New voice in quiet valley
As a teenager growing up in the quiet rural setting of Tasmania's Jordan Valley, all Andrew Jones wanted to do was to find a steady job in the city and maintain his single-digit handicap on the local golf course.
Ideas of working on the land never entered his head.
"My dad and his brother were sixth-generation farmers in this valley," Jones says.
"I didn't have a farming bone in my body. I'd watched my Dad and my uncle struggle through difficult seasons amid rising costs and falling prices. That wasn't how I was going to live my life. I wanted to turn my back on the land altogether."
Now pausing to take in the views from his 8ha Invercarron Vineyard above Broadmarsh, Jones admits that time changes the way we see ourselves and the world around us.
It's been seven years since he sold his Andrew Jones Travel business and began planting vines on his family property 35 km from Hobart.
"I really loved being in the travel industry, but when you end up having 40 people around you, most of your days are spent managing personnel and paperwork," he muses.
Letting go of the company he founded in 1993 gave Jones the time and investment capital he needed to address his future business prospects. It turns out it also enabled him to re-connect with the family history and valley traditions established two centuries earlier by his convict ancestor Benjamin Jones.
"My wife Karen and I purchased Invercarron back in 2011," he explains.
"During the previous 50 years, it was a farming property owned by my parents Phil and Susan and operated along with the help of Dad's brother, Henry. By 2011, they were all looking to sell up and retire. No-one saw much future in it as a viable farming operation in this secret little valley."
Jones distinctly remembers sitting in his parents' kitchen, realising the old farm and homestead were about to pass out of the family's hands. Fully committed to the travel industry, he knew he'd have no time or money to devote to a new project. But he and Karen bought it anyway.
"It was the first time I'd ever made an emotional business decision," Jones says with an element of surprise in his voice.
The couple soon began hatching a plan to diversify their significant business investments. It needed to be long-term, they decided, one that resulted in new, small-scale, high-value enterprises. Investments that would give their Jordan Valley home much-needed financial security.
The sale of Andrew Jones Travel in 2017 and subsequent purchases of land from a neighbouring farmer breathed new life and hope into the couple's intentions.
Today, Invercarron is not only the site of a pioneering wine venture in the valley, its hillside slopes are home to the production of fine quality Merino sheep. Installation of pivot irrigation elsewhere on the site supports production of animal feed, along with cereal and vegetable crops.
Vineyard establishment commenced on a rocky, windswept site called Dixon's Hill in 2017. Its planning, planting and on-going viticultural management and consultant advice were assigned to Absolute Viticulture's Marty Smith.
The busy East Coast contractor literally grew up in the Tasmanian wine industry, working alongside his late father, Chris Smith. The former Clare Valley vineyard manager and his young family moved to Lebrina in 1986 to establish Clover Hill Vineyard.
Owned by Victorian parent company Taltarni Vineyards, the dedicated sparkling wine estate in the State's northeast hit its strides with Chris Smith's feet on the ground. In 2005, Clover Hill was named Tasmanian Vineyard of the Year by the Royal Agricultural Society of Tasmania.
Marty Smith's own career highlights are no less impressive. His clientele reads like a who's who of the Tasmanian wine industry. It also includes key mainland operators like Bird in Hand, the Fogarty Wine Group, Handpicked Wines and Hill-Smith Family Vineyards.
Four distinctive, estate-grown table wines have resulted from Smith's planting selections: Chardonnay, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir. They're made under contract by winemaker Justin Arnold at Ghost Rock, just outside Devonport.
The vineyard's inaugural release of wines struck pay-dirt almost immediately. In October 2020, the 2019 Invercarron Pinot Noir figured among seven Tasmanian Pinot Noirs that won gold at the Royal Hobart Wine Show. The wine was produced from vines that had been in the ground barely 18 months.
The following month, Invercarron was named among 50 national finalists in the Young Gun of Wine Vineyard of the Year Awards, conducted by Victorian-based wine communicator Rory Kent.
Award nominees were chosen from a potential field of 6,000 grape growers by leading wine writer Max Allen, along with five highly respected experts on agronomy, viticulture and sustainability. Smith shared Invercarron's nomination in the viticulture initiative.
Early 2021 brought another valley innovative to fruition. Invercarron's Picker's Hut is a small, well-appointed, self-contained cabin offering luxury farm-stay accommodation. It's located right alongside the property's sunlit, north-facing vineyard.
Jones says the hut dates back to the pre-World World Two era. It was built nearby to house trainee soldiers at the former Brighton Army Camp. Left neglected after brief use by the Department of Immigration's Pontville Detention Centre between 2011 and 2014, the wooden structure was purchased and trucked to its new location for extensive renovation.
Re-purposed, it now offers panoramic views of what would have been familiar sights to early valley settlers like Jones's ancestors – the broad expanse of the Jordan River flood plain and its patchwork quilt of intensive farming land.
"Guests here get to experience Broadmarsh like a true local," Jones muses.
"This is home."
Last page update: 26 May 2026