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Harvey is located about 140 km south of Perth on the South West Highway. It is a pleasant 90 minute drive through the historic townsites of Jarrahdale, Serpentine, Pinjarra and Waroona.
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Our vineyard, which is located at Ninth Street Harvey, consists of 12 hectares of land over three lots which are all under vine, and currently planted to three varieties, being Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.
Vine spacings are 2 metres with row spacings at 3.3 metres. The trellis is VSP throughout. All rows run approximately east-west to take advantage of prevailing winds. The soil varies from medium alluvial to sandy loam tending to heavier loam in places which remains friable. Subsurface drainage was installed running north-south to a main drain bordering the property. Run-off water and irrigation water are both low salinity. Irrigation and fertigation is provided via drip irrigation located on a drip wire 500mm above ground level. Water is provided to the irrigation system under pressure via pipe from the new Harvey Dam. The vines are planted according to soil type and variety so that each of these 'management units' can be irrigated accordingly. Moisture sensors at various locations and depths in the vineyard provide information on how much water is present in the soil profile. An irrigation shed contains the irrigation computer system, filtration and fertigation systems. It also houses a pump which cuts in if the water pressure is too low in any part of the system. This ensures that the correct volume of water is dispersed throughout a management unit irrespective of dam levels. The climate is Mediterranean with warm dry growing seasons (October-April) and cool wet winters. Harvey's Mean January Temperature is 22.6 degrees C which is considered warm. Harvey has a mean annual rainfall of 996mm of winter incidence. This pattern of rainfall is desirable for wine grape production in that fungal disease pressure during the growing season is relatively low and vine growth can be well managed provided water for irrigation is available. The Geographe Region was previously referred to as the West Coastal Plain. It stretches from Busselton in the South to Harvey and points north. It includes the foothills of the Darling Range and stretches to Collie in the east and Donnybrook to the south east. It is named after Geographe Bay, most of which it fronts, the bay itself deriving its name from one of the two vessels under the command of Nicholas Baudin who explored much of the coast of south-western and southern Australia in the early years of the nineteenth century. The other ship was the Naturaliste which gave its name to a cape at the western end of Geographe Bay. There was little tradition of grape growing in the region until the inter war period of the 1920s and 1930s, when small vineyards and wineries were established around the town of Harvey by Italian migrants. With the onset of the Second World War, many of these vignerons were interned and their vineyards fell into neglect, being grazed by dairy cows and never re-established after the war. Ironically, the dairy cows are now being replaced by grape vines as more and more dairying land is converted to vineyards in an up and coming wine region. |
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