Swanville Winery

Values

HCWA Historic Themes:

106 Workers (including Aboriginal, convict)

112 Technology and Technological Change

302 Rural Industry and Market Gardening

501 World Wars and Others

Physical Description

Construction Materials: Brick, Asbestos, Metal

Modifications: Substantial

Extent of Original Fabric: Highly intact (Most of the fabric is original)

As at the time of the Shire of Swan Municipal Inventory 1998 review, the following parts of the Swanville Winery remained:

1. brick spirit room;

2. concrete plinth on which concrete fermenting vats once stood;

3. small shed, at one time converted to a dwelling, now unused;

4. large shed, asbestos and weatherboard walls, corrugated iron roof;

5. concrete slab between two large sheds, which may once have been roofed;

6. second large shed, lined with large concrete fermenting vats;

7. small asbestos/corrugated iron house, said to be the original home of the Noack family.

History

The buildings are part of a well-known winery operated in the Swan Valley by the Noack family from about 1913 onwards. Along with 'Santa Rosa' (Valencia) and 'Houghton' wineries, Swanville was one of the three large scale wineries which pioneered the winemaking industry in the Swan Valley, specialising in fortified and dessert wines. The remaining small house, though in very bad repair, is of historic importance in being associated with the Noack family, owners of the winery. Mr Noack also invented a dehydration machine to assist with the drying of crops, which was used extensively by other growers.



In 1942 the Swan and Chittering War Agricultural Committee, at the direction of the Australian Women’s Land Army (AWLA) identified vineyards in critical need of labour in order that they could continue to produce dried fruits, such as currants, for supply to the Allied troops. The Australian Women’s Land Army was established by the Department of Labour and National Service in 1942 to enable women to work in the agricultural industry, in order to release male agricultural workers for service in the defence forces. Women enlisted with the AWLA worked across Australia in key government identified agricultural industries in order to produce food and other essential materials for the war effort. Many of the women listed with the Australian Women’s Land Army (WA Division) had transferred from similar positions with the Country Women’s Association, which had already established war-time labour services.



Approximately 57 Land Girls were accommodated at Swanville and St Alban’s vineyards in Upper Swan, from where they travelled in small groups to work on vineyards between Caversham and Upper Swan. Their primary work was the picking of grapes which were dried and packaged as currants. The Land Girls’ work in the vineyards also included packing fruit and preparing vines at the start of each season.



Between 1943-1945 Noack accommodated an unknown number of Land Girls on the property in a converted shearing shed and in tents. Vineyards the Land Girls were known to have worked at in the district were Hynes, Bambrooks, Stevens, Anthony's and Waldecks.

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