History

On Saturday May 6, 1815, Governor Lachlan Macquarie, on his historic journey over the Blue Mountains noted in his journal "…we reached a fine and fertile valley near the foot of the mountains with a very pretty brook of fresh water running through it…. I have named this valley "Winbourn-Dale"…"

Gold had been discovered in the Bathurst area in 1850. But it was in 1864 that an Italian prospector, Carlo Giuseppe Fontana, discovered gold on the slopes of the hills of Winbourn-Dale. This gold discovery was named Fontana Reef, and the hill Mount Fontana in his memory. It is here that we planted our vines in 1998.