excerpt from Australian SketchesPurple Plastic Folder, with Purple Plastic BindingJohn Bulls Vineyard M Box Great Westernstawell winery

Great Western. Part of a collection of Photographs by Mr. O.G. Armstrong as commissioned by the Shire of Stawell for the Inter-colonial and Paris Exhibition in Melbourne in 1866. Great Western began as a changing station on Concongella, northeast of the present Township. The gold rush in Great Western began in 1858 and soon after a post office and store opened. A Township was surveyed and lots sold in October 1858. The gold soon passed and the diggers went on, leaving a small settlement. In 1863 Jean Pierre Trouette and Emile Bampied, his brother-in-law, planted the first vines and build the first winery, thus setting a firm foundation upon which the present wine industry has been built. Telegraph poles and wires visible. Bakery visible in distance on right of road, looking west. stawell