Alister Purbrick: Business value-adding through investment in natural assets
Behind every fine drop of red, as all winemakers know, are many drops of that vital clear stuff: water. But at Tahbilk, Victoria’s and one of Australia’s oldest wineries, water is also the lifeblood of their thriving 700-acre wetland that’s a safe haven for a menagerie of native wildlife.
Established in 1860, the winery has recently embraced eco-tourism. Boat cruises, boardwalks and bird hides on the Tahbilk Lagoon, adjoining the Goulburn River, allow close encounters with local flora and fauna. Pelicans cruise the glassy surface, wallabies drink from the water’s edge and goannas waddle through the reeds. The gum trees are home to sugar gliders, and the lagoon supports a healthy population of an endangered native water lily.
Tahbilk Lagoon’s wetland and wildlife reserve has had help to reach its current healthy state. “We blocked off both ends of the anabranch in 1984 and, after a lot of hard work in the 1990s to restore the wetlands and revegetate the reserve, it is now in near-pristine condition,” says CEO Alister Purbrick, a fourth-generation winemaker raised on the family property.
As well as abundant native birdlife, reptiles and amphibians, says Alister, the lagoon has fish numbers three to five times higher than the Goulburn River, a breeding platypus colony and Australia’s most southern catfish population.
Fifteen years ago, when plans for a reserve were hatched, Alister admits they weren’t environmentally driven at that time and have been on a steep learning curve since.
“Although we weren’t saints back then, we had this wonderful piece of land and water, and thought – what else can we do here?” Since the reserve opened four years ago, annual visitor numbers have more than doubled, to around 150,000. “Eco-tourism plays an enormously important role for us, and it really seems to have struck a chord with Australian and international wine drinkers” The Estate also has a heritage museum, original underground cellars and waterside café-gallery.
