From Boudry To The Barrabool Hills: The Swiss Vignerons Of Geelong
Australian History Genealogy & Family History Victorian Local History Microhistory Swiss Immigration History Wine History 19th-Century Settlement Viticulture
First published in 1995, John Tetaz’s From Boudry to the Barrabool Hills: The Swiss Vignerons of Geelong is the only dedicated history that traces how 19th-century Swiss wine-growing families left their tiny watch-making village of Boudry, sailed to Port Phillip and transformed the Barrabool Hills into one of Victoria’s first premium wine districts. Drawing on passenger lists, diaries and local title records, Tetaz (himself a Swiss-Geelong descendant) reconstructs the lives of these émigré vignerons, their grafted European cuttings, the cellars they dynamited into limestone and the claret they shipped back to Britain. The result is a vivid micro-history that links the Neuchâtel region of Switzerland with the Geelong wine region we know today.
Collectors prize this 224-page paperback because it is crammed with previously unpublished photographs of hillside vineyards, hand-drawn survey maps and the first complete listing of Swiss family names—Tetaz, Tétaz, Richard, Junod, D’Helin—that appear on Geelong land titles between 1843 and 1890. Wine enthusiasts value the appendices that catalogue the heirloom varieties the settlers introduced (including the first documented Pinot Noir and Chasselas plantings in Victoria), while local historians use the detailed parish maps to locate long-vanished stone wineries and terrace vineyards now hidden beneath suburban streets. ISBN 9781875606276 remains the key citation for anyone researching Geelong’s Swiss heritage or Australian viticultural history.
This second-hand copy shows only light exterior scuffing and a harmless spine bump; inside, the pages are crisp, unmarked and free of dog-ears, making it an excellent reading or reference copy. A short gift inscription on the front end-paper adds provenance without obscuring text. Because the print-run was modest and the title has never been reprinted, clean copies like this are increasingly scarce in the collector market.
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