Tamar Valley Innovations

(Special Interest Speech for Thursday 17th in the Legislative Council by Kerry Finch MLC)

Today’s State Budget, MADAM PRESIDENT, will be brought down against a background of a recession in Tasmania—a recession in technical terms but disputed by some, including the Government.

The argument is, however, rather an academic one MADAM PRESIDENT.

The fact is that while the national unemployment rate continues to drop, Tasmania’s continues to rise. And as we have all heard, the State Government’s income from GST will be $14 million less than forecast for the coming year and will be down by $500 million over the next four years.

A gloomy background for a budget indeed MADAM PRESIDENT. But I am not gloomy, and the reason is a recent tour of the electorate of Rosevears where I saw some outstanding initiatives.

On the ninth and tenth of this month MADAM PRESIDENT I saw some outstanding ventures.

• They included a vineyard and restaurant business being developed by a Tasmanian cycling champion who has lived in France for ten years.

• A Legana dairy property which has been in the same family for 170 years.

• A family-run potato farm which sells specialty varieties direct to retailers and the public.

• Innovative regional craftsmanship at an artisan gallery.

• A walnut grower who triples the price of the in-shell product.

• The main vineyard bought two years ago by a big Victorian producer who wants to make Tasmania the pinot noir capital of the Southern Hemisphere.

• A family-owned orchard direct marketing to supermarkets.

• And a family-run pig producer adopting the latest production techniques and also direct marketing.

All the ventures visited MADAM PRESIDENT fit Tasmania’s clean green image and, I would argue, have long-term economic viability because of innovation—-or you could put it, because they are being developed and run with thought and intelligence.

Wine production on the West Tamar is booming MADAM PRESIDENT. Production and planting continues to expand and we could have visited dozens of sites.

But we decided to visit a small family operation which has not much more than five hectares planted, and the biggest, Tamar Ridge, now owned by Brown Brothers.

The Velo Vineyard at Legana is run by Mary and her husband Michael Wilson, a former professional cyclist on the European Road Racing Circuit, including the Tour de France.

What sets Velo Vineyard apart from many others of a similar size is the development of a new café and kitchen area with the help of a Federal tourism grant of $100,000 and it’s production of handcrafted cool climate wines.

It’s to open seven days a week in a few months MADAM PRESIDENT and will employ nine staff plus the cellar door.

Not far from Velo Vineyard is the Lovely Banks dairy. It totals 1200 acres and has been in the Griffiths family for 170 years.

It employs 20, casual and full-time staff on three properties.

The farm uses recycled waste water from Legana and Grindelwald through a series of six ponds—an innovative way of re-using suburban waste water MADAM PRESIDENT. This is very innovative scheme because it has reduced the pollution risk in the Tamar Estuary as the water was previously discharged into the Tamar.

I mentioned the biggest vineyard in the West Tamar region MADAM PRESIDENT—Tamar Ridge. It is one of the vineyards owned by Gunns which was sold to the big Victorian family wine company, Brown Brothers, about two years ago.

Brown Brothers has five vineyards in Victoria but considers none of them suitable for pinot noir production because the climate is too warm. It’s CEO Ross Brown made the decision to buy the former Gunns’ vineyards in what he terms the pinot noir capital of the Southern Hemisphere, Tasmania.

Ross argues that although New Zealand makes some good pinot noirs. It is seen as a leading producer of the white variety sauvignon blanc; that leaves Tasmania MADAM PRESIDENT.

And Tasmanian pinot noir producers are heartened by Ross Brown’s vision.

Brown Brothers entry into the Tasmanian wine industry is a very big development MADAM PRESIDENT.

Now I earlier mentioned innovations in the production of potatoes and pigs.

Wayne and Sue Adams at Holwell are cutting out the middle man in marketing their potatoes; they are going directly to retailers and a farmers’ market with their varieties of boutique potatoes.

So are Michael and Sally Lees who operate the Windara Orchard—they are dealing directly with supermarkets and offer a large variety of apples – their Jonathan Golds are delicious.

With Chris and Lucy Landon-Lane of Tamar Valley Walnuts, it’s about value adding.

You can harvest and sell walnuts for about $11 a kilo. But the Landon-Lanes shell and dry their organically-grown walnuts and they receive $35 a kilo.

They are dried slowly, at less than 30 degrees for a week, to enhance the flavour and are sort by the health food market.

We are told it’s hard to make a buck out of pork these days MADAM PRESIDENT, because there are so many very big producers.

But Alan and Lynette Broomby at Winkleigh are not high volume corporate pig producers; it’s a family farm made sustainable by keeping up with the latest production techniques and direct marketing to butchers and wholesalers.

It seems that direct marketing is one of the keys to survival for small producers MADAM PRESIDENT.

MADAM PRESIDENT all these enterprises I have mentioned, apart from Brown Brothers are relatively small.

But they have all thought carefully about their businesses, and in my view show the way to Tasmania’s future, recession or not.

I am proud to have them in Rosevears and grateful to them for helping to maintain my optimism about our economy.