Welcome to the team
When you purchase and/or plant a vineyard, you become a vital part of South Australia’s biosecurity team and a key contributor to keeping South Australia phylloxera free.
Biosecurity is a system to reduce the risk of entry, establishment and spread of pests, diseases and weeds that threaten our industry, environment and communities. Whether you are new to the industry or you’re adding to your vineyard holdings, it’s our job to tell you about your biosecurity responsibilities.
Vinehealth Australia has provided more than 120 years of continuous service to the South Australian grape and wine industries and is governed by the Phylloxera and Grape Industry Act 1995 (the Act).
Every vineyard owner in South Australia with 0.5 hectares or more of grapevines is legally required to be registered with Vinehealth Australia and contribute to funding biosecurity management of grapevines in the state. This means:
- Providing Vinehealth your current contact details and keeping these up to date
- Providing Vinehealth your grapevine planting records and keeping these up to date
- Paying an annual contribution to Vinehealth Australia to fund biosecurity activities
Your contact details and planting records will be retained on Vinehealth Australia’s Register (see below) for the purposes of biosecurity management. We maintain strict governance around the privacy of your information and under our Act, cannot disclose this information to a third party without your express permission.
The Register
An important part of Vinehealth Australia’s role is maintaining a current Register. This is undertaken with the help of vineyard owners through annual record reviews, our mandated link into the property sale/transfer process, and detection of new vineyards through purchasing of aerial imagery.
The Vinehealth Australia Register holds:
- The legal entity name (business name), which must be the same as the name recorded on the land title;
- Contact details of the legal landowner, including owner/director name, postal address, email and phone number;
- Contact details of up to two alternative primary contacts (e.g. Vineyard Manager or Operator; Accounts/Finance; or Admin person), including role, name, postal address, email and phone number; and
- Specified privileges of each of the alternative primary contacts, which may include
To amend the details held in the Register for your property, please perform updates via the Grape Industry Kiosk, your online portal access to the Register. Alternatively, you can make changes by emailing admin@vinehealth.com.au.
While amendments to your records can be made at any time during the year, you are required to notify Vinehealth Australia within three months of a change to ownership, contact details and/or planting details. Complete or substantial removals of plantings should also be reported to Vinehealth Australia as soon as possible.
Annual Notice of Assessment
Under the Act, registered vineyard owners are required to pay an annual contribution to enable Vinehealth Australia to perform its primary functions. Vines in the ground, living or dead, are included for the calculation of the contribution payable by a vineyard owner.
The quantum of this contribution is in part, calculated based on the area of vines in the ground, living or dead. As a result, registered Vineyard Owners are required under the Act to maintain accurate planting details at all times.
Vinehealth Australia issues an annual Notice of Assessment to registered Vineyard Owners in May for the 12 months prior (1 May to 30 April). Based on the rules approved by the Minister as specified by notice in the Government Gazette, registered vineyard owners are required to pay a contribution for the 2023-24 levy period calculated as the sum of a base fee of $150 and a variable fee of $9.98 per hectare of planted vines.
If you are leasing your property to a third party, it is important to establish who will be responsible for paying the annual notice of assessment and that this party’s contact details are maintained as current in the Register. The liability will ultimately remain with the legal landowner.
Biosecurity information
We have a wealth of biosecurity information and tools that are freely available to you via our website. Information includes:
- Biosecurity posters and fact sheets
- Interactive maps
- Tools to help you determine relevant quarantine requirements for the movement of pest and disease vectors, such as machinery and equipment
- Tools to assist with best practice farm-gate hygiene practices
- Pest and disease information
- Biosecurity projects
- News
Our monthly e-newsletter includes biosecurity information, and you will receive our e-news automatically to the email address you have supplied. If there are others in your business who should receive our e-news, please sign them up.
We also have created handy factsheets and posters which you can freely download, to assist your efforts in maintaining strong biosecurity activities:
- About grape phylloxera
- Top 10 farm-gate hygiene activities factsheet
- Biosecurity planning for hosting visitor factsheet & Visitor sign-in register template
- Footwear and small hand tool disinfestation protocol
- Pests and diseases poster (further related documents can be found on the website)
- Farm-gate biosecurity sign order form & Grower disinfestation kit order form
- Wine Tourism Biosecurity signage order form
Our friendly team is here to support you, so please give us a call on (08) 8273 0550 if we can be of assistance.
General wine industry information
The South Australian wine industry is supported by state and regional grape and wine industry organisations. Information about South Australian wine industry organisations can be found here.
For general viticultural enquiries, please contact the AWRI Help Desk:
AWRI Helpdesk
08 8313 6600
helpdesk@awri.com.au