Aboriginal History

For over 30,000 years prior to the arrival of the Europeans, the Aboriginies lived in the Hunter region. They roamed within their tribal territories according to the seasons and with a very close relationship with the land and Hunter River. At Port Stephens, the waters teemed with fish with foreshores covered in oysters and the bush full of wild game and fruits.

The Hunter River

According to the Aboriginal Dreamtime, there was once a greedy frog called Tittalik. One day he decided to drink up all of the water out of the pools and springs. He drank and drank, growing bigger and bigger, until there was no water left for the other animals. In desperation they called a meeting and agreed that if Tittalik opened his mouth for long enough, the water would spill out. Someone suggested “make him laugh!”

First the Emu tried but he did not succeed, then the Kangaroo, but he also failed. All the animals tried but none of them could make the frog laugh. They were just about to give up when along came the Platypus, who began to walk up the hill towards Tittalik. But on the way up he tripped over a rock and tumbled back down. Then he picked himself up and again started climbing, only to roll back down the hill.

All of a sudden the Kookaburra started laughing and one by one the other animals joined in. The laughter became so infections that eventually Tittalik began to laugh. He laughed and laughed and all the water from the pools and springs gushed out of his mouth and down the hill. Finally the water came to rest in a gully and became a great river. This is how the Hunter began.

European History

The Europeans first discovered the Hunter Valley when Lieutenant John Shortland was searching for escaped convicts in 1797. The Hunter Valley’s initial value was as a source of timber and coal for the steamships that provided much of the transport for Sydney and its surroundings. As the colony of  New South Wales expanded, further exploration took place under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Paterson, who chartered the harbour and the river, and on his advice a settlement was established at the mouth of the Hunter.

Newcastle, which lies at the mouth of the Hunter River was named after Newcastle in England due to the discovery of coal. The valley itself was named after the 2nd Governor of NSW (1795-80) John Hunter. Along with coal, cedar trees were in abundant so cedar gangs moved further into the hinterland where good stands of timber were cut from the areas around the river. These cedar gangs comprised of convicts and in these early days, very few free settlers headed to the Hunter Valley.

When a road was built between Sydney and the Hunter (1825) it became a major artery for free settlers which eventually lead to the growing of wheat, tobacco, barley, oats and wine.  It’s believed James Busby was the first to plant grapes on his property “to increase the comforts, and promote the morality of the lower classes of the colony”. At this time there was a rum monopoly in Sydney which he hoped to destroy along with it’s “mischievous results”.

In 1931 Busby travelled to England and the vinyards of France and Spain, returning to Sydney the following year with several hundred cuttings. These he planted at Kirkton where they thrived. Another early grower was George Wyndham who had his first vintage in 1835 at Branxton. It was thought these grapes made good vinegar as he struggled to make a good product.

By 1860 the Hunter was producing 270,000 litres of wine a year which was a healthy amount for a young, non-wine producing country but rum was still half the price of wine which was thought to be quite expensive. As transport inproved between Sydney and the Hunter, so did sales. By the early 1900′s the shared cellars of Lindemans and Penfolds in Sydneys Queen Victoria Building were claimed to be the biggest underground  city cellars in the world.

Australia also has some of the oldest grape vines in the world. Many of Europe’s established vineyards were destroyed by disease in the 1800s with the only survivors being the vines brought to Australia. In order to preserve these, our viticulturalists have developed some of the vine management techniques now used throughout the world.