STATE LIBRARY OF SOUTH AUSTRALIA

J. D. SOMERVILLE ORAL HISTORY COLLECTION

OH 692/137

Full transcript of an interview with

BETTY QUICK

on 5 October 2001

by Rob Linn

Recording available on CD

Access for research: Unrestricted

Right to photocopy: Copies may be made for research and study

Right to quote or publish: Publication only with written permission from the State Library

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OH 692/137 BETTY QUICK

NOTES TO THE TRANSCRIPT

This transcript was donated to the State Library. It was not created by the J.D. Somerville Oral History Collection and does not necessarily conform to the Somerville Collection's policies for transcription.

Readers of this oral history transcript should bear in mind that it is a record of the spoken word and reflects the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The State Library is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the interview, nor for the views expressed therein. As with any historical source, these are for the reader to judge.

This transcript had not been proofread prior to donation to the State Library and has not yet been proofread since. Researchers are cautioned not to accept the spelling of proper names and unusual words and can expect to find typographical errors as well.

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TAPE 1 - SIDE A

NATIONAL WINE CENTRE, WOLF BLASS FOUNDATION ORAL

HISTORY.

Interview with Betty Quick/Betty Pearse, at Denmark Western Australia on 5th October, 2001.

Interviewer: Rob Linn.

Well, Betty, this is going to be very personal : can you please give me your own background—where and when you were born?

BQ: Well, I was born on 3rd November, 1938, at East Fremantle in West

Australia. And with regards to my education, I was lucky to have three

years of high school. I left school at just on fifteen and I worked for my

family for a short period before I left home to go nursing at just on sixteen.

And then I trained at the Fremantle Hospital. I married in 1959 at twenty-

one to a Mount Barker farmer.

Betty, just before you go on, tell me a bit about your Mum and Dad.

BQ: I’m going to get to that …

Good.

BQ: I’d always wanted to marry either a doctor or a farmer, so a farmer it

was. And I went down to this town of Mount Barker, which was quite a

small town. The house on the farm I went to had no SEC or septic

systems. And that went on for years but that’s another story.

My family were seafaring. My father came from England. He was

merchant navy. And my mother’s family came from England, and they had

a small block out at Hamilton Hill, which is just out from Fremantle, and

that fed them during the depression, I’m told. And then my grandfather

became a lumper on the Fremantle wharf.

During the Second World War the daughters had to move in with their

children to my grandparents’ home. So possibly with growing up with my

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grandfather and my father, both being influenced by unions, that I would

think that’s probably shaped my ideas for collective bargaining with others

(Laughs) and with government at a later stage in my life.

Betty, what were your parents’ Christian names?

BQ: My mother’s name was Betty, but it was Elizabeth, and my father’s

name was George. And they were Mitchell. And my grandfather’s name

was Richard Underhill.

What was the place where you grew up like in those days?

BQ: Well, during the War there seemed to be lots of people coming in and

out. With my father being in the Merchant Navy he was involved,

apparently, up around the Barrier Reef because he had been with the

lighthouse boats. So his knowledge of Australia’s coastline, of getting in

and out, was what was needed. So I have memories of American sailors

being in and out, and particularly, I’m told, from the submarine base in

Fremantle.

After the War my parents moved out to Applecross, which now is quite a

wealthy suburban area, but in those days it was considered out in the

sticks. ‘What are you going to live out there for? It’s miles from nowhere.’

The primary school that I went to there was one old schoolroom and two

brick prefabs, and there were no other primary schools there, and the only

high school there was was down in Fremantle, which was the old Princess

May school. Because we lived on the Fremantle side of the Canning bridge

we were allowed to go to the Fremantle school, which was in my interest

because all of my family lived in Fremantle, and I suppose it was just one

of those English families where on Sundays everybody went back to

Nanna’s for high tea and the rest of it.

So it was a close family?

BQ: I would say, yes, a fairly close family.

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Unafraid to talk about politics, by the sounds.

BQ: Oh, good lord! They were always on strike, and goodness knows

what. (Laughs)

Interestingly enough, my mother said to me not so long ago, ‘How did you

know that?’ Because my father who’d been in the Merchant Navy for

thirty years in Fremantle, he had to leave, and that was when the

communist influence came onto the Fremantle wharf. He didn’t agree with

what was going and on that time he was on the State ships going up to

Broome and Darwin and back. It was made quite clear to him that if he

didn’t toe the lines that he would leave Fremantle, but perhaps not see

Fremantle ever again—to come back.

And I often think of that film that was on, On the Waterfront. And

apparently that went on. They had to go down to the corner, and if you

weren’t in ‘on the know’ or ‘the nod’, you didn’t get a job. This made it

very difficult. So my father was actually forced out of the Merchant Navy.

He had to look for jobs elsewhere.

He ended up becoming a very successful real estate agent, with carpet

cleaning, and had a second-hand shop, and a vegie run on the back of a

truck around this developing place at Applecross and out at Manning Park.

His story is a rather an unfortunate story. He was the dux of Fremantle

Boys but unfortunately the family couldn’t afford the £30 for him to go on

to do his captain’s ticket. So he’s another one of that age group that—

yeah, there are other good stories. But they all came out—a lot of the

people from that area—as wealthy self-made people.

You went to—what?—about Leaving?

BQ: Oh, no. I went to junior. And that’s why I said that I was lucky to

have three years high school because at that stage -

So what’s that? About age fifteen/sixteen?

BQ: I was turned fifteen, because my birthday being November I was

always sort of twelve months younger than the other girls in the class. But

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when I left primary school—there was one girl that didn’t go to high school.

If you were thirteen or fourteen and you could prove that you had a job to

go to—the education at that stage was accepted as second year high

school, which was called the eighth pass out. And a lot did leave school

then. I did the professional course.

What led you into nursing?

BBQ: Oh, the family used to talk about it. My great aunt, she was a

nurse. And my mother had done some nursing. But I can always

remember that down the yard I always played farms. (Laughs) In the

sand pit I always had these sticks, you know. On my sand pit I had the

most organised farm that one could see. And that came about I think

because my aunty had married a chap and his parents had a farm and as a

child I’d gone up there.

Whereabouts?

BQ: Oh, I don’t know. Somewhere up in the wheat belt.

Around Merredin way?

BQ: Yes, around Merredin way. Yeah, it was just one of those things that,

you know, I was either going to marry a doctor or I was going to marry a

farmer so that I could be a farmer.

So where did you do your training?

BQ: I did my training at Fremantle Hospital.

And that’s interesting as well because when I started there, oh, I was

accepted hands down because I had a junior certificate. By the time I had

left they were looking at intakes with a Leaving. So it had just jumped so

quickly—the standard of education that people expected.

So were you pretty well nursing until your marriage?

BQ: Yes. See, when I left school I went to a private hospital, and I was

told that I wasn’t allowed to tell anybody how old I was because of my age

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But I learnt to give an injection into a sausage first, and then walked out

and—you’d have thought that I’d been giving injections for donkey years.

(Laughs)

I saw babies born, and saw death, when I was barely sixteen.

So where did you meet Tony?

BQ: Well, that was through a friend that I was nursing with. ‘Oh, you

must meet this chap’. So I met this chap and, oh, it went on from there.

So we got married, came down to Mount Barker. And as I say, came from

a brick and tiled home to this little cottage on this farm with the

thunderbolt boxes down the backyard. (Laughs) Oh, things were hard.

Money was very tight because Tony’s father had passed away three months

before we got married and the family got caught with probate because they

didn’t have death insurance or death duties with that. And then sure

enough, although we tried to—we had to buy our share of the farm. His

mother didn’t enjoy health so she died with another lot of probate to be

paid. Unfortunately when she passed away it was fortunate for us because

we had planted the thirty-five acres and prices were increasing rapidly with

costs, and so what was left out of the estate, after paying probate, came in

very handy to develop the new planting of vineyard we did ourselves.

Betty, when you came there in ‘59, what was going on on the farm?

Was it a mixed -

BQ: It was a mixed farm. They had an old orchard that we pulled out, and

we planted a new orchard just before we got married.

Pome fruit or -

BQ: Yes. Mount Barker was one of the biggest areas in the State for

export apples, which was Granny Smiths. Mount Barker Estate, I think he

was beaten by an orchard in Tasmania to be the biggest in Australia by an

acre. Why they didn’t plant an acre and a half so they could be the

biggest, I don’t know.

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Mount Barker was developed on orchard. And we ended up with two

packings for export, and that was when the English market went into the

EEC and we saw a very, very quick decline.

This is ‘66?

BQ: Yes, roundabout that period.

From packing houses in Mount Barker working twenty-four hours a day

during the harvesting—and fruit of course was taken down to Albany and

left from Albany. The fruit in those days was all exported in wooden boxes.

The whole scenario of the district changed and there were a lot of sad

stories from it.

We wouldn’t accept the ‘tree-pull’ scheme. We said no. The orchard was

too young to do that. But the last year I picked and packed apples on the

farm, everybody else made money out of it and we picked up the tabs, and

I said that right, that was it. Because we were also controlled then—

quality control—for the local market.

My parents used to come down from Perth and my mother was horrified at

these apples that we would be throwing out to the sheep on the property to

eat, but if you stuck to the rules, well, that was it.

So this is where—all that behind me. Tony came home one day and said

that a funny thing had happened. I said, ‘What?’ He said, ‘Oh, couple of

cars pulled up on the road and the chaps all piled out and ran over the

paddocks’. So he thought that he’d better walk up and see what was

going on, which he did. And there was Eddie Douglas—was a chap that

had worked in the apple industry—and he introduced Tony to some

representatives of the Department of Ag, and they said that they were

looking at soil sampling for this experimental vineyard.

By that time Tony was going off the farm six months of the year and I was

left, you know, drenching sheep, treating flyblown sheep and with babies

around my ankles. You know, like everybody else did. Money was tight.

How many children did you have by then?

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BQ: We had two. We had a little boy and a little girl.

So Tony was working?

BQ: He did farming when he was there, and then for six months of the

year he had to go off and earn it. So we looked at it. ‘Well’, I said, ‘grab it

if it’s offered to us’. Because it meant that it was something on our

property, that I could run the rest of the farm and the children and, you

know, run the vineyard as well because we were offered the contract work

on it. And then if it was a success, well, we had five acres of vines—two

and a half of Riesling, two and a half of Cabernet—already up and going. If

it was a failure, well, we had five acres of very well picked clean ground,

and we had posts and strainers that we could use elsewhere on the farm.

And rabbit-proof fencing, which that in itself with the development is

entirely different to how they do things now. So that’s how we became

involved.

Bill Jamieson, you know, he was game. He took us on—we didn’t know.

‘What sort of grapes are you planting?’ ‘Cabernet Sauvignon, Rhine

Riesling’. I said, ‘What are they?’ We’d never heard of this, you know.

Did you drink wine?

BQ: Oh, don’t be silly! We had Barossa Pearl and Woodley’s Est when we

went to cabarets, and the family were very good. They had sherry that

they offered to people at funerals, and the rest they drank. All the time

they drank beer. They used to come down—Dorham Mann in those days,

and Bill said, ‘Oh, we’ll have to show you what you’re going to drink. You

know, that you’re growing’. So they did that, and I’d say that, oh, it was

so sour. And Dorham would say, ‘Betty, you’ll have to have a little jug of

syrup next to you to add to it to just make it sweet’. (Laughs)

Bill supplied me with a couple of books and so my night-time reading in

bed was viticulture.

Just describe Bill to me.

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BQ: He was a gorgeous bloke. He really was. He certainly had the

patience of Job to put up with me. Because most of it was all done by

phone. I think his health after the War wasn’t the best. And poor old Bill,

every time they turned up we had a change in the weather and it would

rain, you know. A couple of times I think he ended up in the Mount Barker

Hospital because of our climate—the moisture. So eventually I think they

gave in and said, ‘Oh, you seem to know what you’re doing’, and off they’d

go back.

Yeah, he never lost his temper. I suppose that’s what he was paid not to

do but he was just such a nice chap.

So this is ‘68?

BQ: Roundabout that. ‘65 they took the lease on. The lease was from ‘65

to ‘75. But you must also remember in that that Bill had—it was a political

thing as well. Oh, poor Bill! You know, when the first lot of grapes were

picked, and up to Perth they went on road in plastic containers. The Perth

Royal Show, that [wine] came out, and won a trophy as the best WA white

wine. So I think he gave a big sigh of relief.

So when was the first vintage, Betty?

BQ: The first vintage was 1972. It’s a long period to that but you must

remember that it was early days. Because of the Government’s budgeting,

when the lease was signed things were running a bit late. So this five

acres that they selected was on top of the hill. It had been bulldozed but

there was sucker regrowth on it so it had a minimum of cleaning up. So

this five acres, they had a bulldozer in and they ripped it, and it was hand-

picked and burnt, and then Bill said that he wanted it so that there was

nothing bigger than probably three inches. So you can imagine how much

wood came off this because it was a heavy timbered jarrah stand. So

towards the end I was picking it into a bucket.

So they had to be planted. So of course, once again, we learnt in hindsight

that they’d done everything that shouldn’t be done. The ground was

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overworked. So the first lot of vines that were planted they were just

sticks, and they came from Houghtons. Of course they sat in ‘soup’ and

rotted. So there was only probably about 3% take. Bill had to make the

decision to replant, which is what we did. From there, you name it! We

had frost, we had drought, we had grasshoppers. So the story went on.

It was really a very good experimental vineyard because everything that

could go wrong, went wrong. And it would’ve been terrible if they’d

planted them and they’d grown like mushrooms, but others then had gone

and done similar things and had had the catastrophe. The government was

paying.

So what was the Mount Barker area climate like at the time?

BQ: We were having about an average of 25 inches of rainfall. Forest Hill,

we still say and you can ask my son about it, is one of the coldest places

they could’ve chosen to pick. You usually see, or hear, on the charts of a

day that Mount Barker has had the coldest temperature. So you can have

heat. I also know that during that time we had a black frost, which I’d

never seen. And then we do have the influence of being that much closer

to the coast. Towards the end of the ripening period we go into the shorter

days and the cooler nights, and heavy dews.

By the end of the 60’s then, Betty, the vineyard through all the

trials it was getting was beginning to come to fruition. You were there watching it grow. What were the sensations you felt as you

watched?

BQ: Oh, it was all exciting. Oh, it was like seeing a child develop. It had

to be exciting because you were doing something that nobody else had

done, and you’d cut the things back to almost nothing and up they’d go.

And then you walk along and have a look at all the fruit. And of course I

used to do the baumes by then and you’d go and have a munch on the

grapes and spit them out and go to another one and it wasn’t as sweet.

The Cabernet patch, particularly, was intriguing because by this stage I’d

taken over all the pruning and the training and supervision—the picking

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and everything. It was all footslog. So I’d walk up these rows and think,

‘Gee, you’re a massive big vine. You’ve got nothing on you’. And you’d

go to something else that was an average sort of vine and it was loaded.

I started making Bill aware of this, that there was something wrong in the

Cabernet. There were vines there that just—well, if you had a whole

vineyard from them, you’d be weeping. So I decided that I’d go along with

a paint brush and some old paint that we had down in the shed. You didn’t

have spray cans those days. I started painting everything. Blue, you’re

good. Red, you’re horrible. And it worked out that when the department

then—they had a chap in and looked at it further, there was 3% of those

Cabernet vines never had a grape on them.

And also undertaking with the experimental lease was that we were to

supply anybody else with cuttings. So that really started making us very

much aware of fruit because once you go—not so much them not having

the fruit but when you go to take cuttings there’s nothing there. And if you

go and stand at a vigorous vine and you take all these cuttings, sooner or

later somebody could have a huge percentage in their vineyard. So that

was a learning period.

Goundrey’s had some of the best cuttings. Because by then we’d worked it

out that you had to be careful of the Cabernet. But the whole thing was all

excitement, adventure and full of enthusiasm for everybody and

everything. And it looked as though there was some sunshine on the

horizon because you could do it with a small acreage. They weren’t talking

about those days of going in and planting 200 acres and, you know, all the

money’s there. It was to give people something that was going to make

them being able to stay on their properties if they were willing.

Surprisingly enough, most of the orchard growers didn’t take it on. We

seemed to be the only ones. The other ones that took and came in were

those that had the boom and gloom of the wool industry, which in through

the 60’s and that was very much—you know, you either had it or you

didn’t.

So what were the other locals saying about your experiment?

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BQ: They thought I was mad, but I’ve always been told that and I just sit

back and look at them and say, ‘Well, sooner or later you’ll wake up that

we were on the right track’. A lot of the business people were making

more money out of it at that stage than what we did. Because later down

on the track, you know, it started bringing tourists around, and of course

they had to eat and they spent money, and they bought fuel. But another

side of the story of the tourist industry was when I was President of the

Tourist Bureau. Now, since I’ve left—I left the industry in ‘89—Mount

Barker has well and truly altered. Of course we had ten years of bad prices

with wool. So Mount Barker has seen another upheaval of blue gums and

vineyard.

It was nice one day in the Denmark bakery. I was stopped by a young lass

that I had known in Mount Barker who’s in a stock agents firm, and she

said, ‘Betty, how are you?’ I said, ‘I’m fine. What are you up to?’ ‘Oh,

well, struggling on. But I’ll tell you what, Betty, that if it wasn’t for you

getting that wine growing area up and growing I would be broke. Because

now it’s turned around from stock to we are supplying sprays and

everything that’s needed’. So you always get your knockers but down the

track sooner or later they change their ideas.

What about some of the other people who came into it not long

after you did? Can you tell me about them?

BQ: Well, Tony Smith came in. He was the Englishman. We used to clash

a bit I think to start off with. (Laughter in voice) I remember I’d had word

that the Patterson’s shed—apple shed—was up for sale when the apple

industry closed and I went to the wealthy side of the Pearse family and

asked them were they interested, and they said no. Anyway, Smithy, he

bought Pattersons. By this time we were carting grapes up to Paul Conti at

Wanneroo to be made into wine, and it was at the school—he’d kill me for

saying this. It was at the school sports day and he came down and sat on

a log next to me and said hullo and that, and he turned around and said to

me, ‘And you have to give me your grapes’. ‘What?’ I went home with

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my feathers all ruffled. How dare he say that! But down the track a time,

by ‘84, Forest Hill was there having their wines made at Plantagenet, and

we’ve been very good friends since then.

We had others that came in, and I suppose you still get them now. But

those days they came in with rose coloured glasses and didn’t realise the

effort that had to be taken in growing grapes.

TAPE 1 - SIDE B

BQ: Some of the other ones that came in were Ron and Jan Waterman.

They ended up selling out to Lynch’s, which is now Chatsfield. And Ron has

got a job down at the TAFE teaching farming and viticulture. So he put

what he learnt on his property into something else.

And of course the other big one that’s surviving is Merv and Judy Lange

from out at Alkoomi.

There was Ted Holland from the Franklin Grazing Company. That’s the big

vineyard out there that’s associated with Waters.

Was that John Roche’s?

BQ: Yes.

And Bill and Pat Wignall, from Wignall’s Wines in Albany. They’re

survivors.

We saw the Cooper family come to Chateau Barker. They put their son

through Roseworthy, and their son was a barrel maker. But they’ve left

the industry.

In those earlier days we were all learning from one another. It’s no good

growing and making stuff, it has to be sold. So there was a group of us

that would get together away from the local association, which had been

formed then, and we would have wine weekends.

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So we’re talking 1980-ish, or before that?

BQ: No, no. This is the late 70’s.

The bus would come down Friday night and they’d be greeted as Forest Hill

with the supper, and then on the Saturday they’d do something. And then

that’s when we started the banquets at Plantagenet Winery. They’d go into

the Plantagenet winery and Tony Smith’s winemaker, Rob Bowen, and his

wife would organise it. At that stage the bakery was still going. So the

meat was cooked in the baker’s oven after the Saturday bread had been

cooked. Oh, the good old country cooking. Wives—you know, we all had

to do things. It was delegated out too, [as to] who did the chocolates [and

the like]. Judy Lange’s family one year, I think might’ve got a bit sick of

these Italian tortes [she was experimenting with]. They were all tried out

on the families before the big night. There were tureens and the rest.

They went well. We made a lot of money out of that.

Then on Sunday they would go back to Perth via Alkoomi. I started a

business called Great Southern Wine Tours. That went for a time.

Then the Association also helped because it gave us money to pay

somebody to come into the area to write us up. So they’d be given the

golden-handed treatment of this farm cooking and [hospitality]. So there

was always a great companionship there. If anybody had problems we all

seemed to help each other.

With regards to all of us, we were all strong willed characters. And I must

say that within the four walls where the meeting was held tempers used to

get carried away a bit. But of course, it always ended up that we got wise.

By that stage I think we were producing Port, so they’d have a few Ports or

cake and coffee and go home. Couple of times there was a few phone calls

of apologies that they’d got a bit too hot under the collar. They were

always told that as a group we had to show that we all got on very well

together socially away from our meetings, which we did.

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Yes, it was like a bit of a family. There was I suppose the mother figure

around the place. I always seemed to be a bit of the boss, trying to help

everybody else along the way.

When was the first recognition that you began to feel of outsiders

saying that there’s something about this, this is working.

BQ: Oh, not until we actually went to the east coast. And that would’ve

been in the early 80’s. We were always belting our head up against the

brick wall …

That wasn’t the Melbourne trip, was it?

BQ: Yes, the Melbourne trip.

Tell me about the Melbourne trip.

BQ: Oh, the Melbourne trip!

This is where you were staying at St Kilda?

BQ: Yes. (Laughter in voice) Oh, has Merv told you about that? Oh, dear

me! Well, I’ll tell one on Merv.

We couldn’t get Merv into the aeroplane. ‘If I can’t get there by driving I’m

not going’. ‘Oh, Merv, we need you. You’ve got to come’. And they’d

had CHOGM on. So anyway I was to organise the accommodation for our

group. There was Merv and Judy and Mike Goundrey and myself. So we

were going to stay at a motel. Tony Smith was going but he was staying

with his wholesaler.

So anyway, right! Michael and I, we catch the midnight horror, and we get

to Melbourne. And I’m wearing a pair of long, brown boots, which was the

fashion in those days. So we arrive. Prior to that the WA Tourist Bureau

had [booked] the accommodation so, yes, we were staying out at St Kilda.

Ackland Street. Oh, righto!

So Michael and I arrive and we think we’re going to a motel and we knock

on the door and nobody wants to know us. So we’re sitting outside on the

fence, I think it was, waiting for them to open at six o’clock in the morning.

17

So eventually they came down and let us in. They weren’t ready for us

yet. Michael wanted a haircut so they told us where to go. Michael and I,

off we go up the street and we ended up in this area where I think it was

the Jewish area or something like that. We were looking in the windows

because nothing much was opening. I said to Michael, ‘They’re friendly

around here’. And he said, ‘Why?’ And I said, ‘I’ve had a couple of

blokes coming and looking over my shoulder while I’m looking in the

windows’. ‘Oh, I don’t know’.

Of course, Michael goes and has his haircut, and back we go, and they’re

still not ready for us so we sit on the side of the fence. I was I suppose

kicking my heels with my brown boots on (must emphasise that).

So anyway eventually Merv and Judy turn up, and that night we go for a

meal. Merv and Michael are walking in front of us and Judy and I are

chatting behind them, and we had a nice meal. But I must say after we’d

been there, I think it was a day and a half, the attitude changed. We

walked up this main street and Judy and I had to have our handbags

underneath our arms, and a boy on either side of us. We learnt that we

were at St Kilda. It was rather a naughty place. Thank goodness my boots

were brown and not white because that’s what the girls wore.

But the funniest night was—I held kitty and we’d been to this well known

restaurant in Melbourne. We got into a taxi to go home and said ‘Out to St

Kilda’, and I was having a bit of a trouble with the taxi driver. He didn’t

want to take us. And Merv said, ‘What’s your problem, Betty?’ And I said,

‘Well, he just doesn’t seem to want to take us out to where we’re staying at

Ackland Street’. ‘Oh, gee, it’s a bit bad, you know, treating your visitors

like this’.

So, ‘Where you from?’ ‘West Australia. We’re here for the big wine

showing’. ‘Oh, right. Do you know where you’re staying?’ ‘Oh, yes,

we’ve been told where we’re staying now’. So he drove us out there,

pulled up outside the motel and said, ‘I’ve turned the meter off and now

I’m taking you for a drive to show you where you’re staying’. Well! We

sunk down just about below the dashboard of the taxi. (Laughs) The other

18

three in the back were just about hiding. So, you know, ‘I just drove

somebody in there a little while back, and that’s where they go. Oh, it’s a

bit of a quiet night. I’d like to show you around’. So it goes on. But, oh,

that was real fun and games. It was an eye opener to us.

You’d have thought from the people coming through that we really came

from somewhere different, almost to the stage of them asking ‘Did we have

kangaroos jumping down the main street of Perth?’ And people would say

that when the road’s bituminised we’ll come over and see you. I thought,

oh, yes, I’ve heard that before. But it was surprising, in the cellar years

later, that someone had come in and they’d say, ‘Oh, I met you in

Melbourne. Told you I was coming’. You’d think that, oh, yes. Had to

play that you knew who they were, but you couldn’t remember that you’d

seen them with all these other people.

So what did they think of the wine?

BQ: Interested. Pleased. Yes, by that time we had won awards, and even

though we had won awards around the national show circuit, [we were] an

unknown quantity.

Probably at that stage I felt that we sold more tourism than we did wine,

because people didn’t know anything much about West Australia. The

great percentage had never come to West Australia so this was a catalyst.

I must admit we used this with the government later on to get more

funding: that it wasn’t just the wine we were selling, we were selling the

State as well.

One of the biggest drawbacks that we’ve had is trying to explain to people

the South West from the Great Southern. I found this in the cellar, and

even with our local journalists it was always a bit of a bug bear with me,

that people would arrive at Forest Hill and tell me that they were going to

Moss Wood in the afternoon. And I’d say, ‘Do you know how far it is? It’s

not down the road. You’re a four and a half/five hour trip’. ‘Oh, but on

the map’. And I’d have to say to them, ‘Well, hang on a moment! That

19

full page is West Australia. Half a page is for Melbourne, or South

Australia’.

Yeah, it was visually from maps that people didn’t realise the distances that

we had in West Australia. And also, too, the West Coast and/or the South

West Coast and the Great Southern are very different as far as weather

and climate goes, which I think we all see in the wines nowadays. You can

see the distinct difference between the Shiraz of Margaret River and the

Shiraz of the Mount Barker area, and one thing and another. So that was

the attention that we needed to drag out.

Well, by this time were you still finding the wines sour?

BQ: Oh, no. No, I was drinking wine then. It was only later on that I

developed an allergy to it.

No, but you said that when you first tried it -

BQ: By then, yes, we knew what our Rieslings were like and what our

Cabernet were like, and by then we’d ventured to buying overseas wines

and trying them. And also I ended up with a fruit salad vineyard, which my

husband didn’t want. So we had Chardonnay, and we also had

Gewürztraminer.

How many acres did you put in by this time, Betty?

BQ: By that time we probably had about forty acres. Chardonnay was a

small plot. So some of the good Chardonnays around the area come from

the Forest Hill cuttings. It’s the chicken and egg one that we had. And just

recently at the Perth Royal Show the new owners of Forest Hill won the

trophy with the Chardonnay from there. Some beautiful fruit has come

from there with that Chardonnay, and of course the plantings have been

extended.

The Gewurztraminer. I’d heard of it so I went to the local pub and asked

him could he get me some, which he did. And I must say that that was

20

one of my favourite wines. Unfortunately it doesn’t sell very well in the

market place.

We also then tried Sauvignon Blanc when those cuttings were available.

And of course the stupidity of it is because West Australia was so isolated

with our control from the east coast to the west of plant material, our first

Chardonnay and Traminer cuttings were only thirty [pieces]. We got thirty

cuttings. And I can remember sitting on the kitchen floor in tears when

they arrived. They were terrible. ‘I can’t plant these things’. They were

sort of thick at the bottom and went away to almost nothing at the top.

And Tony wasn’t interested in the vineyard. ‘Oh, well, you want to do

these things’.

So I ended up that I salvaged and I cut them and I planted into a nursery

as three bud cuttings. And so that’s what the vineyard was established

on—three bud cuttings. And then we sort of bulked up from there.

But Port. I was told that you couldn’t make Port from Mount Barker, and

we had that much Cabernet. When we planted it was two-thirds red to

white. And of course when our fruit started coming in, what happened?

The market flipped the other way. So I said that I wanted a Port made.

So 1984 we won the trophy at Mount Barker for the best fortified.

‘Beautiful handling of brandy spirit’ [they said.]. Didn’t have an ounce of

brandy spirit in it. It was all current vintage wine because we were so late

that we could buy grape spirit from the east coast of the same year, which

was a bit of a joke. So I liked my Port. When I was chairing the meetings

at the wine growers I think the boys used to bring along the Port and try to

see how much Port I could drink before I started fumbling my words.

(Laughs)

But unfortunately, towards the end, I developed an allergy. That was a bit

of a joke because I’d go to do a wine tasting and I couldn’t smell or taste a

thing. And so the rest of the industry was very kind to me. They’d come

up and see whether the bottles I was opening were corked or whatever.

But that’s how it goes. I can just drink a little bit but not a great deal.

Had the export markets opened up by the time that you were -

21

BQ: We, once again, were the first trying to do things. We had a little bit

of interest from England and overseas. Because as with Forest Hill, all the

overseas visitors that went to the Department of Ag opened up markets for

us because people came from Europe and liked looking at what was new.

Our downfall was that we never had the volume to follow on with. And

also, at that stage, entering into the American market there were labels

that had to be done specifically. We tried to get into the American market

and the English market. I decided that after doing it ourselves we went

with Nick (couldn’t decipher name) from Melbourne, and we didn’t do a

great deal with that, but I’m pleased to see now that those locals that are

in the industry are being overwhelmed. It’s surprising, I was speaking to

somebody the other day from Denmark here and they are exporting to

England and the exporter’s happy to have 3,000 cases or less. Once it’s

gone, it’s gone. So that sounds good for the small producer, that the

potential’s there. And as long as everybody’s got quality, I think that’s the

main thing.

Did you have trouble sustaining quality through all the time that

you were there?

BQ: We had problems in the wineries. It wasn’t always the fruit.

Because essentially you were getting contract winemaking, weren’t

you?

BQ: Yes. There were two vintages of reds that we didn’t bottle, and the

philosophy was that if it wasn’t up to scratch [you didn’t sell it]—and this is

what I try to tell people coming into the industry now, or since I left, that

you’ve got to be careful. People remember you by the bad wine. They

don’t always remember you by the good. Get rid of it. It’s not worth

putting your label on. If you can’t label something good, don’t do it. And

unfortunately we still have so much trouble with cork, and that is a

problem that’s going to have to be resolved or else we will have to go into

Stelvin, which I think’s a marvellous thing. I can’t see your wine having

anything wrong with it. But of course that’s going to be another story.

22

Well, it’s been around for a long time and it’s been proven for a

long time.

BQ: Yes. So that’s something that the whole industry is going to have to

get behind with funding to try and push. Because it’s very sad to see good

wines opened up and knocked back because of corkage.

We had a wine here the other night when my son came and the person

wanted to show it and drew the cork. Went and got another bottle and

drew the cork. We were lucky we had two. And if that’s for you to try and

sell to an overseas market where you can’t lay your hand on another

sample, well, you’ve got big problems with it.

I do believe in regional labelling. I don’t necessarily go to the extent of

saying that it has to be Estate bottled. Because with the development of

them now and the cost—Alkoomi is one of the most isolated vineyards in

Australia, and so to get everything there (your corks, your caps, your

bottles, everything) you’re talking big money.

So I know that at Vasse Felix, where Bruce is working now, that they

tanker to the east coast. So as long as it comes back that it’s

acknowledged that it is grown in the State, and on that property, all well

and good, because at the end of the day it’s the dollar that counts, and if

you can save it by going to a large company and having it bottled, and

stored, well, what’s wrong with that? Nothing at all.

It’s still the same product.

BQ: Well, it is, yes.

This is the exciting thing I think you find about the wine industry,

particularly if you can do a vertical tasting and see what the differences are

between the seasons. I mean to say, you know, I’ve spoken to you the of

the ‘72 vintage, the ‘73, the ‘74. Well, the ‘73 was drought, the ‘74 was

that we did it with the sulphur, but down the track of time it opened up and

in ‘83 it was a brilliant wine. And then we go to ‘75, and then you go down

the track. ‘78 we had Cyclone Alby. We were all very lucky that our

grapes were off before that came otherwise we would not’ve had a thing to

23

pick. Because it was proven that Cyclone Alby came back and crossed the

coast and through [the area of] Forest Hill was the worst damaged in the

State. So that makes it interesting.

Then you had the silver-eyes.

So you did have problems with them, did you?

BQ: Oh, yes, yes. The silver-eyes! The year they hit us (and this is with it

being such a small State) if you went up to the vineyard you could hear all

this chirping. It always had birds. And the chirps seemed to get a bit

bigger. All these birds nipping in and out of the vines. So I spoke to

somebody, and they said, ‘Oh, Di Cullen’s got them over in Margaret River’.

So I rang Di, and I said, ‘Di, what are you doing?’ ‘Well’, she said, ‘we’ve

tried putting bird seed out but they don’t seem to be interested—[I really]

don’t know [what to do]’.

So I thought that oh, that’s good enough for me. I go into Mount Barker

and I buy all the bird seed and put it around the place. They weren’t

interested. I said that they’re not interested. So, [we tried] syrup.

Because that’s what they were after—the sugar. I gathered up every lid

and goodness knows what and perched them in the vines and put syrup in

it, and all I fed was the bees.

Because what had happened, there was no blossom on the coast. So with

the blossom not being here they moved further inland, coming to where we

were, and there was this new source of food, which was the grapes.

So by that time I had a young lad working for me. I would go at the crack

of dawn in our new car—our beautiful Mazda—and I would do the whole

five acres. Peter would come at eight and he would get on the tractor and

he would do two and a half acres of red and I’d do the two and a half acres

of Riesling. And we would flush them from one end of the row down to the

other, and we’d have this great big black cloud go up over our heads and

back the other end.

Well, I became a racetrack driver. I learnt to change gears and zoom down

to the other end. I don’t know who was the most exhausted. All I know is

24

that when I got out of the car at night I was like big, black momma.

Because I had glasses on and I was just grey. And I learnt all about air

filters, to smash them out and get the dust out. So that was the first year

of our planting off our new vineyard. So we had 100% loss of that because

there was no way that could you get rid of these birds. And the wine was

being made at Paul Conti’s at that stage. So we decided that, right, we’re

going to pick.

Oh, the vineyard—if you saw the photos, there was no purple fruit. It was

just grey. The leaves were grey. Everything was grey because we’d

worked up the soil that much that we just had dust. It was like talcum

powder.

I said to the family, would you go and use the firefighter and spray the

grapes so that they’re looking a little bit cleaner to go to Perth, which we

did, and of course sure enough overnight we had a bit of rain and of course

the grapes went (descriptive noise)—absorbed all the moisture.

So the women came and I put them back onto hourly picking. Well, I

thought they were friends but when I did my costing my costs had gone up

250%. So that’s why I never ever did hourly picking.

So we picked the fruit and up it went. And my mother and father were

there and they reckon that as the evening went on I got greyer and greyer

myself. Because I was scared stiff that we’d spent all this money picking

this fruit and transporting it all the way to Wanneroo and Paul would take

one look at the grapes and say, ‘I’m not doing anything with that’. You

know, ‘out to the tip’. But he didn’t, and we were pleasantly surprised

when the Royal Show came around we won a top gold with it. So, you

know, that wasn’t too bad. (Laughs)

But that led [us to see] that there were problems. So through the

associations and government help we then sponsored some research to be

done. Fortunately we’ve never had those circumstances, of them being so

bad, again. But it’s been quietened down because you can’t use the sprays

any more with that.

OH 692/137 TAPE 2 - SIDE A

25

NATIONAL WINE CENTRE ORAL HISTORY. Interview with Betty Quick/Pearse on 5th October, 2001.

Interviewer: Rob Linn.

Betty, you’ve just been regaling me with more stories about the

first Melbourne journey that we were talking about earlier. I’m

amazed you sold any wine at all. (Laughter)

BQ: Well, we certainly had some laughs over the years about what went

on. That’s what we had, good companionship, although we were in fierce

competition against each other. The originals, really got on very well and

were helpful and, as I say, had lots of laughs over what went on.

Did you talk to each other during the year and during vintage?

BQ: Oh, yes.

Sharing equipment?

BQ: Well, not so much sharing equipment because of the isolation but, oh,

yes, if anything went on you were buzzed and told. You know, what’s

happening with the silver-eyes and one thing and another. What’s

happening with the weather. Particularly if people came into the area it

was this, ‘Oh, you must go and see so and so’, or ‘you must go and see so

and so’. And then if you knew that a group was going you would ring the

other person and say, ‘Well, look, they’re running a bit late, they’ve just

left here’, so that [you can tell them] they’ll be there in three-quarters of

an hour or something like that. So, yes, I think that was the basis of the

original lot. I don’t know how they all get on now because I’m not there.

What about the marketing of the wine? I mean, was that another story again?

BQ: Very hard. Very hard. Some didn’t have the problems that others

had. I can only speak for myself. The problem I had, particularly with

26

getting wholesalers, was that with the Rhine Riesling doing so well that

they said, ‘oh, we will have to ask so and so’ (I won’t mention any names

because at odd times I would beat them at the shows) ‘if they would mind

if we took you on to the portfolio’. And a lot of times it would come back

negative—no. So, yes, it made it difficult.

And it’s like anything, the bigger you get, the more volume you get, the

harder it is to market. I would say that it’s only in the last five years that a

lot of them have really captivated [the public] and people are knocking on

the door wanting them. Because they’re the tried and true, they’re not the

new ones in, and they’re producing from old vines. So that in itself must

be a captive for the market.

So do you think Forest Hill in your time ever really cracked it in that

sense—the marketing sense? I’m not talking about the quality of the wine.

BQ: No. Always had problems. No, always had wholesalers that were

going broke, which sort of makes a big hole in your pocket because you’ve

paid all the bills up front and [they just didn’t] work that way. You’re lucky

if you get a good wholesaler. They can move volumes for you.

Once you go out onto the floor space I found that my mailing list dropped

off. So you’re not picking up the dollars that you do from the cellar.

The situation that Forest Hill was in was that we were off the beaten track.

So the cellar sales were never very good there, and would never be very

good. It may alter in time. So that was the necessity for us to go out and

seek. So if it didn’t, I produced good fruit. I was acknowledged

throughout Australia as producing good fruit. So I did everything. I sold

fruit. Sold fruit to Victoria, to Mitcheltons in Victoria for two years. They

were interested in coming back for more, and that opened the market here

for the grape prices to go up. It meant that the restrictions that were put

on the movement of not only fruit, but also vehicles that had been on to

vineyards, in and out of WA was opened up with certification.

So with Mitcheltons, was that shipped by road?

27

BQ: It was shipped by road.

What happened there was—and I can tell the tale now because it’s many

years later. We were selling to Houghtons and it was a very good

agreement, and they were to take the Riesling. They’d told me a price that

they would take. So on this day down came their vineyard manager and

their winemaker and somebody else and we went up to the vineyard to

have a look at the fruit. They were pleased with the fruit but they said that

they wanted it left until it became botrytis. So I said to them, ‘Oh, well,

that’s a new ball game. We’ve got to talk different prices here’. ‘Oh, no,

same price’. I looked at them and I thought, oh, yeah. I said to them,

‘Oh, I’ll have to think about that’. Because we all know that botrytis is a

sort of dicky game. You could either end up with black mould, which is

bitter and nothing, or else leave it on and then you’ve got the weather and

everything else and your tonnage drops. So your price has to go up.

So I must say that I had steam coming out of my nose. So I got in the car

and I went into Plantagenet and Rob Bowen said to me, ‘Whatever’s the

matter?’ I said, ‘Oh, do you know what they’re trying to tell me now?’ So

Rob said, ‘Well, do you want to sell the fruit?’ I said, ‘Yes. I thought I had

it placed’. And, you know, at that time—it was ‘83—I was at Paul Conti’s

and it was too late to be getting extra tanks or anything.

So he said, ‘What do you want for it?’ I said, ‘Well, I’m getting more than

what they’ve said in the first place’. ‘You’re sure that that’s what you

want?’ ‘Yes’. So he said, ‘Well, wait a minute’.

So off he went and made a phone call, and he came back and he said, ‘I’ve

sold it for you’. I said, ‘To where?’ And he said, ‘To Mitcheltons in

Victoria. To David Traeger’. So I said, ‘You’re joking!’ ‘No’, he said,

‘what are the other conditions?’ And I said, ‘Well’, going that way it must

be on the label, or on a back label, where it has come from so that the

region gets the acknowledgement that this fruit has come from Mount

Barker, and they’re to pick up all the tabs for transporting. That price I

quoted was at the vineyard gate, and the terms of payment were very

good.

28

So of course there was a bit of a panic then. It was coming up Easter and,

you know, grapes were just about ready to be picked. But we ended up

with eight-sided cardboard cartons coming that took about three-quarters

of a ton. They sat on a pallet. They were lined with plastic. And there was

very good working partnership, you know, with Rob Bowen as far as the

sulphur to be put into the grapes, and the grapes were—well, at that stage

it was all hand-picked. Then as it was being poured in we saw that there

was no leaves in it and everything. And they were sealed. That went into

a truck, and off the two trucks went.

But the most interesting thing was that just onto the night I think, or a

couple of days before picking, John Elliott rang me from the Department of

Agriculture in Perth and said, ‘Betty, what about this certification? Getting

it in and out of West Australia and in and out of South Australia and into

Victoria?’ ‘What are you talking about?’, I said, ‘Oh, I haven’t done

anything’.

So the Department was rung, Mitchelton was rung and it was all signed and

sealed. No problems. The only problem was that the first truck went to

Kalgoorlie and went on the train because he was an older bloke, and he

said that his wife didn’t want a tiger by the tail with him coming home

tired. So he slept across the Nullarbor. The young chap, he drove his

truck across.

A couple of years later my mother was going over on to the Nullarbor and

stopped at the check point where you’ve got to throw all your fruit and

your potatoes and everything out, and she said, ‘Oh, well, I haven’t any

grapes. My daughter’s grapes have gone through’. And this chap poked

his head out of box and said, ‘Well, we’re still waiting for the other truck to

come’. (Laughs) She said, ‘Well, it’s too late. It’s in the bottle with wine’.

So that proved out to be good. The wine came back as a gold medal

winning wine, and we did that for two years.

And by then—I happened to walk in the house at lunch time and turned on

the ABC to hear Ted Avery from Houghtons saying that it was a pity that all

this good fruit was going to the east coast when the prices of grapes had

29

gone up in West Australia, and they’d dearly love to do business with

anybody that had fruit to sell. So I happened to go into the winery in the

afternoon, and Rob said to me, ‘Did you hear that on the ABC?’ And I

said, ‘Yes’. He said, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ I said, ‘Leave

them for a couple of days’.

So a couple of days later I rang. It had been explained to Ted, and there

was just a misunderstanding, you know, over repricing of the grapes, and

he’d always said to me, ‘Betty, please knock on the door any time’. So I

rang him and said, ‘Oh, I heard you talking on the ABC. Are you prepared

to pay good prices now for grapes?’ And he said, ‘Come up and see us,

Betty. We’d be delighted’. So any excess from then on that I had to sell,

well, it went to Houghtons. They came—and it was red—and mechanically

harvested. So we were the first vineyard so far south to mechanically

harvest fruit.

I sold everything. I sold grapes, I sold juice, I sold—I never put a marked

cork in my bottles because I’d sell you a cleanskin if somebody wanted it,

and my sales—I wasn’t frightened to soak a label off and have it sold in

Margaret River as Margaret River Rhine Riesling. And, yes, so that was the

name of the game.

The name of the game with Betty Pearse was money, and it wasn’t the

thing of ‘I’m having this wine made and, you know, how wonderful it was’.

It was the survival of the fittest.

I was going to say, it was the farming tradition.

BQ: Yes. And this was one of the reasons why I liked the idea of the

vineyard right from the start. I wasn’t having to knock on the door and

take my fruit in like the apples to be packed at the shed, and knowing Joe

Blogg, who was a director, got a better percentage of his fruit put through

for export than I did, and everybody else having a say.

And it was the same with the wool. In 1975 when Sandalfords won that

trophy for that I walked into the Bank and the Bank Manager’s door was

open and he said, ‘Oh, here she is. She’s just topped the Albany sale with

30

her wool and you’ve won a trophy with your grapes’. And that was the

same with the wool industry. You could have the finest clip around and

they would come in and they’d say, ‘Oh, sorry, Betty, we haven’t got the

money to offer’. After that I started selling privately. And we went

through there for quite a while with one of the top fine wool clips in the

district, that they would come and they wouldn’t have the money to offer

you for it.

And this was the beauty of the wine industry. I could grow grapes, and

you picked everything. You know, picking off everything that you grew,

and to be crushed to turn into money of some sort. Or you grew your

grapes and you sold. And that’s what it was. And of course we never had

money. So it had to make its way to pay its way because we started from

scratch. I was the first of the family in there and hoped that perhaps the

next generation [might benefit]. As I always used to say—we were the

sloggers, the next lot would be the educated ones, and the ones after that

would be the ones that would employ people.

So do you think in the upshot, Betty, that Bill Jamieson’s vision has been upheld?

BQ: Oh, definitely. He must be smiling up there. He really must be.

Because if it hadn’t have been for Bill none of this would’ve happened, and

he really had to talk very hard. And with the ‘75 Riesling—well, the ‘75

vintage, I’ll tell you what, I used to walk down those vines and say, ‘Come

on you little darlings. Do the best that you can because we really need

you’. It was the last year of the trial and it had to come in with a banger,

and it couldn’t have come in with a bigger bang than it did with the ‘75

Riesling. Because that took off the trophy at the Perth Royal Show for

eight consecutive years as the best WA Rhine Riesling. And at that stage it

was the only white wine that had ever won the best wine at the Perth Royal

Show.

So, yes, I think he would’ve had a smile from ear to ear on that occasion,

to know that what he’d said, and the confidence that he had in us all, had

come to fruition. And dear Bill, you know, he’s not been passed from us

31

very long. I think he must’ve felt quietly proud—he was a quiet man—that

what he saw for us has been fulfilled because of the acreages that have

been planted.

I’ve only spoken of what Forest Hill did but, you know, Goundrey’s won

trophies—top trophies—for their red wines. You’ve only got to look at

Plantagenet, what they have won. And Merv, what he’s won. Bill Wignall

with the reputation that he had overseas with his Pinot. And even

Goundreys now, what they’re doing with the change of ownership.

The only thing, as I told them when I was made a baron after I left the

wine industry. They’d brought out this new award—Wine Barons of West

Australia. And I’d always been the female in amongst the boys, as I used

to call them. You know, if they went to go off to have a beer afterwards,

and they’d say, ‘Well, come on, boys’. I’d look around and say, ‘Well, there

is a female’. ‘Oh, you know what we mean. Come on, we’re all going for

a beer’.

Anyway, the locals had this luncheon for me. I saw them with these big

silver leaves around their necks and I said, ‘What’s that? Just my luck,

leaving the wine industry and you’re bringing out these accolades’.

Anyway, I was presented—the first female Wine Baron, viticulture. And I

looked and I said, ‘Oh, well, I always wanted to have a title but I thought I

could’ve been a Baroness but I’m a wine baron’. (Laughs)

Yeah, it’s gone a full circle and they’re all getting bigger. The family

influence I think has disappeared. There are only two families—or three.

There’s Bill Wignall, and the Tyrers—Ian Tyrer—(they’re a hard working

family that were one of the newcomers with us), and Merv and Judy, that

are left. And the Woods—Bob Wood—from Tinglewood down here. He was

the first one to plant in the Denmark area. And some have got bigger,

some have stayed the same, and unfortunately some of us had to leave the

industry.

Was that more of a family situation at the time, Betty, for you

getting out?

32

BQ: Yes. The marriage broke up so it had to be sold. I couldn’t afford to

buy my husband out.

Would you have liked to, do you think?

BQ: If it was now and interest rates were the same as what they are now,

I wouldn’t have hesitated. I had to borrow over three-quarters of a million

dollars, and I was looking at 24%.

Instead of six.

BQ: Yeah. Health-wise, I’d given a lot to the marriage and health-wise my

health was breaking down. Yes, so came to the conclusion that, well, it

had to be sold.

But it still must be amazing looking back and just seeing that

memory of the blokes hopping out of the car and Tony coming back

to tell you this - And seeing how it’s gone.

BQ: Yes. And being ridiculed. ‘What’s this woman up to now?’ And, as I

say, you quietly sit back and—it’s no different than the swimming pool in

Mount Barker. I was told that I was going to be the first one drowned in it.

The swimming pool’s there.

And it’s the same with the railway buildings. I wanted them preserved,

and fought. You don’t always have to be in the fore. I learnt that from the

wine industry, that you don’t have to be out front. You can always do a lot

of homework in the background and achieve what you want to, going in

through the back door. So the railway buildings weren’t knocked down.

I would’ve liked to have seen the Tourist Bureau go over there. They told

me that it would never happen. Tourist Bureau’s over there on the

highway now, and perhaps it might have a wine centre there down the

track of time.

So, you’ve got to be patient. It eventually comes if you strive hard

enough, think enough, stand on enough toes, you get there. But I’ve got a

lot of fond memories about it. It’s ten years now so, as I said to you, the

tears have gone.

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But I made a lot of good friends out of the wine industry, and Smithy’s left

the wine industry now—almost. But I get a kick out of seeing what Merv

and Judy are doing—achieving as a family. I always look at them and think

that, oh, well, you’re like the Browns of Milawa. You know, Merv and Judy

worked very, very hard and it’s nice now to see their son, and their son-in-

law, each with their own part of the business working together. I should

imagine once Sandy’s children are off her hand that she will take over

perhaps what Judy’s doing with marketing.

I must say that with Judy and Merv, I never thought that I would ever see

the day when Judy would go off by herself marketing because it was always

a twosome. Even if we went to—didn’t matter. Melbourne, Sydney, Perth.

We’ve done our stunt at the shopping centres and all those sort of things.

They were always there together. And now they’ve got that big and Merv

goes off and does his part and Judy goes off and does her part. And I

would say that they are working as hard, if not harder, now than they’ve

ever worked to maintain it.

And this is what a lot of people don’t understand. You’d seen them come

into the cellar, ‘Oh, this wine in the bottle. Oh, to sit on the verandah and

think -’ You know, there’s a lot of hard work goes into getting that wine in

the bottle. And this is what it was with the earlier ones that planted. A lot

of it was to do with survival. You had a property and you loved it, and the

land. What’s the best thing that we can get from it? But there was a lot of

hard work put in there and there wasn’t anybody standing behind us with

big dollars to throw at us to spend.

We also had fights with the licensing court. I say there are two stories

about that. The day I went for my licence the solicitor that I’d employed

thought he knew everything. And I had to go over to his office before I

went to Court for this vigneron’s licence to sell wine from the property, and

he said, ‘You know how much it’s going to cost you?’ ‘Oh, yes, I was told’.

‘Oh, no, no. It’s more than that’. I said, ‘Well, that’s not the price that I

was told’. ‘Oh, well, that’s what you’re going to have to pay’. And I said

34

to him, ‘Well, the thing is, you’ll have to stand and appeal’. ‘Nobody ever

does that’. I said, ‘Well, either you do or you don’t get paid’.

So over we went, and I had to stand there and put my hand on the Bible,

and I swear and one thing and another. There was two of them. They

said, ‘Oh, well, we grant you a vigneron’s licence’. I said, ‘Thank you’.

‘And this is the price that you will have to pay’. I looked around and my

solicitor was still sitting on his chair. Anyway, he struggled to his feet and

said, ‘I appeal’. You would’ve thought I’d thrown a jug of cold water over

the two of them. Never happened before.

And they said, ‘What’s the reasoning?’ And I said, ‘Well, I had been

quoted this and now I come to Court and you’ve put the price up on me’.

Chitter chatter, chitter chatter between themselves. They looked over and

said, ‘Oh, Mrs Pearse, considering who you are and what you’ve been doing

for the wine industry we grant your licence at such and such a price’.

(Laughs) So I said, ‘Thank you’, walked out. I couldn’t get out fast

enough and get the cheque book out to pay them. And the solicitor stood

there and he said, ‘I’d have not believed it if I hadn’t have seen it’. And I

said, ‘Well, I told you. I’ll write your cheque out here and now but if you

hadn’t done it you wouldn’t have got paid’.

We’ve got lots of little funny stories like that, and they’re the memories

that you can think of. As I say, with what Tony Smith has done for the wine

industry on a national level, I’m pleased to see that he’s getting some

acknowledgement now for the time that he put into it. He’s put in a lot of

hours and has done well with what he’s done, and I’m sure that the

Australian wine industry and the West Australian wine industry have

benefited from it all.

Well, Betty, I want to thank you for giving us something of your

story today. It’s been just fantastic to hear the young girl from

Fremantle -

BQ: (Laughs) Who’s not young any more.

No, but the way you caught the vision and took it through. So

thank you very much, Betty.

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BQ: You’re welcome. Thank you.