History Repeats

Illawarra Mercury

Saturday January 12, 2008

LOUISE TURK

Like pioneer Alexander Berry before him, Colin Bishop has turned around the fortunes of the South Coast village of Coolangatta. LOUISE TURK talks to the man whose vision has ensured the area's rich history lives on at the award-winning winery and resort.

It was hardly the promised land when a young Colin Bishop first wandered through his newly-acquired farming tract at Coolangatta.

The 100-ha allotment at Shoalhaven Heads was bordered by dilapidated fencing and the pastures were covered with verdant weeds and rubbish.

Yet it was 1947 and opportunities of this kind were rare due to the disruptive effect of World War II which had dragged on beyond people's expectations.

Bishop, then 25, secured the land with a bank loan guaranteed by his father and with 400 pounds, borrowed from his mother, he bought 10 head of cattle.

He worked all day and into the night running the dairy and re-fencing the land, surviving those early months with frugality and drudgery.

Within 12 months of the dairy's operation, Bishop was able to repay his mother. By 1950, Bishop and his new bride Norma were able to acquire one of the run-down buildings near their land.

The farm formed part of the once-thriving Coolangatta settlement, established by pioneer Alexander Berry in 1822 and which grew in his lifetime to become a self-supporting village that exported goods to Asia and Europe.

The Bishops made their new home in the former residence of Berry's servants, which had also been used as a storeroom. The old servant's quarters were in a tumbledown state.

"There was never a moment to spare running the dairy farm," Bishop muses. "The farm was almost in as big a mess as the buildings. It was terrible."

Gradually, throughout the 1950s, the Bishops expanded. They had five children, increased the number of cattle, and bought more buildings that were once the pride of Coolangatta village. By the early 1960s, Bishop owned all the surrounding historic buildings and had acquired additional farming land for his cows.

What happened next would be a trial by fire for Bishop. The enormous stresses that he shouldered in the ensuing years would have broken many men.

Years earlier Bishop had stayed at home to help his encumbered parents run the family dairy while three of his siblings were away serving in WWII. The burden on his parents, now deceased, of operating a dairy farm short-handed still makes 86-year-old Bishop weep.

"Just get a bulldozer in and you've got a beautiful block there to build a new home," was one of several suggestions made to Bishop in the 1960s.

Most of the reactions were negative when Bishop boldly announced that he would restore the Coolangatta site as an historical village. "You're mad", was a common response.

Bishop, who owned all the area and buildings around Berry's old homestead, had acquired the property for the sole purpose of dairying. The magnificent Great Hall, as it stands today after restoration, was once used by Bishop to stack hay bales and store feed.

But with a growing concern that the physical remnants of Australia's colonial history were vanishing rapidly, pressure was applied on Bishop to consider a restoration project. "People began asking me questions: What are you going to do with the place? Shouldn't it be restored for historic purposes?," reflects Bishop.

Restoration is a costly business and the Bishops faced added challenges. In the decades before the 1950s, the estate was left to deteriorate and was on the verge of destruction. There had been several incidents of vandalism, culminating in a fire in 1946 which destroyed the Coolangatta homestead built by Berry in 1823. Some buildings, including the old coach house, had to be demolished for safety reasons.

Coolangatta, the site of the first European settlement on the South Coast, was a resplendent model of colonial success in the 1800s and, less than a century later was heading towards an ignominious end. Until the Bishops stepped in.

Bishop began negotiations with the then Shoalhaven Shire Council, offering an opportunity for council to be part of a project to establish exhibits and an historic museum at Coolangatta.

Council, advised by the National Trust and NSW Parks and Wildlife Authority, began a feasibility study. But two years after the initial offer was made, council revealed it had no official plans for the site in the near future. Not deterred, the Bishops decided the only way forward was to establish a commercial venture with their own money.

"We decided ultimately to attempt the restoration project as a motel complex," Bishop says.

The initial two-year restoration project began in 1970 under the management of builder Stewart Priddle. The Bishop family has since carried out further extensive improvement works.

While reviving convict-built buildings was an enormous challenge for Priddle and his team, the ongoing financial problems for Bishop were exhaustive.

"I applied to the banks to get an initial loan and there were lots of knockbacks," he says. "Finally I went to my bank manager and asked him what I had to do to get this project underway. He said: 'Come in, and tell me you've raised 50 per cent of the necessary funds'. And I did that, three weeks later, thanks to the efforts of my accountant Tom Tait."

Then, halfway through the project, the bank threatened foreclosure. Bishop had an emergency meeting with executives and a crisis was averted. Bank loans were stretched to the limit and any income made through the estate went back into further restoration.

Finally, in December 1971, the Bishops opened nine rooms to the public. Coolangatta Historic Village, with 20 accommodation rooms and a restaurant, was officially opened on June 24, 1972. A public event was held on the grounds, complete with a re-enactment of Berry's landing and period costumes to mark the sesquicentenary of settlement in the Shoalhaven.

"It's been a very tiresome job but now, in retrospect, it's also been very rewarding, very rewarding. I feel a real sense of achievement," Bishop says.

Alexander Berry selected the fertile land at the foot of Coolangatta Mountain to set up his headquarters, after exploring every inlet between Wollongong and Batemans Bay. With its proximity to the Shoalhaven River and the Pacific Ocean, Coolangatta was earmarked by Berry as the best site on the South Coast for his commercial enterprises with business partner Edward Wollstonecraft.

The two men obtained a grant of 10,000 acres (4047ha) and 100 convicts from the NSW Government in 1822. Shortly after settlement, the estate bristled with the activity of mills, workshops, tradesmen and artisans. Within a few years, it was exporting thoroughbred horses to India, cedar to Europe, and cattle, tobacco, cheese and wheat to Sydney.

The bricks and mortar the Bishop family continued restoring through the 1970s and 1980s resounded with this rich history. And Berry's story remains a source of inspiration for Bishop.

"I deeply respect him," Bishop says. "He was an amazing man who achieved what very few individuals were capable of achieving."

Berry's pioneering spirit seems to have lingered in the buildings the Bishops revived. Not long after its opening, Coolangatta Estate slowly started making money. Its "English" ambience and landscaped grounds made it a desirable location for weddings. The Thursday night bush-banquets in the estate's Great Hall also became an institution in the Shoalhaven.

But it was a decision in 1988, to take the estate back to its roots, that would earn the family its greatest accolades.

Berry planted the first crop of grapes at his beloved Coolangatta in the mid 1800s. After his death in 1873, the vines were removed to capitalise on pasture.

With Berry's earlier efforts in mind, Greg Bishop, son of Colin and Norma, planted sauvignon blanc grapes on the eastern slopes of the mountain, naming the vineyard Cullengatty. In 1990, the inaugural vintage of sauvignon blanc was hand-picked at the estate and sent to Tyrrells in the Hunter to be vinified.

Since then the estate has grown to become the largest wine producer in the Shoalhaven and the most awarded winery on the South Coast.

The 130ha Coolangatta Estate - which features 35 accommodation rooms, four dining areas, and wine cellar - also has scooped numerous tourism awards.

Coolangatta Mountain has always loomed large in Colin Bishop's life.

"I was born one mile south of here," he explains from his home on the estate that he shares with second wife Winsome.

The dairy farm where Bishop spent his early years shared a boundary fence with the estate, then owned by the Hay family, who were cousins of the Berry's.

Bishop has only ever lived at the foothills of the mountain.

Then just before Christmas 2007, he dropped a bombshell on his family. He had bought a place near Nowra for his retirement with Winsome. The pair is expected to move in mid-year.

Bishop has left the management of the estate in his children's hands. Megan, Greg, and Robyn are employed at the estate; Paul is an architect and Bruce a tourism operator.

"I'm taking a back seat by virtue of my age and the next generation has to be given a bit of freedom to do things their way," he says. "You reach your use-by-date and physically I reached that some time ago."

Bishop is leaving Coolangatta but its mountain will continue to rise before him.

"If you look out from the elevated back section (of the new house), over the paddocks, you can see Coolangatta Mountain in the background ... you can see it from the back of my house," Bishop says.

© 2008 Illawarra Mercury

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