Betty Quick

Betty Quick was born on 3 November 1938 at East Fremantle. She left home at 16 to study nursing and married a Mt Barker (WA) farmer at 21. Her parents were from England and had a farm near Fremantle. Her parents were Elizabeth and George Mitchell. Her father was in the merchant navy for 30 years. Betty studied nursing at Fremantle Hospital and moved to the Mt Barker farm in 1959. It was 35 acres of orchard and much of the produce was exported to England. They also ran sheep. It became unprofitable so in 1966 they began to grow grapes with the help of the Department of Agriculture. She learned about viticulture from books and from Bill Jamieson. The first vintage was in 1972. It was an experimental vineyard and they had a lot of problems. She did a lot of work on the vines. They had a 10 year experimental lease with the government. None of the other locals were involved initially. In the late 1970s they started the wine weekends using the business name Great Southern Wine Tours. She talks about a trip to Melbourne in early 1980 for a wine show. They had 40 acres of Chardonay and Gewurztraminer and made their first port in 1984. They did contract winemaking mostly. Talks about the difficulty with birds and the problems with marketing the wine. Their winery at Forest Hill was isolated and had poor cellar sales. They sold their fruit to Micheltons in Victoria and won a gold medal for the wine. They then sold locally to Houghtons. She was made a wine baron of WA when she left the industry. Her marriage broke up and the business was sold. She talks about getting her vigneron licence