Interview with Bruce Tomlinson [transcript] Interviewer: Rob Linn

Bruce Tomlinson was born in Perth on 25 October 1936. His parents were Les and Mavis Tomlinson. His father was a fitter and turner. Bruce studied architecture at Perth TAFE and then went to New Guinea for two years. He did town planning at Melbourne University and returned to Western Australia to work in the Pilbara for 25 years from the 1960s to the early 1980s, working for mining companies. He married Jeanette in 1961 and they have four children. After the Pilbara he moved to Margaret River and bought land on Caves Road planting vines in 1981 and 1982. He travelled from Perth every weekend. Only a few vineyards were established at the time. He planted Pinot and Chardonnay and used Bill Jamieson as a consultant. Bill advised him to replace the Pinot with Cabernet which he did. The first vintage in 1987 won a prize at the SGIO awards in Perth. Winemakers were Rob Bowen, Dorham Mann and Gary Baldwin then his son Edward. Colin went to California, Italy, France, New Zealand and South Africa to look at wineries. He went to Tarrawarra in Victoria to get design ideas for his property and built his buildings out of rammed earth. He also grows Semillon and was the first to blend it with Sauvignon in the 1990s. He employs 16 staff in the picking season and bottles about 10,000 cases. His son Edward oversees the vineyard. He has just built a new cellar and all the casks are underground. WA is very parochial about its wine which helped the area to flourish. He talks about the local wine association and his property Lenton Brae which is 24 acres

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