Assmanshausen Winery
| Assmanshausen Winery | |
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Assmanshausen Winery residence, as seen from Sandy Creek Road, 2015
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| Location | Serisier Road, Toolburra, Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia |
| Coordinates | 28°10′30″S 151°56′20″E / 28.175°S 151.939°ECoordinates: 28°10′30″S 151°56′20″E / 28.175°S 151.939°E |
| Design period | 1870s - 1890s (late 19th century) |
| Built | c. 1870 - c. 1881 |
| Official name: Assmanshausen Winery and Residence (former), Toolburra Vineyards | |
| Type | state heritage (archaeological, built) |
| Designated | 6 January 1999 |
| Reference no. | 601289 |
| Significant period |
c. 1870-c. 1881 (fabric) 1864-1920, 1920-1940s (historical) |
| Significant components | garden - bed/s, fence/wall - perimeter, laundry / wash house, residential accommodation - main house, winery, terracing, cellar, meat house, trees/plantings |
 Location of Assmanshausen Winery in Queensland
Location of Assmanshausen Winery in Queensland
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Assmanshausen Winery is a heritage-listed former winery at Serisier Road, Toolburra, Southern Downs Region, Queensland, Australia. It was built from c. 1870 to c. 1881. It is also known as Toolburra Vineyards. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 6 January 1999.
Assmanshausen Vineyard at Sandy Creek, near Warwick was established in the 1860s by German immigrants Jacob and Elisabetha Kircher, who were also among the first in the district to establish commercial wine production on a substantial scale. In the late 19th century, Assmanshausen's award-winning wines were known throughout southern Queensland, and the winery was a popular attraction for visitors to the Warwick district.
Jacob and Elisabetha Kircher were early settlers on the southern Darling Downs, arriving at Moreton Bay in March 1855. Jacob gained employment as a gardener at Canning Downs Homestead near Warwick, when the principal stations on the southern Downs had extensive orchards and gardens. About 1857 the Kirchers left Canning Downs, Jacob working as a bushman on Rosenthal station and at various other activities, before taking up farming in the early 1860s. In December 1861 Kircher purchased adjoining portions 238 (45 acres) and 239 (45 acres), near Sandy Creek, about 7 miles northwest of Warwick, for £81. The Kirchers were among the earliest farmers in the district. They fenced and cleared their land and experimented firstly with wheat, but after successive failures turned to vine growing, the first 1,000 vines being planted c. 1864. By 1870 they had established Assmanshausen Winery - named after a celebrated Assmannshausen wine-producing district on the Rhine.
Viticulture and wine production in the Warwick district was pioneered in the mid-19th century by principally German immigrants. By 1861, Germans formed 9.75% (217 persons) of the population of the towns of Warwick, Allora, Leyburn and the rural portion of the Warwick police district. Like the Kirchers, most were farmers sponsored in the 1850s by southern Darling Downs squatters. Most of those who pioneered the wine industry on the southern Downs took up selections on the Warwick Reserve or Warwick Agricultural Reserve in the 1860s. By the mid- 1870s a number of vineyards had been established along Sandy Creek, at Swan and Deuchar's Creek, and at the Jew's Retreat on Glengallan land. Only one vigneron relied solely on the vineyard as a source of income; most also grew wheat, maize and lucerne or had established orchards, and none of the vineyards exceeded 10 acres. All made wine on the premises, and all had constructed cellars (some in stone, often two- storeyed and partly underground) in which the wine was both made and stored.
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