Did you know that the Australian wine industry – now a $45.5 billion industry – can trace its beginnings to the early days of the QVB? Henry John Lindeman – renowned first as a surgeon in his native England, and later a vigneron in his adopted home of Australia – was one of the QVB’s first tenants and a character who left an indelible mark on Australia’s winemaking industry.

The story of how Lindeman Wine’s arrived at the QVB in 1900 starts in England when the young surgeon became disenchanted with his prospects and decided to migrate to Australia with his wife. Settling initially in Gresford, a small township in the Hunter Valley, Lindeman established a medical practice but soon recognised the area’s potential for wine production. He travelled to the wine regions of France and Germany to learn the trade, before returning home to establish his property, Cawarra Estate, as one of Australia’s first wineries.

Despite setbacks – including a devastating fire in 1851 that destroyed much of what he had built – Lindeman displayed resilience and entrepreneurial spirit, heading to the Victorian goldfields as both doctor and miner to fund the rebuilding of Cawarra Estate during the Gold Rush. Impressed by the wines he tried in northern Victoria, particularly Rutherglen, he extended his operations, eventually establishing vineyards in the region. By 1870, he was operating as one of Australia’s premier winemakers and exporting his wines to the United Kingdom.

Throughout the 1870s Lindeman gained acclaim for his new-world wines and was part of a group of burgeoning winemakers that established Australia as a reputable wine-making nation. When he passed away in 1881 Lindeman left his business to his sons, who decided to relocate the business’ headquarters to Sydney in the newly opened QVB. The building’s basement became a large wine cellar, and it's often said that the rich wine aroma would pervade the entire building during this period. As the decades passed, the Lindeman family continued to look for opportunities to invest in prime vineyards in the Hunter Valley region like the Ben Ean property (where a cellar door is now located) and the Barossa Valley, Coonawarra, Padthaway and Clare Valley.

Today you can still enjoy a glass of Lindeman’s wine in many bars and pubs around the country, a testament to Henry John Lindeman’s enduring legacy.