Seppeltsfield, South Australia: Travel guide and things to do

Located 79 km north-east of Adelaide, Seppeltsfield and the nearby township of Marananga is really nothing more than a settlement established specifically for the production of wine.

Prior to European settlement a small number of Aborigines were well established in the district. They lived on a diet of grass seeds (made into a kind of damper), kangaroos, wallabies, possums, lizards and fish and protected themselves against the winter cold with possum skin rugs. Their life was simple but perfectly in tune with the climate, flora and fauna of the region.

Soon after the arrival of colonists in South Australia in July, 1836 expeditions were sent out to explore the hinterland. By December 1837 explorers had reached Lyndoch and by 1838 other explorers had reached the Murray River passing through the Barossa Valley. The valley was named by Colonel Light after Barrosa (Hill of Roses) in Spain where he had fought against the French in 1811 in the Peninsula War. The spelling mistake was never corrected.

By 1839 Colonel Light, the Surveyor General of South Australia, was selling off large tracts of land in the valley.

George Fife Angas went to London as a director of the South Australian Company to try and promote colonisation. While he was there he met Pastor August Ludwig Christian Kavel who was trying to organise for Lutherans (who were being persecuted by the King of Prussia, Friedrich Wilhelm III) to emigrate. Angas was moved by the plight of the Lutherans and not only persuaded Kavel that South Australia was a suitable place for emigration but also financially assisted the journey. The first German settlers arrived on 25 November, 1838 at the unfortunately named Port Misery. These settlers were to establish distinctly German villages at Klemzig, Glen Osmond, Lobethal and most famously Hahndorf.

Joseph Seppelt was not in the first wave of German emigrants. He didn't arrive in South Australia until 1849. He started growing tobacco but when the crop failed he turned to grapes and it on the basis of this accident of history that the huge Seppelt wine company has grown.

The Australian Dictionary of Biography records that Seppelt, as is entirely appropriate for a wine maker, died probably from an excess of his own product. It records: 'Naturalised in 1851, next year he bought property in the Barossa district and named it Seppeltsfield. After another attempt to grow tobacco he planted corn, wheat and a small vineyard. He made his first wine in his wife's small dairy and in 1867 built the first part of the stone winery. The business expanded rapidly as he concentrated on the production of wine, much of which he sold along the Murray where it was transported by paddle-steamer. Survived by his wife, a daughter and three sons, he died suddenly of delirium tremens on 29 January 1868 and was buried at Greenoch.'

His son, Oscar Benno Pedro Seppelt, greatly expanded the business so that it became one of Australia's leading wine producers. Today Seppeltsfield is like no other winery. The rows of date palms (planted in the 1930s), the turrets and the hugeness of the site make for a unique winery experience.

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