Flinders keepers

With average wind speeds this month nudging 25kmh – and gusting up to 90kmh – Flinders Island winemaker Barry Kooij admits much of the romance associated with cool climate viticulture can be hard to sustain when you're out of doors and have 6000 vines to prune over winter.

That said, the bloke from Unavale wouldn't have it any other way.

"We knew we were going to be facing some big challenges when we came here," he admits.

"And it has been pretty challenging at times. But it's also been very worthwhile. This place is capable of making some really beautiful wines."

It's been four years since Kooij and his wife Cassie left Tasmania's sunny east coast and moved to Lady Barron in the Furneaux Group. The tiny settlement at the southern end of Flinders Island is a world away from every other wine community the former Kiwi has worked in.

With some 25 vintages behind him, Kooij had more or less given up on the idea of having a small family vineyard. The couple were three years into jobs at Spring Vale Vineyard when they chanced upon Unavale being advertised for sale on Gumtree by vineyard founders Roger and Bev Watson.

In the end, they erred on the side of caution, taking a long lease and a 'suck-it-and-see' approach rather than purchasing the Watsons' property on Badger Corner Road.

"We came over and took a look at it, and then moved here in August 2021," Kooij continues.

"It was a bit of a mad rush. We really had to hit the ground running. The vineyard hadn't been pruned at that stage because of some (Watson family) health issues. It was in a pretty sad state. Our main focus has been to re-work the vines and get them back into shape again. That's taken us several years.

"The most dramatic change we've made was the move from spur-pruning to cane-pruning. It was never going to be a quick process with just the two of us here. We only got our first decent crop here in 2024. We're still figuring out the best way of managing the vineyard."

The pioneering Watsons began their Flinders Island wine odyssey in 1999, not far from the creek that gives the vineyard its name. Around half the vines they planted that first year 'were lost due to inexperience,' according to Roger Watson.

But with two more years, the couple had 3ha under vine. A quarter of a century further on, that remains the full extent of Unavale's vineyard plantings.

Around 1ha are devoted to Pinot Noir. Four other blocks – each 0.5ha in area – hold Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc.

Victorian contract winemaker Andrew Hickinbotham entered the picture when the Watsons' retirement project produced its first small crop in 2004. By 2007, the vineyard's wines had begun to attract media attention, including that of renowned author/critic and wine show judge, James Halliday.

The 2008 edition of Halliday's Australian Wine Companion lists Unavale's 2006 Sauvignon Blanc among the book's 'best of the best by variety.'  The only other Tasmanian wine accorded the same recognition was Bream Creek's 2006 Sauvignon Blanc.

"Two quite lovely (Unavale) wines from 2006 will hopefully point the way for the future, given the struggle the Watsons have to grow and protect the grapes," Halliday concluded.

'Grow and protect' became the Watsons' mantra over the next 15 vintages as the couple divided their time between running the vineyard and running their popular Furneaux Tavern, just 6km away.

The Lady Barron watering-hole proved a worthy asset. It enabled the couple to secure direct wine sales to locals and visitors alike, at full retail price. Essential for being able to reinvest in a cool climate wine business.

Vineyard production ebbed and flowed throughout the years. Bumper seasons saw crops of up to 17 tonnes. Leaner years produced harvests as meagre as four tonnes.

"By the time we arrived, the vineyard was taking a real hammering from the island's wildlife," Kooij says.

"The wallabies here are in plague proportions. Not to mention birds like currawongs and silver-eyes that show up just in time for vintage. We devoted a fair bit of our first year here to fixing the boundary fencing and removing all the animals it enclosed.

"There were even cows here at one stage - doing what cows do - so we also spent time fixing up the mess they left behind."

That noted, little can be done to fix what will always be Unavale's Achilles' heel: the island's fluky maritime growing conditions.

Prevailing westerly winds are ever-present. They not only make working outdoors uncomfortable at times, they can compromise rapid shoot growth early in the season and slow the vineyard's progress to flowering and fruit-set.

Mature trees adjacent to the site provide effective windbreaks, but offer no firm guarantee of total protection.

"Winter is normally quite nice here," Kooij says.

"Pretty calm really. But once late August comes around, the wind starts blowing and it doesn't stop for a couple of months."

Combining wind with what Kooij calls 'mizzly drizzly' weather during late October and November is a recipe for poor flowering and fruit-set, then modest yields at harvest. Slow-moving easterly weather systems that bring unwelcome gloom and rain also appear every now and then.

The winemaker in Kooij says there are plenty of upsides, though. The vineyard's fruit always shows good concentrated varietal flavour and really fine natural acidity.

Shoot-thinning and leaf removal seldom take long there. Prevailing winds and the site's lean and hungry soils have de-vigorating effects throughout the vineyard.

Unavale may not be the ideal place to grow grapes and make wines, but there are more than enough plusses to compensate for the downsides.

Indeed, while the vineyard's maritime setting provides a stark contrast with the continental climate experienced by Victoria's Mount Macedon, for example, a long and careful look at the weather data for both reveals that they are remarkably similar in growing degree days, rainfall and temperature.

Only their mean January temperatures are markedly different. The MJT is 17.3°C at Unavale, a much more Pinot-friendly summer temperature than the 18.6°C experienced at Mount Macedon.

"If we wanted to expand, the vineyard could be tripled in size quite easily to become more financially viable, but we'd run into the issue of who are we going to get to help us?" Kooij says.

"Running a business is tricky everywhere on the island. Especially here."

Census data from 2021 shows the entire resident population of the Furneaux Group is less than 950. Barely 50 percent are in the working age range of 15-64 years. The median population age is 57 years.

The island's reliance on small passenger aircraft combines with limited short-term accommodation to discourage large visitor numbers. Particularly backpackers who might otherwise be persuaded to help out with harvests.

"We have family that come over and give us hand," Kooij explains.

"Especially for jobs like bird netting and that sort of stuff. But you really need some good family and friend support to continue that consistently."

As if vineyard labour is not already a significant challenge, it looks like Cassie and Barry Kooij will need to become very creative in the years ahead.

Flinders Island now plays host to three small vineyard enterprises. The couple say a fourth is just getting underway.

Last page update: 26 May 2026