Strathbogie Ranges

The Strathbogie Ranges wine region, in central north Victoria, runs from Seymour in the south to Benalla in the north. Benalla is 195 kms, or about a two and a half hour drive from Melbourne.

After its early grazing, gold mining and logging period, the Strathbogie Ranges region settled down as a significant wool growing district. In more recent years its land use has diversified to include horses (some claim the Strathbogie Ranges as the horse breeding capital of Victoria), tourism and of course wine. The site of Benalla was originally settled in 1838 by a Reverend Joseph Docker who called it Benalta Run. ‘Benalta’ being the local Aboriginal word for a Musk Duck. Seymour, at the other end of the Strathbogie Ranges region, was originally the place where John Clarke set up a river crossing and an inn called the Robert Burns Inn. The town’s name came from yet another British Lord - Lord Seymour - so beloved of Thomas Mitchell.

Perhaps the most well known of the Strathbogie Ranges regions towns is Euroa, and this because of its association with that most famous of bushrangers, Ned Kelly. Ned and his brother Dan were hiding out in the nearby Wombat Ranges when they planned to rob the bank at Euroa. Kelly’s gang began to do this by taking over a nearby sheep station as a base, next they entered Euroa itself and held up the National Bank. The gang secured over £2,000 and everyone they could find as a hostage, including the bank manager, his mother, wife and seven children. Because of this daring robbery the hunt for Ned Kelly and his gang was greatly stepped up, including a doubling of the reward. This eventually ended in the shoot out and capture of Kelly and most of his gang at Glenrowan in 1880.

Little or no wine seems to have been grown in the early years of the Strathbogie Ranges region, leaving Alan Plunkett to take the honours as its wine pioneer in 1968, for planting such cool climate varieties as Riesling and Gewürztraminer. Since that time, growth in wine making was gradual, becoming more rapid in the 1990s.

The region is naturally dominated by the rugged Strathbogie Ranges that run the length of the district. As a result, the vineyards are generally located at the 150m to 650m level. Such heights mean a climate of warm days and cool nights, and minimum or no humidity.

A cool climate such as the Strathbogie Ranges region provides creates successful conditions for sparkling wines such as Riesling and Gewurtztraminer, as well as rich Chardonnay and light Pinot Noir. And to produce such wines can be a difficult business as the Baarrooka Wine Company understands. This vineyard focuses on producing low-yielding high quality grapes for optimum ripeness and flavour. In order to ensure the best possible product every step of the process, from selecting the vineyard site, vineyard setup and aspect, canopy and vine management, through to hand-picking and production of the wines, is carefully managed and controlled.

The Strathbogie Vineyard is at Sunnymeade and they work just as hard. Originally a small farming property of 18.5 hectares located just 7 km north of Strathbogie town, The vineyard is set at an altitude of 600m and was first purchased by the Irving family as a week-ender. The Irvings take great care by hand pruning their vines and hand picking their grapes. Such efforts have already paid off in a number of awards.

If you wish to stay in the area you couldn’t do better that taking a look at Maygars Hill vineyard. Maygars Hill is named after a local farmer and Victoria Cross winner of the Boer War, Lt Col Maygar, who unfortunately did not live to return to Strathbogie after serving in Palestine during WWI. Maygars Hill was bought by Jenny Houghton in 1994, and is now planted with Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz. For the visitor there is a beautiful, fully self-contained three bedroom cottage.

The Strathbogie Ranges region has much local food to offer, much of which can be found at the Strathbogie Region Wine Show. Nearby is the Puckapunyal Army camp, which began as a camp for a troop of Light horse at Seymour in 1909. At the camp can be seen the Army Tank Museum with nearly 80 tanks, as well as armored cars and anti-tank weapons on display. While at Seymour another place worth visiting is the Old Post Office, inside of which is now housed a Fine Art Gallery and Restaurant.

One of the many towns of the Strathbogie region is Avenel. Here can be found the Avenel railway station, which is on the Albury-Wodonga railway line. This station is of note because it has been restored and is maintained by a local community group who meet each Friday to work on the station and its gardens. Another Strathbogie town already mention is Euroa, based on a word from the Ngurelban Aboriginal language, 'Yera-o', which is said to mean 'joyful'. Just 10 km outside town in the Gardens Range is a significant Aboriginal art site.

The long ripening season of the Strathbogie Ranges, with its hot days and cool nights produces crisp, aromatic white wines and full-bodied reds with spicy flavours. A wide range of varieties, including Chardonnay, Riesling, Pinots, Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet and Merlot are grown in the region.