Seppelt Winery is not only famous for its production of great Australian wines, but it is also famous for its heritage listed underground wine cellars at Great Western.
Called 'The Drives', with over 3 kms of tunnels within its network, they are the largest underground cellars in the Southern Hemisphere.
Sadly, production at this location ceased in 2016. There was no more wine, and there was great fear of losing the 150 year old heritage structures forever.
However, a lifeline has since been thrown ....
A BRIEF HISTORY
- 1865 Joseph Best and his brother Henry established vineyards in Great Western.
- 1868 Out of work/luck gold miners were employed to start digging into the granite for the underground cellars. Excavation was all done by hand, and marks from the picks and tools can still be seen on the walls and roofs of the tunnels. The Drives were created over a 60 year period.
- 1888 After the sudden death of Joseph Best, the winery was purchased by Ballarat businessman Hans Irvine.
- 1910 One of the drives was opened by Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba. According to legend, the diva bathed in a bathtub filled with 152 bottles of champagne.
- 1918 The business was sold to Irvine's friend and Australian wine pioneer Oscar Benno Seppelt.
- 1970 Seppelt was listed as a public company on the Stock Exchange.
- 1990 Seppelt (listed as SA Brewing Co) also acquired Penfolds and Lindemans, and became Southcorp Wines.
- 2016 Seppelt closed the winery at Great Western. Local businessman Daniel Ahchow managed to secure a lease to reopen The Drives as a tourist destination, to keep the heritage cellars accessible to the public.
PLEASE NOTE:
**This virtual cache is only accessible between the hours of 10am and 5pm daily**
**You do not have to purchase anything or take an underground tour in order to log this cache**
Update June 2020: Due to Covid19 restrictions, the venue is limited to 20 patrons inside, with priority given to pre-booked tours. Please be aware that you may have to wait for access should the venue be at capacity.
TO LOG THIS VIRTUAL CACHE:
- After parking in the car park, make your way to the Drives Cafe where you can walk through to the Shaft Room.
- Here you will find lots of historical information and a viewing window down into The Drives (pictured below).
- You need to take a picture of yourself, or an item relating to you (eg your GPS, or a trackable, or a pathtag or something with your caching name on it) with the viewing window in the photo, and post this picture with your log.
- Simples!
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.