QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

Vinicultural successes

From Sandy Creek, the Assmanshausen wines became known throughout Queensland, by 1873 winning awards for the quality of their reds and whites. Kircher sold to markets throughout Australia, Great Britain and Europe – the only Queensland winemaker to do so – with some even being exported to Scotland to W Teacher and Son, the well-known manufacturers of Scotch whisky. Jacob Kircher died suddenly of heart failure in 1903 and was mourned by the residents of Warwick – flags of business premises were flown at half-mast, and windows were shuttered. Below: The Assmanshausen property in its vinicultural heyday, and (bottom) the sturdy cellar beneath the house, as it is today. Images courtesy Bill and Susan Goddard and Karen Ludlow.

Wiesbaden

Rhein

Assmannshausen

Niederwalddenkmal

Rüdesheim

This image of wheat harvesting at Canning Downs station, made in about 1895, illustrates the demands on the early farmers, who had to make do with (literally) two- or four horsepower equipment. Image (APO-029-0001-0004 ) courtesy State Library of Queensland.

Jacob Kircher was acknowledged as the father of the wine industry in Southern Queensland, famed also for his hospitality, and for an estate which drew admiring comments such as these: “The fruit trees here look very beautiful, being trained and pruned to graceful shapes. One drooping nectarine in particular forms a perfect natural roof over some seats placed around its butt. The country surrounding is liable to flooding , but no harm results to the farmers from the waters, which retire almost as they rise, leaving a thick coat of veg etable debris to manure the succeeding crops. Here, as elsewhere in this district, I was struck by the air of comfort which pervaded the homes of the farmers. There were no squalid slab humpies, with mud floors and pigsty adjoining, as I have seen in some parts of the country. Good substantial farmhouses, with wide verandahs, whose posts are festooned with trailing shrubs and vines…Gardens appear to be everywhere the order of the day.” Jacob planted only few varieties of grape: Black Spanish or Mataro (the staple), Verdelho, and Hermitage. He used a horse for the annual ploughing between the rows of vines, but manual labour kept down the weeds, his workmen amply supplied with cake and wine during the hot summer afternoons.

Kircher’s cellar was made from large sandstone blocks, which were quarried locally from Dalrymple Creek at Allora. It was about 16 feet (4.9m) high, with the top nine feet above the surface of the vineyard. The first floor, lined with hardwood boards formed the roof of the cellar. The roof was pitched sufficient to form an attic where, until 1881, the must was fermented in 500 and 300 gallon (2,270 and 1,360 litres, respectively) vats, being pumped up through pipes from the ground floor work room. When sufficiently fermented, it was conveyed to the cellar underground, where a series of 12 ventilation shafts could be opened or shut to maintain an even temperature of 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10°C). After 1881, in the upper storey the grapes were crushed by the latest screw presses; the juice then ran down to the main floor where it was received into vats and attended to during fermentation and preparation until it was ready for placing in the cellar proper.

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