Creek Connect is your gateway to learning about all the ways to be a part of our great wine industry.
So many pathways, so many areas of interest, more than just vines and wine.
From the field to the consumer, where might you play your part in our dynamic industry?
Find your career in the Creek.
There’s a great new national resource about careers in Australia’s viticulture and wine sector, made available by the national industry body, Wine Australia.
Mitch attends to the daily duties involved in his family vineyard nursery business. From overseeing the start of a dormant grape vine cutting all the way through to them being planted in their nursery; grown into a young rootling and sent not only locally, but throughout Australia. Recently Mitch has applied for a diploma in viticulture. It’s a 3 year course that will build on his viticulture skills. Mitch is sure this course will give him the skills to be able to take over and manage the family business.
Stella used to live in London, and whilst there fell in love with wine and wanted to explore it from where it starts, so working in the vineyards & in the winery.
Stellas wine career has seen her working in the winery cellar and in the lab undertaking data entry. She has since moved into her current role where her working week is now split between the lab and the office.
One of her favourite things about working in this industry is that there’s always room to grow, to move into new avenues, to improve.
Growing up in Switzerland, Caroline had the opportunity to travel to Australia to undertake an exchange program; meeting her now husband and starting her winemaking career.
Carolines role takes her to the vineyard to look at how the grape is growing and how the vineyards look in general and thinking about the style of wine it may create that year – because every vintage is different. She then moves indoors to perfect the wine through analysis and tasting.
At an early age Travis decided school wasn’t the best fit for him, and at 15 began to undertake a TAFE course and has been working ever since. Now in his current role he manages 5 full time staff and working contractors. His day ranges from foliar spraying to limit disease
in vineyards through to irrigation and fertigation management to ensure vine health is good. Trav says its really important to be able to get along with people, as I work not only alongside my team but contractors, suppliers and all sorts of people.
Kate was attracted to the role of Cellar Door Manager due its varied nature. She isn’t just sitting at a desk staring at a wall. You get a huge variety of people coming past cellar door, hearing their stories. She takes great satisfaction in known that she is helping to grow a business from the very day to day tasks she undertakes.
In this role Kate constantly is growing and always seeking opportunities to learn more and believes its important to educate herself further in areas such as people management, wine, where the wine comes from and anything to do with budgeting
Will has always been around vineyards, having grown up on the family farm.
He loved seeing things grow and growing things; and this aided in him leaning towards agriculture as a career. This study has given him a broad idea of agriculture along with the importance of business management, but agronomy has always been his end goal. The best part of being an Agronomist for Will, is being outside all day, he just loves seeing how much things can change (in the vineyard) each week. It’s pretty exciting seeing the grapes go from flowers , or from little tiny shoots to big purple bunches. It’s really interesting and very exciting.
Robyns wine industry career started when the winery was very much in its infancy. She began undertaken a ‘little bit of work’ with her husband there, which rapidly grew ove the next few years as a full time job within the Cellar Door.
All it’s facets from tourism, production through to doing fabulous dinners, tastings and festivals. There are a lot of skills that can be learnt within this industry and it can take you anywhere around Australia or the world.
Originally Tom left school to pursue a career as a carpenter; but realising
this role wasn’t for him. An opportunity of a “little job” turned into a full-time position as a vineyard contractor. Toms day starts early and takes him across many grape growing regions in South Australia undertaking a variety of roles and uses a vast range of machinery.
Tom encourages anyone to ‘just give it a crack’ and be open to the opportunities as there are definitely lots of jobs around. Tom said he really has the best job in the world.
Development and delivery of this project constitutes part of the South Australian Wine Industry Development program as administered by the South Australian Wine Industry Association and was made possible from the support and funding provided by the South Australian government through Primary Industries and regions SA.
79 Bridge Rd, Langhorne Creek SA 5255 Ph: 85373362
79 Bridge Rd, Langhorne Creek SA 5255 Ph: 85373362
