GREAT Southern’s sprawling wine grape vineyard, near Lake Cullulleraine, is in terminal decay, an unsightly monument to the catastrophic failure of the managed investment scheme (MIS) model of agricultural development.
The young vines have not been pruned or watered since the end of the last harvest in March.
Drip-irrigated since planting, they have not yet developed deep and broad roots, and they are visibly stressed.
Many have sprouted green shoots, but they’re many weeks behind the development of the same varieties in other vineyards at Lake Cullulleraine.
To the north, Southcorp’s corporate vineyards are verdant and flourishing.
A real estate agent’s sign on the Sturt Highway shows they too are for sale, but Southcorp has kept them in prime condition, hoping some bargain-hunter will make an offer – almost any offer – in these hard times for the Australian wine industry.
The party is over. The laws of oversupply and under-demand have brought the industry crashing to earth after more than two decades of stratospheric success.
In the Great Southern vineyards – a patchwork quilt of just about every named red and white variety grown in Australia – the bays between rows are choked with weeds – grasses and broadleaf weeds, even the odd woody perennial that has sprung up since the last Roundup.
For more of this story, purchase your copy of Saturday’s Sunraysia Daily, 31/10/09.