If the post office were to collapse, at least he wouldn't be in it.

The homesick Swiss vigneron Jules Tétaz, coming home empty-handed from the post office yet again, asked his cousin Charles to do him a favour: write to his parents in Boudry, Switzerland, and tell them that they need not worry if the Geelong Post Office collapsed. He wouldn’t be found dead in the ruins because he’d given up going there to ask for mail! The post office never did collapse, but the livelihoods of all the Swiss vignerons in Geelong did.

In 1877, Geelong’s wine industry came to a devastating halt when the vineyards sprawling over the hills of Highton, Waurn Ponds, and Ceres were infested by the grape louse phylloxera. The Department of Agriculture ordered the removal and burning of all the grape vines around Geelong, banning replanting for a period of ten years. It took some time, but Geelong’s wine industry made a spectacular recovery.

Text: Maria Takolander