George Sutherland Smith

George Sutherland Smith (1830 – 18 August 1903) was a Scotsman who migrated to Australia, a builder and paddle-steamer captain who turned to winemaking, with considerable success, founding the All Saints winery in the Rutherglen region of Victoria.

George S. Smith was born in Caithness, Scotland in 1830 (some sources have 1828), and with John Banks (1833–1876) trained as construction engineer apprenticed as a joiner to Banks's father. They emigrated to Australia at the time of the gold rush, arriving in Victoria in 1852. They were partners in a gold claim in Beechworth, Victoria.

They formed a partnership "Smith & Banks", builders and contractors of Wangaratta and Beechworth in 1857, engaging in a number of public contracts such as the bridge over the Edward River at Deniliquin, extensions to Beechworth prison, and built the hospital and Presbyterian church in Beechworth.

In 1872 they purchased a sawmill at Barnawatha to supply sleepers for the rapidly advancing railway. The sawmill was destroyed by fire in 1875.

He was a partner in Smith & Harris (1863–1866) then Smith & Banks (1865); they acted as a local agent for Murray & Jackson, two Americans who ran the stern-wheel paddle-steamers Settler, Lady Daly and Lady Darling, in which he had a financial interest. Smith & Banks then built their own steamer, the Teviot at Wahgunyah in 1865, and around the same time took over the Lady Darling. They then purchased the Beechworth; she was destroyed by fire at the Echuca wharf in January 1867; they rebuilt her as the Jane Eliza. Smith and Banks's store in Wahgunyah was swept away in the floods in October 1867. They sold Teviot in 1868 and built new sheds and wharves, founded the Upper Murray Navigation Line with the admission of John Foord and his Waradgery, to run between Albury and Echuca. George was owner of Lady Darling when it was destroyed by fire in 1871. They skippered Jane Eliza themselves until around 1872, when they chartered her to George Dorward, then in 1875 sold her to Heseltine & Reid and got out of the business. They had timed it well: within ten years river traffic had passed its peak; there were more boats on the Murray than ever, and newly constructed roads and railways were eating into their traffic, subsidised by States that were jealous of each other's share of the trade.

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