BRIEF HISTORY OF TONY SMITH & FAMILY
Tony Smith was raised in county Berkshire in England, in a family whose business was selling books. He decided it wasn't the career he wanted, and opted instead for a diploma in Farm and Estate Management from a UK agricultural college. It was the beginning of a lifelong association with the land.
In 1960 Tony decided to buy a passage to Australia, and as an assisted migrant, took a job as a jackeroo near Deniliquin in New South Wales. It was on the ship to Australia that he met his future wife, Alison Piper.
Jackerooing taught Tony many crop and animal husbandry skills. He loved the life and the work and soon found himself managing a mixed farming property in the Forbes area of New South Wales – married to Alison.
By the mid 1960's he was ready to move on, to take up some land of his own. After looking around, he concluded that on a value-for-dollar basis, land was cheapest in Western Australia.
He chose a small holding at Mount Barker, 360 kilometres south of Perth in the Lower Great Southern area of WA. Tony and Alison grazed sheep and cattle, and quickly cleared another 50 hectares of virgin country.
In the first year livestock prices were buoyant – in the second year, shocking! Tony quickly understood that if he was going to survive he needed to find a crop that would generate a reliable annual cash flow.
At the time the Department of Agriculture had begun to trial some grape vine plantings in the Mount Barker area, and in 1968 Tony was encouraged to plant four and a half acres of cabernet sauvignon and shiraz grapes at his property, 'Bouverie', his mother's maiden name.
Disaster struck early, when the rams got into the vineyard and wrecked part of the planting. But Tony's enthusiasm for his newfound venture sparked interest among family members back home in England. His cousins bought into family partnerships, and Tony managed both investment and land as new vineyards sprang up.
The first crushing for his Plantagenet label was in 1975, when the established Swan Valley vineyard, Sandalfords, made the historic first batch of wine from the Mount Barker region. By now other farmers in the district were also planting grape vines.
When an apple packing shed on two acres of land in the middle of town came onto the market, Tony seized the opportunity and bought it. It was to become the hub of Plantagenet Wines, right in the middle of Mount Barker on the train, bus and tourist routes.
In late 1975 Plantagenet employed its first full time winemaker, David McNamara. Over the next few years grape production doubled every year for the region. But it was a new oenology graduate from Wagga Wagga's Sturt College, Rob Bowen, who really put the stamp on Mount Barker as a premium wine producing area. Rob was Plantagenet's winemaker for the decade from 1978 to 1988.
Tony Smith was pleased and proud at the efforts of individual farmers who had put Mount Barker on the map as a quality wine producer. But he admits to a twinge of jealousy at the flood of investment into the Margaret River region in the southwest, from wealthy doctors, dentists and business professionals eager to offset taxation through investor schemes. While he believed the quality of Mount Barker wines was superior, Tony faced a challenge to market both the wine and the region. In the early days that meant driving a three and a half-tonne truck laden with wine to Perth every week, and selling it to shops and restaurants. The trade built up, and eventually he needed wholesalers.
Then there were the challenges of working with Government. In the early days, Tony says the Department of Agriculture couldn't give advice because individual farmers knew more about growing grapes in the region than it did! And the Department of Industrial Development hadn't yet realised an industry was emerging, he says.
Tony's lobbying eventually resulted in WA wines being exhibited at a Melbourne Expo, and agents were appointed to market the state's product, but it wasn't until Great Southern wines began to win national shows that people sat up and began to take notice. Older, established wine producers in the east looked westward, some purchasing land and putting in vines.
Tony Smith also had a taste for the politics of the industry. Early in its development WA had no voice at a national level. The West Australian Wine and Brandy Producers Association was run by people from 'over east', who wouldn't change the constitution to allow WA representation.
Tony and others formed the WA Grape Growers and Winemakers Association, bringing together representatives from all Western Australian wine producing areas. After two short years an historic amalgamation with the WA Wine and Brandy Producers Association saw the birth of the WA Wine Industry Association, which is still running successfully today.
From there it was a short step to industry politics at a federal level. In 1984 Tony and others staged a national Small Winemakers Expo, from which the Australian Winemaker's Forum emerged. Tony was vice president of the steering committee.
The first job was to address the inadequacies of the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation, which was running into disrepute for its handling of wine exports. The committee suspected the 'big boys' of clubbing together over export issues, trying to starve out the small wine makers. But once again through lobbying and a clear determination, the smaller producers gained a national voice on the Wine Export Council.
In recognition of his untiring work for the industry, Tony Smith has received the 'Jack Mann Memorial Medal' for services to the wine industry from 1972 to 2001. And at a December 2001 dinner in South Australia he was honoured with the highest award, becoming a 'Patron of Australia's Wine Industry'.
As if his industry commitments weren't enough, this Rural Legend has been actively involved with Parents and Citizens, Tourism Councils, Apex, Rotary and other organisations in the Mount Barker community. He and Alison have raised four children and have eight grand children.
While his vision for a strong and thriving wine industry in the region has been largely fulfilled, there's no doubt this quiet, unassuming man will continue to strive for the best, for his family and his community.
Owen Grieve felt that Tony Smith fitted the bill for a Rural Legend because of his vision of the Great Southern as a major wine grape growing region, when it was grazing and cropping country. From that vision he created his award-winning winery, Plantagenet. Owen says he found Tony a quiet, unassuming and genuine man.
Most who know Owen would say he had a similar passion for rural reporting as Tony has for wine production. It's a job he's done for the ABC for close to 30 years. "There's no better job than having the freedom of a rural reporter to travel the region recording people's stories," Owen says. "A fellow reporter said to me in 1972, if they didn't pay you, you'd do it as a hobby!"