Roam Rutherglen - Winery Walkabout celebrates its golden jubilee in 2023

With an annual average of 759.65 millimetres, it beat the previous record set in 1950 by 144 millimetres, proving it doesn't really rain until it pours.

Over winter of that same year, other elements were brewing in North East Victoria where Winery Walkabout came to fruition.

"Tourists with a taste for something special visited the North East this weekend to take part in a 'Wine Walkabout', a tour of wineries in the district," The Border Morning Mail reported (June 10, 1974).

"Most wineries had craft, pottery and painting displays and at Bullers Calliope winery, there were also leatherwork and wood-turning demonstrations."

Having been devised to shed the image of its rowdy predecessor Rutherglen Wine Festival (1967 to early 1970s), Winery Walkabout initially involved only 10 wineries stretching across the wider North East.

They comprised Baileys Winery at Taminick; Brown Brothers at Milawa; Buller Wines, Campbells Wines, Chambers Winery, Morris Wines and Stanton and Killeen Wines at Rutherglen; Gayfer's Winery at Chiltern; All Saints Estate at Wahgunyah; and Gehrig Bros Winery at Barnawartha.

Today the newly-branded Roam Rutherglen - Winery Walkabout remained the longest-running winery festival in the country.

Hosted by the Winemakers of Rutherglen, it will celebrate its golden jubilee over the King's Birthday long weekend.

From humble beginnings in 1974, Roam Rutherglen - Winery Walkabout will this year involve 15 wineries from the Rutherglen and Wahgunyah wine districts alone.

This year's participating wineries will be All Saints Estate, Anderson Winery, Andrew Buller Wines, Chambers Rosewood Vineyards, Cofield Wines, De Bortoli Rutherglen Estate, John Gehrig Wines, Jones Winery and Vineyard, Lake Moodemere Estate, Olive Hills Estate, Pfeiffer Wines, Scion, Stanton and Killeen, St Leonards Vineyard and Warrabilla Wines.

Winemakers of Rutherglen effectively put the region on the map by being at the forefront of modern-day winery tourism from the outset.

Its latest economic analysis done on the winery festival in 2019 found that the event had generated $4 million in regional economic activity for the Rutherglen region.

More than 10,000 visitors are expected to visit Rutherglen and surrounds as part of festival activities planned over the King's Birthday long weekend.

Accommodation was booked solid at Rutherglen this weekend while more than 3000 visitors would travel to the festival on the shuttle bus services from surrounding regional cities and towns including Albury-Wodonga, Wangaratta, Beechworth, Yarrawonga and Corowa.

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Winemakers of Rutherglen executive officer Annalee Nolan said collectively the festival employed about 300 people over the weekend.

She said Roam Rutherglen ticket sales reached 8000 by mid-week with tickets available throughout the festival.

"In 2023, we have deliberately capped our numbers and redesigned the event to allow people to stay longer, visit more wineries and 'Roam' our Rutherglen region," she said.

"Our ultimate aim is to have a safe and sustainable event for another 50 years.

"The event itself has been a driver in regional awareness and repeat visitation for guests to the Rutherglen."

Stanton and Killeen Wines managing director Wendy Killeen, representing one of the festival's original participating wineries, said tourism was everybody's business.

She said the multi-generational festival had flourished since the mid-1970s.

"It's a very generational festival," she said.

"Every year we meet people who are talking about how many years they've been coming along to the festival and their parents before them."

Originally, winery staff would don colonial costumes inspired by the Gold Rush era to serve festival-goers in plain clothes.

Today you'd be hard-pressed to find a festival-goer in civilian clothes!

The Winery Walkabout Passport was introduced at the first event in 1974, encouraging patrons to get a stamp from participating wineries within 12 months.

The Winery Walkabout Collector's Series Muscat - an idea by Don Chambers - remains the prize for finishing the passport trail.

This year the Rutherglen Winery Digital Passport was added to the mix along with a continuous hop-on, hop-off bus loop taking in all participating wineries.

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