General News
19 May, 2026
Chris Naylor: wine growing journey
The May 2026 regular meeting of the Combined Probus Club of Hopetoun was held on Monday, May 4, at Uniting Church Hall at Beulah.
Vice President Tony Naylor welcomed 12 members and two guests and noted seven apologies.
Member Alan Edmonds read the Probus prayer.
Tony Naylor introduced this month’s speaker Chris Naylor, yes, his younger brother who spoke on how he began a Winery “Black Water Creek Estate” which was established in 2008.
Chris was offered a cheap loan to establish his engineering business in Donald, Buloke Shire, in 1994, in the newly established industrial estate.
Chris and Joan then decided to establish the engineering business in Beulah, as they would still have to establish a home in Donald as well as the new business.
Chris moved his Engineering Business off the farm because the steel trucks were having issues getting in and out during winter.
Moving the business to the rear of Maurie Williams Hardware and Fuel Garage and meeting up with John Fish, who informed Chris that he would be retiring in the next five years and would sell his property on the edge of Beulah.
Chris travelled from the farm to the workshop for 18 months.
Then Joan and Chris leased a home in Beulah for a couple of years.
Five years in and true to John’s word, I invited the Naylors to have dinner with them and the deal was done to purchase the property.
After a discussion with their son-in-law, Michael Whyte, the seed was sown in Chris’s mind to go ahead with a vineyard. This was after the first suggestion of a nine-hole golf course was canned.
Being a beer drinker only and Chris not drinking wine, there were lots of discussions with those in the know of the Winery business.
The Origins of the vines are Shiraz 1866 from France.
The cuttings of the Shiraz were obtained through a local grower, David Smith, who had obtained them through Great Western Winery Seppelts back in 1985, for his vineyard at the south end of Beulah.
The Cabernet grape vines were purchased from a Mildura Nursery; this after a Mildura bus driver making a delivery to Chris and a casual chat letting Chris know about his son’s nursery.
In the winter of 2008, eighty-five grapevines were planted with five different types of grapes.
Chris planted the vines at the same longitude and latitude as in France.
Chris showed us all the portable refractometer.
This is used after crushing up some grapes, pointing this to the sun, and gives you the sugar content of the grapes, which is also the alcohol content of the wine; the alcohol content is ideal at 14-16 per cent.
The first picking was held on April 11th, 2011, when 26 buckets of grapes were picked, totalling 466 Kg.
Chris’s mate Alan Klan suggested that Ron Sneb of Welshman’s Reef Winery in Newstead make wine for small winery lots. About 370 bottles were made and then stored at the winery.
The Winery name ‘Black Water Creek Estate’ came about after the floods of 2010-11, when the Yarriambiack Creek, which runs through the rear of the property, turned black because of decaying leaves.
Max Gibson expressed his gratitude to Chris for his presentation and gave him a Probus pen as a token of appreciation.
The next meeting of the Combined Probus Club of Hopetoun will be held at the Uniting Church Hall in Hopetoun on June 1, 2026, at 10.30am. for a luncheon which will cost $20 per head.
– LISA WILSON