Margaret River 50th anniversary: It all started with a bold outsider

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This was published 6 years ago

Margaret River 50th anniversary: It all started with a bold outsider

By Ben Groundwater
Working up a thirst.

Working up a thirst.

There was a moment when it seemed like it just wouldn't happen: that Vasse Felix wouldn't happen; that Margaret River wouldn't happen; that two peregrine falcons with the improbable names of Cleopatra and Alexander had just flown away with the hopes of a winemaker and a family and an entire region.

Back then, in the late 1960s, Tom Cullity had a plan. The Perth-based cardiologist had a vision to take this quiet dairy farming area in Australia's south-west and turn it into a wine region. He would clear land and plant vines and make the stuff himself. He would single-handedly prove that Margaret River could produce wine. But he would run into some serious problems trying.

"Dad has often been quoted as saying, 'I didn't know what a weed was and I couldn't change a tyre'," laughs Veronica Cullity, Tom's then nine-year-old daughter, who's now sipping coffee in downtown Margaret River and recalling the family's first efforts at cultivating the modern-day Vasse Felix vineyard 50 years ago today. "That was no attempt at self-deprecation, or exaggeration. Mum chopped the firewood. To watch Dad sweep a floor… You know when someone is using a broom and the dirt just goes backwards and forwards?"

Gnarabup.

Gnarabup.

It wasn't just the manual labour that proved an issue for Tom and his family. Even after they had managed to plant the vines – despite the scepticism of the local farmers, and despite Tom's insistence on tilling the fields wearing his beret and smoking a pipe – the Cullitys faced serious issues from Margaret River's avian population, with flocks of native birds stripping their vines of fruit every time it appeared.

The problem got so bad that by 1971, when Tom was planning his first vintage, he got desperate and bought a couple of Peregrine falcons with the idea of having them hunt the local avian pests. That fateful decision is etched in Margaret River folklore.

"I can still remember them, these birds in cages on the back veranda," says Veronica. "They were Cleopatra and Alexander. Dad opened the cages, out they went, and Cleopatra and Alexander got together and thought: 'We're out of here'."

No easy start: Vasse Felix cellar door.

No easy start: Vasse Felix cellar door.

The two falcons famously soared high above the trees, higher and higher in fact, off into the distance, and neither was ever seen again. Tom's plan was a spectacular failure. The 1971 vintage was bound for disaster. The dream, the vision, the future: it could so easily have ended right there. "My father was not prone to overt displays of emotion," says Veronica. "But I can remember walking into the living room, and there was Dad lying on the sofa with his head on mum's lap. He would have been shattered. But then, of course, there was the '72 vintage, and the rest was history."

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That '72 vintage was a raging success for Vasse Felix, and that history is now spread out before us in Margaret River. Fifty years ago this town was little more than a pub and a post office. Today, on a long weekend, it's buzzing with activity, with out-of-towners finding accommodation, with wine tourists heading out to the vineyards, with fashion boutiques and delis and cafes doing a roaring trade.

Even Tom's vision for Margaret River would not have included this: the boom, the huge swathe of wineries producing some of Australia's finest cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay, and the flocks of people drawn by them.

Adam Hall and the Velvet Playthings.

Adam Hall and the Velvet Playthings.

Tom was the first to set up shop as a winemaker in the area affectionately known as "Margs", but he certainly wasn't the last. There are now 215 wineries and 100 cellar doors in the region, from old-school producers such as Cullen, Leeuwin Estate and Sandalford, to the town's new wave of winemakers, the likes of Domaine Naturaliste, L.A.S. Vino and Twinwoods Estate. Together they're producing some 20 per cent of Australia's premium wine, and the region has gone from receiving a few thousand visitors a year to now welcoming almost 1.5 million.

Those people are drawn, of course, for a variety of reasons. Many come for the wine, but there are just as many who travel here for the beaches, for the forests, for the walking trails, for the good food and the laidback lifestyle offset by access to the mod-cons. It used to be a five-hour drive from Perth to Margs when the Cullity family came here in the 1960s – these days it takes just three, and with nearby Busselton Airport about to be extended into an international hub with direct flights from south-east Asia, the area will become even more accessible.

With that popularity, of course, comes change. The dairy farmers might remain in Margaret River, but they now live alongside a new cast of winemakers, artists, surfers, hippies, FIFO miners, tourists, hikers, sightseers, musicians, chefs and more, all drawn by the beauty and the lifestyle that this secluded part of the world has to offer.

Cassandra Charickin at Ngilgi Cave during the Jazz Festival.

Cassandra Charickin at Ngilgi Cave during the Jazz Festival.

The likes of Tom Cullity with his beret and his pipe would no longer cause a stir in Margaret River. These days, there are places like Floating Euphoria, a shop in the beachside town of Gnarabup that specialises in sensory deprivation tanks that are used by surfers, athletes and artists for meditation and rehab. There are artistic festivals like Jazz By the Bay and the Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival. There's the world surfing tour, which calls in here each year. There's luxury accommodation that's popping up on former farmland, chalets and cottages and glamping sites galore.

Even the Vasse Felix winery has undergone huge changes: changes of owner, from the Cullitys to the Holmes a Court family, and changes in focus, from a purely wine-driven business to one that now includes one of the region's best restaurants, as well as its most popular cellar door. Wine, of course, is still hugely important, and it's nice to hear that that original plot of land that Tom cleared, that he tried so valiantly to protect with his falcons, is still producing Vasse Felix's best wine, and indeed some of the best wine in the entire region.

Tom Cullity started something big. Even those falcons started something big – a fact that's acknowledged, perhaps as a testament to Tom's wry sense of humour, on the Vasse Felix wine label, which to this day features the silhouette of a soaring falcon. It's a neat reminder that things don't always work out the way you planned, but they do work out.

"I think it was my sister," Veronica Cullity recalls now, "who once said of my father: 'The old bugger was right after all'."

TRIP NOTES

MORE

traveller.com.au/margaret-river

margaretriver.com

vassefelix.com.au

FLY

Qantas flies several times daily from east coast ports to Perth. See qantas.com. Margaret River is about a three-hour drive from Perth Airport. For car hire, see budget.com.au

STAY

Olive oil producer Olio Bello has lakeside glamping units, with all mod-cons including hardwood floors and en suite bathrooms, from $215 per night. See oliobello.com for bookings.

EAT + DRINK

The five-course tasting menu with matching wines at Vasse Felix costs $130 per person. See vassefelix.com.au for more. Visitors can also book a private tasting in the Vasse Felix cellar via Ultimate Winery Experiences Australia – see ultimatewineryexperiences.com.au

Ben Groundwater travelled with assistance from the Margaret River Busselton Tourism Association

FIVE MARGARET RIVER WINERIES YOU HAVE TO VISIT

LEEUWIN ESTATE

One of the region's oldest wineries is also one of its most scenically beautiful, nestled among dense old-growth forest in a lush green valley. The wine isn't half bad either – settle in for a flight of tastings that includes Leeuwin's famed Art Series chardonnay. leeuwinestate.com.au

VOYAGER ESTATE

The wine at Voyager is some of the best in Margs, but that's not the sole reason to visit. Voyager Estate's cellar door is housed in a beautiful whitewashed, Cape Dutch-style building that's surrounded by meticulously maintained gardens leading into the vineyard. voyagerestate.com.au

VASSE FELIX

Margaret River's oldest winery, and many would say still the best. Vasse Felix offers a great tasting at its cellar door, with pours of some of its best wines, and at the on-site restaurant you can enjoy lunch overlooking endless rows of vines. vassefelix.com.au

FRASER GALLOP ESTATE

One of Margaret River's newer cellar doors – it's only been open a few years, housed in a small cottage near the Fraser Gallop winery. The wines, however, are becoming recognised as some of the region's best, and the service is friendly and knowledgeable. frasergallopestate.com.au

CLAIRAULT STREICKER

Winemaker Bruce Dukes is turning out some of Margs' best-value drops, and though there's no cellar door as his own winery, Domaine Naturaliste, you can get in to Clairault Streicker, where Dukes is also the winemaker, to sample his exceptional product. clairaultstreickerwines.com.au

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