who passed away at age 88, having never left her native Iceland. The same girl suggested the soldier was French, but I was able to quickly correct her on that issue. 

So this handsome young man was not a son, nor a husband or brother. Also not a sweetheart she'd met on some international galavant. Clearly there is some research ahead.

The woman in question was Sigridur Erlendsdottir, daughter of Erlendur Marteinsson (father) and Sigurveig Einardottir. To further compound the mystery, Icelandic surnames follow a complicated protocol of adopting father's or mother's name and adding either 'son' or 'dottir' as appropriate. So, tracing a family line or looking up birth records is a headspin. The government, by the way, long gave up on names and deals with everything by number for official purposes. 

I would be grateful if you could share this with anyone you think might have an inkling as to the identity of this dashing bloke from Hafnarfjordur.

UPDATES:

Initial searches pointed to this young man:

REISE, George (3670) Parsnon (sic), Iceland 20th Battalion, 8th Reinforcement (later transferred to 56th Battalion) *
                                                

Here is his file from the National Archives

https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8031009&S=1

Further research (Thank you Christine Edwards) seems to confirm the connection.

If correct, it seems George had a sister, Anna, who lived in Iceland. If she was close friends with Sigridur, it is conceivable she gave the photo (or a copy of it) to her. Apparently, in Iceland, it is not uncommon for friends to exchange photos of their relatives.  

Whether George ever visited Iceland is not clear. His native Estonia has always had a difficult relationship with its powerful neighbour, Russia, and at the time of his enlistment in 1915, there were turbulent times at home. George and his sister may well have been refugees. His enlistment application states that both parents are dead.

His paperwork inconsistencies are likely due to George's poor (or non-existent) English and his reliance on others to translate for him. Piarnu is a large city in Estonia, not Iceland.

George survived the war, although badly wounded enough to be discharged as unfit in 1917. Just 21, the poor lad returned to Australia, likely traumatised, and struggled to find work. His paper trail disappears in 1948 at the time of his naturalisation as an Australian citizen. 

* The 56th Battalion was transported to northern France and within a fortnight was committed to the Battle of Fromelles, where the 5th Division undertook a disastrous attack that was later described as "the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history". The 56th, along with the rest of the division, suffered heavy casualties but was not withdrawn from the line until two months later. (Wikipedia)

Struth! Putting it all on show in Ireland

IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says Aussie winemakers aren't averse to employing anything from the outlandish to the bizarre to promote their products, and that Hunter Valley winemaker Neil McGuigan must surely take the cake with his latest effort.

In September he's uprooting eighty of McGuigan Wines' 60 year old Semillon vines – and re-planting them in a public Square in the centre of Ireland's capital city, Dublin. And he's also taking along posts and wire to support the vines where they'll be planted in neat rows in Meeting Place Square, a stack of wine barrels, an Aussie tractor, and if not everything else down to the kitchen-sink then the closest thing to it – a complete cellar door big enough to drive a truck through.

It's all to coincide with the 20th anniversary of McGuigan Wines' iconic Black Label range, with their Dublin City Vineyard being open to the public from September 4th to 9th.

Neil McGuigan says his "real life" vineyard will provide an in-depth insight into the Australian wine industry, give Irish wine lovers the chance to rub shoulders with the highly awarded McGuigan winemaking team – lead by Neil himself – in a unique setting, and of course to taste the excellent McGuigan Hunter Valley product that's helped earn it the title of International Winemaker of the Year twice in the past three years.

Australian wines are currently #1 sellers in Ireland, and McGuigan Wines amongst the Top Ten global wine brands selling in the UK. For more information visit www.mcguiganwines.com.au

 

KOREA TURNS THE TAP ON WATERY INNOVATIONS

David Ellis
with
Hilary Roots


HANDS up if you've heard of Yeosu.

And hands up again if you know where it is, with top marks if you can say why it's currently revelling in the limelight.

The answer to the latter is that Yeosu, a small port city at the lower tip of South Korea, is the site for this year's World Expo, an event expected to attract 8-million visitors during its three months run to August 12th.

It's a nice boost for a city that's not really on the way to anywhere, but whose cool summers, mild winters and lengthy spring and autumn encourage plenty of tourists to Korea to make the three-hour trip there by fast train from Seoul, or around the same time by bus from Busan.

Not a trade fair, Yeosu's World Expo is an international event along the lines of what the inaugural Great Exhibition in London's Crystal Palace first paraded in 1851, and what Brisbane hosted in 1988. And with this year's theme of Living Ocean and Coast Expo, the 103 participating nations are highlighting just how precious is water to mankind's, and indeed the earth's, survival.

Denmark notes that global water use increases at more than twice the rate of population, while the Swiss pavilion headlines "Water is Nature's Bloodstream," and has a presentation of drops of water in an obscure tunnel that ends with a taste of fresh alpine water for visitors to savour.

Some world expos are precursors of what become everyday innovations. Our co-writer this week, Hilary Roots remembers the Italian pavilion at Brisbane in '88 presenting the extraordinary concept of a telephone with pictures – something pretty banal now.

And she recalls being impressed at Japan's Tskuba Expo in 1985 with hydroponically growing tomatoes – and a robotic man walking down stairs with awkward difficulty. So what of this year at Yeosu? Hilary says there are some electronic achievements that are remarkable, including from when visitors arrive into a passageway with a gigantic digital ceiling, 218 metres long, featuring a dreaming whale and other displays. No need to queue here, simply lift your eyes and watch the colourful swim-past of thousands of digitally-created images.

Some countries at Yeosu vaunt their careful use of water. Others rest on their laurels, while some encourage visitors to stop and think, pointing out that commonsense and sharing knowledge can contribute to more equitable water usage throughout the world.

The Dutch, for example, remind the world that climate change can be coped with – and point out that they've been doing just that for hundreds of years, given that much of their country is below sea-level. They built dykes and canals and set an example in a world that can be somewhat hysteric over what to do should the sea level rise – maybe, as Hilary says, we should be thinking the old Boy Scout motto.

Again the Dutch, ever so practical, present visitors with a flat water bottle at Yeosu - it deflates as one drinks from it, folds away to next to nothing, and is refillable. Korea itself, the US and Russia have impressive displays, and organisers have put together a well-patronised aquarium featuring rare creatures such as the small, white Beluga whale, and highlighting marine ranching or farming done in Yeosu itself.

Small countries are also present. Monaco one of them, and Pacific island states from Papua New Guinea eastwards through the Solomon Islands to Vanuatu, Nauru, Fiji, Tuvalu, Tonga, Samoa and Kiribati.

And yes Australia is there with a two-fold purpose: firstly to build on trade and investment relationships with the Republic of Korea with whom Trade Minister, Craig Emerson says we've a long history of friendship, business ties and diplomatic links. And secondly with the theme "In Harmony with the Ocean" highlighting our credentials with high environmental, scientific and technical capabilities in marine conservation, and a commitment to sustainable development of our vast natural assets – our pavilion's already been visited by over a million expo-goers including Denmark's (our) Princess Mary.

So if you happen to be in or around Korea before August 12th, join those at Yeosu looking to a better world through sensible use of water and the oceans. The new Yeosu Hotel, two minutes from the gates, is a good place to start.


PHOTO CAPTIONS:

[] UNUSUAL moving digital ceiling at this year's Yeosu World Expo

[] PRINCE Frederik and (our) Princess Mary head for the Australian stand at the Expo.

[] PRINCESS Mary meets didgeridoo player Kristian Benton on the Australian stand.

[] CORNER of the colourful Australian stand.

(Photos: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade)

A LEANING TO PORT – THAT’S THE SPIRIT!

David Ellis

with

John Rozentals



FOR wine buffs the historic cellars of Seppeltsfield, in the heart of South Australia's Barossa Valley, are a very, very special place indeed.

Because here visitors – wine buff or not – are surrounded by casks of port from every vintage since 1878. That was when Benno Seppelt, eldest son of Silesian-born Seppeltsfield founder Joseph, laid down a barrel of his best to commemorate the opening of the family's new cellar.

There are European wineries with older wines than these, but nowhere is there a collection that can match the Seppeltsfield continuum.

And those who take a Seppeltsfield Centenary Tour ($85) are encouraged to find their birth-year cask, and are then offered a taste of "their" deep golden tawny liquid that sticks to the side of the glass.

Each year, Seppeltsfield bottles and releases a small quantity of 100-year-old port, and a taste of that is also included in the tour. It's quite amazing to see the reaction of visitors sipping a wine made three years before the Gallipoli campaign, and the same year Fanny Durack won Australia's first female Olympic gold medal in the 100-metre swim at the 1912 Stockholm Games.

You can buy this century-old wine at the cellar door. And while its $975 for 375ml it's actually quite a bargain, especially when you consider that the loss through evaporation from a barrel over a hundred years – and quaintly called the Angels' Share – is something like 80 per cent. Lucky angels!

In terms of both size and age of operation, the opposite extreme of the spectrum to Seppeltsfield can be found at Bob McLean's McLean's Farmgate, a small vineyard perched atop the windswept Menglers Hill, right on the dividing line between the Barossa and Eden Valleys.

But the recognition of history and tradition is still pervasive.

The vines here look different to most others in the area, and for good reason. Bob reckons he's the first in the Barossa for about 45 years to plant and train his vines as self-supporting bushes rather than on trellises, just as the valley's European founders did in the 1850s.

"It's not as efficient in yields or in use of manpower," he admits. "But I'm sure it produces better fruit and that's ultimately what I'm looking for."

He and his wife Wilma also graze some rare sheep — a cross between demara, an African desert breed, and dorper, in turn a cross between dorset and persian breeds. The result is renowned for the leanness of its meat and is part of the McLeans' commitment to an extremely proud local food culture, one that has been made internationally famous by the likes of Maggie Beer.

Probably the best place to appreciate the strength of that culture is the Barossa Farmers Market, held each Saturday morning in Vintners Sheds on the outskirts of Angaston.

It's a lively, friendly place where bakers, cheese-makers, smallgoods manufacturers, butchers, olive growers, breeders of game birds, orchardists, gardeners and purveyors of mouth-watering condiments trade cheek by jowl and compete with each other in spruiking the invaluable role of the Barossa as one of Australia's great premium food bowls.

Accommodation wise, the Barossa Valley is packed with B&Bs and there's the usual smattering of country pubs and family motels, but in terms of genuinely luxurious offerings it's very hard to go beyond Novotel Barossa Valley Resort, just outside Rowland Flat, the village whose local stream, Jacob's Creek, has placed it well and truly on the world's wine map.

The Novotel offers a range of comfortable rooms, classy restaurant, Endota spa facilities, heated outdoor pool, tennis courts, gymnasium and direct access to the adjacent 18-hole Tanunda Pines Golf Course.

And you really do need a vehicle to take advantage of the Barossa experience. It's a relatively large place, based on a range of villages well worth visiting — Tanunda, Angaston and Lyndoch among them.

We chose an economic near-new Hyundai Getz from DriveAway Holidays that has very competitive offerings both here in around Australia and in Europe and North America.

IF YOU GO:

Seppeltsfield Winery – 08 8568 6217; www. seppeltsfield.com.au.

McLeans Farmgate – 08 8564 3340; www.mcleansfarm.com.

Barossa Farmers Market – 0402 026 882; barossafarmersmarket.com.

Novotel Barossa Valley Resort — 08 8524 0000; www.novotelbarossa.com.

DriveAway Holidays – 1300 363 500; www.driveaway.com.au.

Barossa Valley Tourism – 1300 852 982; www.barossa.com.

…………………………………



Photo captions:



[] MISTY Barossa sunset ... looking over the Seppeltsfield vines and palms towards St Michael's Gnadenfrei Lutheran Church.

[] UNIQUE collection ... casks of fine old port in the cellars at Seppeltsfield.

[] BOB McLean amid unique bush vines ... "I'm sure it produces better fruit and that's ultimately what I'm looking for."

[] NOVOTELl Barossa Valley Resort ... luxury offerings amid Barossa hills.



(Photos Sandra Burn White)

CRUISING THE MEKONG IN YESTER-YEAR STYLE

David Ellis

WE recently ran into a colleague we worked with many, many moons ago at ABC News, returning to her now-home on the Isle of Pines after a week cruising the mighty Mekong aboard the replica colonial river steamer, Indochina Pandaw.

And so intrigued were we with what our friend Hilary Roots told us, that we asked her to share with our readers she and partner Albert Thoma's week aboard. Here's her account:

WE rode in ox carts and 'cyclos,' visited cat-fish farms and floating markets, sampled snake wine and exotic fruits, caught a rare, lithesome gibbon swinging from rafters above our heads, held hands with and gave school books to village children who tugged at our heart strings, all the while gently cruising down the Mekong.

No television, radio, piped music or internet, just the swirl of the mighty river, its banks sometimes close enough to touch, sometimes a kilometre apart, a 4,000 kilometre artery feeding, watering and housing millions along its route through South-East Asia from Tibet.

The muddy colour belies its intense richness. Every year from June to November melting Himalayan snows swell it so much that the tributary from Tonle Sap lake (Asia's largest) halts, then goes backwards, gorged with tonnes of fresh water. Such dramatic changes bring new fish, flood rice and corn fields with rich alluvial sands and silt…

Not the sort who enjoy organised tours, we'd been enticed by an article torn from a magazine a few years back and put with the proverbial 'bucket list.' Or was it purely the photo of the ship? A replica of wooden craft the British once used to ply the Irrawaddy in the 19th and first part of the 20th centuries. An olde-worlde vessel, only three decks above water level, thirty passenger cabins – the whole outfitted in teak and brass.

Run by Pandaw Cruises, she was more like home from the moment we stepped  aboard. Our cabin cosy, easy to live in, wood panelling, white and navy blue linen, highlighted by the finer touches of fresh flowers and silk bathrobes.

Such details were enhanced by the young crew, ever devoted to making our seven-day stay comfortable and memorable. A mix of Cambodian, Vietnamese and Burmese, they reflected the vessel – discreet, attentive, innovative. Refined dining of a quality and variety to match the best anywhere, whether sampling Asian dishes or enjoying those appealing to Western palates. Intrepid excursions to explore markets and fields, temples and villages, often scrambling up the bank where the ship had drawn alongside, tying up to the nearest tree… guides brimming with history, facts and figures and their own personal accounts of growing up through recent tumultuous decades in Cambodia and Vietnam.

While Indochina Pandaw can take 60 passengers, we were only 22, coddled by 26 crew. Early June is considered the low season, the water level just starting to rise. And it can rain every day, but we were lucky: only one afternoon did the wind whip up, the skies darken and the rain pelt down for an hour. The rest of the week it was warm and humid. Exploring was fun, but it was always with a welcome sigh we returned to the cool and respite of the ship.

Our fellow voyagers were all widely travelled, mainly retired, but with the mental and physical verve of people interested in extending their experiences and horizons. The canopied sun deck bar and salon, and no set-seating for dining meant we made new acquaintances, swapped many a travel tale. All dressed simply yet correctly, with no pretentiousness.

Interestingly all were Australian, except us: I'm a Kiwi, Albert is Swiss. And the pivot point, the person who made the cruise zing, who had an eye on everything from technical details to visas, from orphan children performing a magical concert with their own hand-made costumes, to a crew/guest farewell party the last evening, was Rosie – a Cambodian university graduate, officially the purser, but more like cruise director, confidante, coordinator for all aboard.

Her vivacity and contagious laugh make her precious to Pandaw, and will echo with us for a long time to come.

It could well be we'll meet again on the waterway to Mandalay…

(Details of Indochina Pandaw from Siem Reap to Ho Chi Minh City: www.pandaw.com)
 
PHOTO CAPTIONS:
 
[] GOING aboard at Kampong Chhang in Cambodia.

[] COLOURFUL markets like this one in Sa Dec, Vietnam abound.

[] DUCKING up the river at Chau Doc in Vietnam.

[] SKILLED art: making rice paper wrappings at Cai Be, Vietnam.

[] SHORE excursion by ox cart on the mighty Mekong.

[] CHILDREN from an orphanage in Phom Penh give a performance aboard.

[] ROSIE – a precious possession for Indochina Pandaw.

[] INDOCHINA PANDAW on the Mekong.

(Photos: Hilary Roots)

 

Struth! Down a stubbie at Drinkastubbie Downs

IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says that his retired schoolteacher brother and wife found two sides of our approach to a cold drink on a hot day during a recent campervan adventure through the Outback and inland Australia.

A couple of Canberra-ites, John and Diane Ellis joined the droves of Grey Nomads and headed into Central Australia, up to the Gulf country, down the Queensland coast, inland through central Queensland and across the border into NSW's north-western corner, and back home, a sojourn of some six weeks to escape much of Canberra's winter.

Enjoying a bottle of wine nightly whether camping or taking a bed in a remote country pub or motel, when they arrived in Mount Isa they went in search of fresh supplies for the coming nights, and unable to find a bottle shop, asked a mature, well-dressed lady in the main street if she could assist with directions.

John says he was taken aback when she snapped back somewhat haughtily: "No. They all drink far too much out here in the pubs as it is, without having bottle shops as well!"

This rebuff was made up for, however, when John and Diane discovered a cattle property near Charters Towers that was obviously not owned by a person of the same persuasion as the lady in Mount Isa.

It was called DRINKASTUBBIE DOWNS.

 

RAISING A GLASS TO WINE’S ‘MR MICK’

 

David Ellis

FOR South Australian winemaker Tim Adams, buying the Clare Valley's historic old Leasingham Winery this month with wife and business partner Pam Goldsack was not so much a business decision, but a homecoming.

Because it's allowed him to achieve what so many starry-eyed young hopefuls dream of: from starting as a bottom-of-the-ladder teenager, to 36-years later becoming the owner of the business in which he started his career.

The Leasingham Winery dates back to 1893 when a diverse group of South Australian professional and businessmen decided to plant grapes in the already-flourishing Clare Valley and buy a failed jam factory that they would convert into a winery. The fact that none of them had any idea whatsoever about winemaking was neither here nor there.

The group included German-born merchant Joseph Knappstein, solicitor Magnus Badger, a brewer John Cristion and the aptly-named Doctor Otto Wein-Smith; to make up for their lack of viticultural and winemaking expertise, they engaged a Mr Alfred Basedow – a European-trained winemaker – as both General Manager and Winemaker.

And somewhat unimaginatively they called their venture The Stanley Wine Company after their local electoral district.

Their first vintage in 1895 produced 11,350 litres, and the next year they built a cellar under their jam factory-cum-winery to store a much larger production. As their vineyards flourished – and other growers brought fruit to them for making into wine – they added more cellaring space, and by 1903 were producing over 378,000 litres of wine from most of the annual grape harvest in the Clare Valley.

Joseph Knappstein, the most enterprising of the group bought out his partners in 1912, and after his death in 1919 his family continued to run the company until they sold a controlling interest in 1971 to the American baked bean maker, the H.J. Heinz Corporation.

The Knappsteins retained key positions within The Stanley Wine Company, however, and held shares in it until 1976, by which time the company had grown far beyond what its original owners could ever have dreamed of.

And it was producing not only premium wines but the-then new-fangled Stanley Wine Cask.

With demand for the Wine Casks booming, the Heinz Corporation in 1984 bought the huge Buronga Winery on the NSW side of the Murray River opposite Mildura and expanded it even more to make the Casks there, while in 1988 the Hardy Wine Company bought the premium Clare Valley facilities. It also spent $2-million upgrading the Winery and it's Cellar Door, and developing gardens and picnic areas for visitors.

It renamed the winery Leasingham Wines and continued to produce premium wines there until 2009 when it moved this production to McLaren Vale and closed the old winery.

Throughout much of all this, Joseph Knappstein's successors had continued an involvement in the winery he'd had helped start in 1893, including his son Mick Knappstein who worked as a winemaker there for an incredible 57 years – and earning himself after his retirement in 1985 The Order of Australia for services to the wine industry.

And it was during his stewardship that a local schoolboy, Tim Adams wrote a letter seeking employment in the winery. Tim had sent the letter to many other wineries as well, but it was Mick Knappstein who recognised the enthusiasm of the writer and gave him a job as a cellar hand in 1975.

'Mr Mick' as he was known, nurtured the young Tim, even giving him financial assistance to do a Bachelor of Applied Science (Wine Science) by correspondence at Charles Sturt University; Tim graduated in 1981 and by that time was Assistant Winemaker to 'Mr Mick,' and the following year was made Winemaker responsible for day-to-day operation of the winery that then employed 60 people.

This month Tim and wife Pam Goldsack take over the empty Leasingham Winery as its new owners. They'll re-open the Cellar Door, visitor gardens and picnic areas, and while continuing to run their existing Tim Adams winery in the Clare Valley, will make select wines at the historic old winery and crush fruit under contract there for other growers.

Their wines will include 'cleanskins' that they make and donate all profits from to the Variety Children's Charity – and a new label that will appear around mid-June.

Appropriately it will be called 'Mr Mick.'

 

 

PHOTO CAPTIONS:

 

[] HISTORIC Leasingham Winery now owned by Tim Adams Wines – rose from a defunct jam factory that went belly-up in the 1880s.

[] TIM Adams in his own original winery in the Clare Valley.

[] TIM Adams Wines' picturesque Ladera Vineyard (its Spanish for 'ladder.')   Vertical

[] TIM Adams Wines' picturesque Ladera Vineyard (its Spanish for 'ladder')    Horizontal

 

(Please credit vineyard images to Frances Adams. Others supplied.)