Peter Crebert

by W.J. Goold
(Reprinted from Newcastle & Hunter District Historical Society
Vol.2 August 1948, part XI p.161-164.)

The Windeyers, John Eales, Dr Mitchell, King, Kelman, Doyle, and many other landholders interested in vine cultivation, took  advantage of this opportunity to secure expert labour from the vine making districts of Germany.

On the night of July 8, 1851, the Tweed Factory was totally destroyed by fire,  a disaster that meant a loss of 26,000 pounds to Dr Mitchell, and wiped out an industry that had given every promice of being of great value to the district.

Work in the vineyard was abandoned, and for a time Crebert, who was a handy man and a good rough carpenter, was employed by the Doctor at Burwood (Merewether). He cut and squared the girders in the tunnel that led to the smelting works, and other jobs of a similar nature on the Burwood Estate.

In the year 1853, Mr Charles Bolton (the Sub-Collector of Customs at Newcastle), who had an area of land on the river front at what was known as "The Folly", offered it for sale in five-acre blocks.

Crebert decided to secure a block of land with the intention of cultivating a vineyard and orchard of his own, and he purchased one of these five-acre blocks for 16 pounds 5/-. He cleared a small portion and erected a slab and bark hut; here the Creberts made their home. It was a lonely desolate place in those days, surrounded with scrub and timber, and having no nearby neighbours.

In later years, Mrs Crebert used to recount how scared she was  when her husband went away to work; how she would, at first, lock herself in the hut. Her particular aversion was the snakes that abounded in the thick scrub.

Crebert secured work at the Australian Agricultural  Company's Borehole Colliery (Hamilton) where he built and repaired skips. Each day he walked to and from the pit, and whenever work was slack he took jobs of building slab huts, wherever he could get them. But any spare time he could get he devoted to his land, where he and his wife toiled - clearing, ploughing, and planting vines and fruit trees. In 1855, Crebert purchased an additional five acres from Mr Bolton, but these cost him 100 pounds, or 20 pounds per acre. (Note the increase in land values in two years!) When his vines began to bear fruit, Crebert gave up his outside work, and devoted his whole time to his vineyard.

In the year 1859 he made the first wine produced in the Newcastle district. It was also in this year that he sent money to Germany to bring out his aged parents, and provided them with a home. When his sons were old enough they joined in the work of the vineyard, and it was hard work, for Peter Crebert was in every way a handy-man and could turn his hand to almost everything. He built a plant for crushing and pressing, small at first, but each year additions were made. By 1870, Crebert had three presses at work, also a crusher which was modern in every way. Sheds and wine cellars were built by Crebert and his sons, the stone for the cellars being secured from the land on which now stands the residence of the manager of the B.H.P.Steelworks (Belle Vista? ed.) Timber for the buildings was taken from the land as trees were cut down, quared and pit sawn. Crebert also did his own coopering, and made a number of 300 gallon casks, hogsheads, and small casks.

During 1870 Peter Crebert purchased 11 acres of Crown land, which later was the site of the Sydney Soap and Candle Company's works. This land was heavily timbered, and the price was 11 pounds per acre at public action. Crebert had it gradually cleared, and another vineyard planted, and about half of the eleven acres was under cultivation. But this land did not prove such a success as his original holding, for the reasons that the fumes from the smelting works which had been established nearby (Port Waratah), and a grub that affected the vines, soon ruined the crops.

Crebert then made a deal with Mr Charles Upfold, a Newcastle soap manufacturer, to exchange his land for another block near his original vineyard. This transaction led to the building of the soap works, which later brought a number of families to reside nearby. Crebert's "Folly Gardens" were in those days well-known throughout the district, and on Sundays (and often during the week) parties would drive out to the Folly to walk through the Gardens and purchase fruits and wines.

Those days were when the Port of Newcastle was full of deep sea sailing vessels, and often the skippers would take a cab out to Creberts to sample the wine, and purchase a supply for their long sea voyages.

Wines were sold at 3/- per gallon. or 1/6 per bottle; grapes at threepence per lb.; peaches, plums, oranges and other fruits were also on sale. Orange tree flourished here, one tree in particular being 30 feet high, and from which 120 dozen have been taken in one picking.

It was not uncommon for Crebert to dispose of half a ton of grapes and 100 bottles of wine, in addition to other fruits, on a Sunday afternoon. All this was the result of one family's hard, gruelling work, which transformed an area of scrub land into a beautiful vineyard and orchard.

These were the pioneering days, when money was scarce, and initiative, confidence, and reql hard work were the only aids a pioneer had.

Such pioneers were Peter Crebert and his wife; Germans who landed in Australia unable to speak a word of English, with no capital, but with a firm resolution to make their home under the sunny skies of Australia - and they succeeded.

Peter Crebert died in 1895 aged 72 years, and was buried in St. Andrew's Cemetary at Mayfield. His wife died in 1914 aged 87 years, and was buried at Sandgate.

The vineyards and orchard have long disappeared, even the title of "The Folly" has been forgotten (it is now Mayfield East) - but the name of these old pioneers is perpetuated by Crebert Street, which was a portion of his land.

Exerpts from: The Aldine Centennial History of New South Wales Illustrated, Embracing Sketches and Portraits of Her Noted People; The Rise and Progress of her Varied Enterprises; and Illustrations of her Boundless Wealth, Together with Maps of Latest Survey. In Two Volumes, 1888. by W. Frederic Morrison. Vol. II Sydney: The Aldine Publishing Company, 1888.