European settlement of Tasmania's East Coast began in the early 1800s, with sealing, whaling and pastoral leases being established around sheltered bays and river mouths. By the 1830s, small farming communities near Bicheno, Swansea and Triabunna were focused on cropping and grazing.
The first commercial vineyard on the East Coast was established by William 'Dollar' Steel at Falmouth, around 1830. In the 1840s, Silesian immigrants founded further smaller ventures. All faded into obscurity eventually as poor labour and market prospects offered massive challenges to the rudimentary viticulture being practised in these harsh, rugged coastal environments.
Diego Bernacchi's ambitious developments on Maria Island were the source of considerable community interest during the mid-1880s. But their rise and fall were swift and dramatic. Vineyard planting in 1886. Company liquidation in 1892.
Poor site selection, challenging climatic conditions and the collapse of the Van Diemen's Land Bank in August 1891 all contributed to Bernacchi's demise.
Almost 90 years would pass before John Austwick (Craigie Knowe Vineyard) and Geoff Bull (Freycinet Vineyard) started growing vines in the late 1970s. Both played pioneering roles in the small but thriving industry now scattered up and down the coast.
Sites today are widely dispersed, from around St Helens in the north to Marion Bay and beyond in the south. An industry spanning more than two degrees of latitude.
Recent developments near Dunalley and on the Tasman Peninsula have produced some excellent, award-winning wines.
Geology on the East Coast is both complex and diverse. Granite and dolerite igneous rocks rub shoulders with ironstone and other sedimentary rocks. All contribute in some way to well-drained soils. Add in a sunny, temperate maritime climate and the coast offers very favourable conditions for viticulture.
Water availability is the ultimate determinant for vintage success. In some years, there's simply not enough of it to go around.
Vineyards on Tasmania's East Coast produced 13 percent of the State's total grape harvest in 2025.
In May 2026, Bicheno topped Australian Traveller magazine's '100 Best Aussie Towns' list. Nearby St Helens was ranked 13/100.
When the bottom fell out of Victoria's building industry in the early 1980s, Brian Franklin ditched his intended career path in architecture and travelled to Tasmania to put his amateur fishing and diving skills to good use. He spent the next 18 years catching abalone and rock lobsters before taking on cool-climate wine production.
The historic Bangor property is located at Dunalley in the south-east corner of Tasmania, where seven generations of the Dunbabin family have managed this striking coastal landscape, carefully balancing farming and conservation.
Vanessa Bagot found the 5ha Barringwood Park Vineyard listed on the property market while living in Sydney in 2012. It was a life-changing moment. She was then pursuing a career in market research. Owning and operating a vineyard in NW Tasmania seemed like an interesting past-time or side-hustle. A welcome distraction from the humdrum of city life....
Growing up not far from Adelaide's historic Magill Estate, Andrew Nugent was a likely candidate for a career in viticulture or oenology. But over the three decades that have passed since he graduated from Roseworthy College, the Bird in Hand co-founder and executive director has achieved much more than growing grapes and making wine.
When New Town's Southern Cross Joinery closed its doors for the last time in 1969, Hobart cabinetmaker Colin Walters bought land at Little Swanport on the East Coast and made a brand new start in farming. Raising sheep came first. Miniature stud Herefords and olives came next, thanks to daughter Joy Walters.
One of Tasmania's earliest wine-growing ventures, Bream Creek Vineyard was first planted in 1974 to add volume to the Moorilla Estate portfolio, then under development by the Alcorso family. However, the coastal site proved very challenging for Riesling and Cabernet Sauvignon, the two late-ripening varieties that comprised much of the vineyard.
Having worked in construction for 40-odd years, project manager Clinton Mead knew establishing a topnotch vineyard would take time. He and partner Tanya Dalton waited more than a decade to find the site that met their exacting requirements. It's at Koonya, 15km and 200 years from the rugged landscape of former penal colony Port Arthur.
Craigie Knowe – at Cranbrook – is steeped in history. Long before it became known for the coast's oldest vineyard, the property was home to the pioneering Amos family, who arrived in Hobart in 1821. Its centrepiece today is a quaint colonial homestead, built around 1842 by James Amos.
Before taking on Darlington Vineyard in late 2021, Janice and Dale Evans spent 35 years living not far from the property that overlooks Maria Island and its former convict settlement. When the couple first built their home in Orford, there were two houses in the street.
Wild, spectacular and on the edge of an eco-system of international significance. That's The Hazards Vineyard at Apslawn in a nutshell. It's also home base for the Brown Family Wine Group's Devil's Corner portfolio and popular cellar door.
