Meet the EcoGrowers

Eliza Coulls, Tass Gyenes, Brendan Cameron

Region: Adelaide Hills
1.  Tell us about your experience in grape growing?
In 2002 Brendan and Janet purchased Lansdowne vineyard in Forreston. It had originally been planted from 1996 to 2000. The decisions about how to manage the vineyard were made after consulting other vignerons and from advice given by suppliers.
As time went on, we learned more about alternatives to the conventional way of running a vineyard and got curious as to what this would mean for us.

The establishment of our own brand, Lansdowne Wine broadened our thinking for a better, more sustainable way of farming and a rising level of demand for wine made from organically grown grapes.

2. What prompted you to want to be involved in the EcoVineyards project?
Our interest in the EcoVineyards project was as an expansion of what have been doing for the last five years to try to make the vineyard practices sustainable in the long term, increase the biodiversity in and around the vineyard and non-damaging to the soil.

As a family we are committed to growing organically and the long-term sustainability of regenerative agriculture. We had been to a few field sessions hosted by Mary, and we were inspired to do more, and benefit from the support of a nationally recognised program.

3. What do you hope to achieve from your involvement in the EcoVineyards project?
More knowledge on how to improve the ecosystem - as in better soil health, healthier more disease resistant plants and a model of agriculture that can be sustained long term without depletion or damage to the soil/ecosystem.

Our vineyard is in a location that has not yet adopted much in the way of regenerative or organic agriculture. We want to demonstrate to ourselves, our customers and those around us that there is a better way than what has become the traditional chemical interventionist way. Better from the perspective of long-term sustainability, for net profit (as opposed to turnover), for our health, for the benefit of the other creatures that inhabit this small piece of land.

4. Have you tried to increase biodiversity on your property before undertaking this project? If so, how?
Our organic viticulture journey started several years ago and has opened our minds to the resilience that natural systems already have. Although we could see improvements in the general health of the vineyard, we knew we could do more to boost the vineyard’s biodiversity and resilience.
Over the years we have been progressively raising dripper lines to enable undervine weed cultivation by mechanical means. In addition, we planted 1000 sedges along the creek and around the dam and have allowed the annual grasses and legumes to re-establish under the vine rows. Last year we planted an additional 1000 native endemic species in our Forreston Vineyard, with much more to come in the new year tackling under and inter vine.

5. Why do you think it is so important for growers to try and build natural resilience on their property?
To have a type of agriculture that can be repeated indefinitely into the future years we need to adopt practices that do not deplete the environment.
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In addition to our own beliefs and values there is also a customer driven demand for agriculture (including viticulture) to adopt practices that are less risk to human health and less risk of longer-term collapse of ecosystems by unsustainable practices that damage the environment.
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6. Looking to the future, what do you see as a new 'normal' for grape growers on their properties?
 
The new normal we hope will be growing grapes without the use of artificial fertilisers, and fungicides, and use of plant species in vinerows that are winter active annuals and require little if any intervention.
It may also involve decisions of tolerance to a level of imperfection which would include acceptance of some insect or fungus damage rather than looking for a completely sterile disease-free system where chemical intervention is the default decision.

If 2020/21 has taught us anything, it is how much we still need to learn to look after our precious and ancient country. We have a responsibility to be able to say we did everything we could to help change the future.

Project Partners

This project is supported by the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources, through funding from Australian Government's National Landcare Program.
​This project is funded by the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges Natural Resources Management Board through the NRM levy.