It’s magic hour at Yarrawalla, the 500-acre farm Lucy Etheridge shares with her family and a menagerie of pets.
The Great Dividing Range provides a backdrop to their 110 hectares of Yarra Valley Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
As Lucy parks the tractor and wraps up a busy day of livestock wrangling, she pauses a moment to look out over the dam her late grandparents called ‘the lake’.
They purchased the property in 1967 and Lucy and her husband Simon’s three children are the fourth generation to call it home.
Pelicans, swans and bird life flit about the water, while seven dogs dart across the property.
Approximately 300 docile Black Angus cows also dot the landscape.
“We’re growers,” Lucy says.
“We don’t make wine anymore.
“We farm grapes, we farm beef, and we have tourists stay in our cottage accommodation on the farm.”
There’s no typical day in the life.
“I chase my tail constantly,” she says. “Luckily, I have a lot of dogs in my life, and they are my ‘people’.
“They keep me sane.
“Anyone who knows me well, will laugh and say, ‘Oh, God, bloody Luce has got animals everywhere, including a house chook and goats in the kitchen sometimes.
“I basically have a zoo.
“I love the natural world; they keep me sane and grounded.”
• Lucy is a great advocate for grapegrowers and says they deserve a better deal. Read the full nine-page feature story in WBM – Australia’s Wine Business Magazine. Now available in print or digital.
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