CORRECTED VERSION
OUTER SUBURBAN/INTERFACE SERVICES AND DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE
Inquiry into sustainable development of agribusiness in outer suburban Melbourne
Greensborough— 29October 2009
Members
MrN. Elasmar / MrD. HodgettMsD. Green
MsR. Buchanan / MrD. Nardella
MrM. Guy / MrG. Seitz
MsC. Hartland / MrK. Smith
Chair: MrG. Seitz
Deputy Chair: MrK. Smith
Staff
Executive Officer: MrS. ColeyResearch Officer: MrK. Delaney
Witness
Kings of Kangaroo Ground
Mr Ken King, (sworn).
The CHAIR— I saw you came in a bit late, so I had better explain quickly the procedure for giving evidence. We are taking sworn evidence, which means you are protected by parliamentary privilege under the Parliamentary Committees Act, the Constitution Act and the Defamation Act and, where applicable, other jurisdictions in the states and territories that have the same legislation. However, anything you repeat outside the hearing is not afforded the same privilege. Can you give us your mailing address?
MrKING— My mailing address is 15Graham Road, Kangaroo Ground 3097.
The CHAIR— Thank you. You have about 20minutes to talk to us and then that will give us about 10minutes to ask questions.
MrKING— Okay. I guess I will start by looking at the box of tricks that I have here. I hope I grabbed the right one. I have plans here of a restaurant that I was going to build on my property; I have a lovely colour map of the soil profiles of Nillumbik. I think I did grab the wrong one— I have a tractor hat and headphones. I am getting there. I have a history of the district that I am in, which is a terrific farming district. It is about Kangaroo Ground.
The CHAIR— You will need to read out the title so that it can be captured for the transcript.
MrKING— Yes. What I am showing here is a book written by a local historian, Mick Woiwod. It is called Kangaroo Ground— the Highland Taken, which is the history of the settlement of Kangaroo Ground and largely its farming background. There is something else that got in here, a pair of gloves. We are getting to my product. My product is sourced from the grapes grown in the black soils of Kangaroo Ground.
MsGREEN— It is very good. I have sampled it.
MrKING— And we make wine on a small scale.
The CHAIR— What is the name of your product?
MrKING— Kings of Kangaroo Ground is the name of our business that produces wine from grapes grown exclusively in the black soils of Kangaroo Ground.
MrHODGETT— We should have had this session after lunch.
MrKING— I could have brought a chardie. I am quite happy for you to share the little run sheet that I have here. You might look ahead and see some things on which to ask me some questions.
The CHAIR— Can you give a copy to our reporters and the executive officer will pass them around.
MrKING— Sure. I will give you just a brief bit of history of where this enterprise of mine commenced. In 1989 I purchased 7acres of black soil in Kangaroo Ground with a prime, main road frontage. At the time I was an amateur winemaker in the Eltham and District Winemakers Guild. I learnt a craft, an artisan exercise in making wine from whatever one could grow. I started making wine as a hobbyist from primarily fruit. I was then introduced to grape winemaking through the guild and worked a small patch of land for an owner in Kangaroo Ground. It was a small patch of land that had been planted out in the black soils of Kangaroo Ground, and I was amazed at the results. So in 1989 I purchased 7acres of old, rundown farmland.
I only planted a 4acre vineyard; being a 7acre block there were only 4acres that I could actually plant out to pinot noir and chardonnay. I planted that in 1990, so we are coming up to 20years since I have had these grapes in. Through the 1990s I supplied premium grapes to a local winery and the price point was around $2000a tonne. In the case of the pinot noir, in one year it hit $2400a tonne. I agree with the previous presenter that over a decade ago grape prices were really significant. If I was selling those grapes, I think the price now would be down to at least half of that value on the market.
In 2002 I built a small winery on the property and fully equipped it with premium equipment to process up to about 20tonnes of grape. At the same time I was extracting myself from a fulltime occupation in the city as an engineering consultant. An opportunity came along to have an inconjunction business. That was the Australia Post agency in Kangaroo Ground. In 2003–04 I saw the opportunity and the value of having an inconjunction business with my small viticulture operation and small winery. That continues today. As I sit here, my wife is running the post office in Kangaroo Ground. We actually have the post office located in our winery business. It is very important to us to have an inconjunction business that gets us through the tough times, which I will mention in a moment.
In terms of our winemaking, we are on the radar. In 2004 we commenced sourcing grapes from other black soil growers. Yes, they are small operations. I manage the viticulture now on another 12acres of grapes in the black soil zone of Kangaroo Ground. In 2006 we started winning significant medals, gold medals, including in the industry journal Winestate Magazine. In 2006 Kings of Kangaroo Ground DiPaolo Block cabernet sauvignon was voted by Winestate Magazine in their annual judging as the best newrelease cabernet sauvignon in Australia and New Zealand. So a small enterprise is capable of making premium product.
That is a brief history. Yes, we are farmers, but smallscale farmers, and the intent has always been to make a valueadded premium product. Yes, it is farming, but it is also an artisan process of producing a gourmet product.
I note the topic today is sustainable farming in Nillumbik. The key sustainability points, as I see them for our business, are to continue practising drygrowing principles. Our 4acre vineyard has not been irrigated for 10years in Kangaroo Ground. It produces low crop levels, but we are in a position in those deep black volcanic soils where the root system has been able to get itself right down and source groundwater. Yes, the crops have dropped, but we get away with a very minimal water regime. It is only young replacement vines that we water.
As I mentioned earlier, a quality, valueadded product is key to our sustainability, as is a robust inconjunction business in some form. I have mentioned the post office, which at this stage is a wonderful inconjunction business because it gives us a guaranteed cash flow in an otherwise difficulttodetermine market.
Another key sustainability point is access to quality grapes from local growers and also, moving into the future, quality advice from the Department of Primary Industries and the wine industry. Largely it is something with which I have not sought help, except occasionally from people such as the previous presenter, Neil Roberts, and others in the industry.
In terms of issues encountered along the way, in my box of tricks here I did mention I was wanting to proceed with an inconjunction restaurant, a 45seat restaurant, back in 2004, along with an internet cafe. My town planning application was refused by Nillumbik Shire Council. That was because of zoning issues associated with the green wedge. In terms of the township, or extownship of Kangaroo Ground— it is really a hamlet— if you wander through the history book here, you will see that even the shire of Eltham sat in Kangaroo Ground 100years ago. A newspaper was produced there, called the Evelyn Observer. I understand that there were two pubs and even a jail. It was really the centre of the shire, and that was based around its agricultural value and the Caledonia diggings up the road at StAndrews, largely fed by the food producers of our part of the world.
I was disappointed when I could not proceed with what I thought was an asofright addition to my business, a small winery. Part of my vision was that it would become a destination where people could sit in a nice environment, have food and enjoy themselves and hopefully buy the wine. I have not heard previous presenters, but I know our mayor understands where I am coming from. We need to look carefully at our townships in the green wedge, to have a look at what is allowable and what is not allowable. I was very disappointed to be in the middle of a historic precinct and not be able to proceed with a small restaurant.
Other issues I have encountered are extreme heat events, with damage to the crops in 2008 and 2009, particularly this year. We did not pick any chardonnay. I elected not to pick any chardonnay or pinot noir. We had an upright canopy, with fruit exposed to the sun, and those three backtoback days of 43degree Celsius damaged the grapes to the point where I decided not to pick them. We have certainly had some issues with extreme heat events over the last number of years.
In 2007 we had a total loss of our cabernet sauvignon in the weeks coming up to harvest. It turned out that the huge holes in our bird netting were caused by a mob of kangaroos that were foraging for food at night. They tore open our bird nets and in the early hours of the morning the flocks of feral birds, the Indian mynas and starlings, moved in and feasted. Whilst we were trying to get the nets sown up during the day, which was an enormous job, they would be opened up again the next night by kangaroos.
In terms of the kangaroo population, I have been here for 20years and in the 8acre vineyard we are preparing for the 2010 vintage there would be 60plus kangaroos right now. The kangaroo population has increased exponentially over the last 10years.
I mentioned Indian mynas and starlings. Certainly the pressure we are getting from feral birds is an issue for our future. I spoke to a journalist from the Weekly Times about them last year and an article came out of that. The journalist did some research and found that across all levels of government nobody is doing anything about the feral birds, the Indian mynas and starlings. They have fallen through the cracks and the birds are getting away with taking our livelihoods from us.
Another local issue, and this is an issue encountered by many farmers, is that once upon a time in Nillumbik there was a significant farmrate discount for real farmers. It was around 20per cent. Now it is 5per cent. I would like to see that addressed to attract ongoing farming.
In terms of future directions— this is where I see the future in farming in Nillumbik— I would like to encourage best practice smallblock farming, in conjunction with lifestyle properties. Yes, we are always going to have those. Let’s move forward with people thinking about farming with inconjunction businesses. I am referring primarily to the valueadding of agricultural product.
I think there is a need to have a small growers association across all smallblock farming enterprises— whether that enterprise be somebody doing grapes, olives or raspberries; there are even some blueberries in the southern part of the shire. I am not aware of any association that is actually trying to pull together all the small growers and guide them in a direction that will produce a valueadded product that then brings outside wallets into the green wedge, so there is outside money in the form of tourism and into places like the farmers market, where these local products can be marketed.
I think we need to work towards— and I know this shire is— vibrant tourismbased townships in the green wedge. It comes back to the planning issue. We certainly need to have a look at what constraints currently exist for the townships and hamlets in the green wedge, because I think it is important that they become thriving focal points for tourism in our shire.
It is very important as we move forward into the future— I think I heard you mention food miles— that this green wedge area is engaged in some form of food production, and you have heard my views on it to this point.
There is something else which I have in my box of tricks here. I see that if we harness the Nillumbik talent in conjunction with farming, agribusiness and artisan products such as my own and the producers of olive oils, if we can harness the talent of our artists— our potters, our painters— which we are attempting to do through a tourism association, we can produce things. This is a new map that we have produced, the Nillumbik Discovery Map. It is a themed map that shows at a glance what a visitor can expect to see in the green wedge. Our artists are grouping themselves together and opening their studios up again. It is another tourism initiative that brings people into the area to buy these gourmet farm products that I am talking about.
There is another event that the local wine community, local winemakers, just had on 17 and 18October, a bit like the Shedfest out in the main part of the Yarra Valley. Our part of the Yarra Valley— we are part of the Yarra Valley— had Open Cellars of Nillumbik on 17 and 18October and something like 18cellar doors in the shire were open. Yes, they are all small operators. Yes, most of them operate in conjunction with a fulltime or a parttime job or another business, but they are certainly still run by people who are passionate about producing quality wine.
That is essentially my presentation. You can have these brochures and pass them around. Thank you.
The CHAIR— Thank you for your presentation. You said that you had 20tonnes and so set up your own winery. Is that all from your land or do you use other small growers in the area? How does it work in the district? Not everybody is going to have his own winemaking facility.
MrKING— No. That is right. One of the things which I am looking at at the moment is supporting some other growers in our district. The way in which I can grow my business is by sourcing other grapes that previously were not available to me. Now they are becoming available because the other growers— as the previous presenter mentioned— the small operators, have been having a bit of difficulty moving their stock. There have been a number of vineyards in Nillumbik in the last couple of years that did not pick their crop because it was either seen to be too small or there were some other reasons why the fruit could not be picked. Certainly this year the smoke taint issue meant that some of the larger operations in the Yarra Valley that originally sourced grapes from this area were refusing to take grapes on the basis that perhaps there was some smoke taint. Testing done by one of our growers on 10acres proved that there was no smoke taint, so I was able to come in and source some grapes that I otherwise would not have been able to get. I have been trying to nurture— and have been successful in nurturing— new relationships with local growers that will enable me to grow my business.