The village that fought and lost a war against the new water merchants

The tiny gold-mining village of Stanley sits quietly - most of the time - on its plateau in the foothills of Victoria’s north-east high country, its vineyards and groves of walnut and orchards of apple, stone fruits and berries quenched by pure water from beneath the ground. 

David McIntyre , Stanley nut grower, is concerned about water mining in the district.

There’s a little Athenaeum - the old fancy name for a community library - at the crossroads at the centre of town.

Its fine collection of books date to a time when gold miners and their families felt the need for tranquil retreat from the often vulgar doings on the wild diggings. The first librarian was appointed in 1863.

Late last year and right through the summer, Stanley’s Athenaeum hosted an exhibition called “Water and Mining: Water management on the goldfields”.

It told the story of how “water merchants” of the 19th century made fortunes by diverting the flow of the Nine Mile Creek - Stanley’s old name - to serve diggings down the hill.

Read Tony Wright’s story in The Age - “The village that fought and lost a war against the new water merchants.”

How climate change and ‘smoke taint’ could kill Napa wine

NICK GOLDSCHMIDT HAS been lucky so far. A wildfire has burned more than 8,000 acres just north of his vineyards in Geyserville, California, but so far his vines are OK. So is his house in Healdsburg, roughly midway between Geyserville and a 36,000-acre fire that destroyed more than 2,800 homes in Santa Rosa.

A vineyard on Napa's Silverado Trail is seen next
to land charred by the Atlas Fire on October 11,
 2017 in Napa, CA.

But now, amid the charred, empty spaces that scar northern California’s winegrowing region, under skies yellowed by smoke, Goldschmidt has a race to win. Wildfires can ruin the flavor of wine grapes, a problem called smoke taint. “I’ve worked with smoke before,” Goldschmidt says. “It is not an easy thing to fix. But in my experience, it’s more about contact time. So the key thing is, if you have vineyards near the fire, you’ve got to get the grapes off.”

Depending on wind, smoke from the Atlas Fire could potentially reach Goldschmidt’s Napa vineyard, where about 15 percent of the fruit remains to be harvested. He now plans to harvest the rest by the weekend.

Read the Wired story by Adam Rogers - “How climate change and ‘smoke taint’ could kill Napa wine.”