Our Story
Our family has farmed along the River Murray for six generations and we enjoy a proud connection to the river and the environment in which we live and work.
Our vineyards are uniquely located between Loxton and Moorook on the Seven Mile Reach, the longest reach along the Murray River, lifeblood to its ancient red loam over limestone, diverse ecosystems, and farming community. This natural wonder is the namesake of our business and brand and is strongly linked to our heritage.
Starrs Reach Vineyard has been owned and operated by the Mason Family since 2010 and is a new chapter in this story that spans generations of the Mason family living and working on the land where they continue to emulate their ancestors as salt-of-the-earth Australian farmers who work in harmony with their land and are generous of heart, knowledge and spirit.
With this innate knowledge, the Mason Family understand their connection with the land and in turn acknowledge and respect the traditional owners of this land, the Erawirung Maru clan of the First People of the River Murray and Mallee region.
GEORGE EZEKIEL MASON
The Mason family were the very first if not one of the earliest settlers in South Australia along the Lower Murray in the 1850’s where George Ezekiel Mason’s expert knowledge of the Murray riverine environment was often sought after.
Being fluent in 7 of the 9 local languages, Mason served the State Government as a Protector of Aborigines and it was superstitiously believed by the elders that Mason was really a black man who had died and ‘jumped up a white man’.
Mason was most notably engaged by Captain Francis Cadell in 1853 to successfully guide the “Lady Augusta” from Goolwa to Echuca in a race with prize money of £2000 against Captain William Randell in the “Mary Ann” to prove that the Murray River was navigable and could support the river trade of wool and other goods.
LEO AND MAY STARRS
Starrs Reach Vineyard is named as a tribute to Leo and May Starrs, our ancestors, who arrived on the Lower Murray as a part of the World War I irrigation settlement project. This property was home to Australia’s first Holstein Friesian Dairy Cattle Stud, the prefix Sheridan being now found all over the world.
The Mason and Starrs family were happily joined in 1947 with the marriage of Des and Laura Mason (nee Starrs) bringing together many generations of farming knowledge.
FREDERICK HENRY LITCHFIELD
The Litchfield property is named after our ancestor Frederick Henry Litchfield. While Litchfield pursued many occupations including a pastoralist at Wellington on the Lower Murray, he is most known for his expeditions to identify a potential site for the capital city of Darwin and the discovery of gold in the Northern Territory and hence the Litchfield National Park is named in his honour.
Litchfield’s other passion was in experimental crops from his birthplace, Ghazipur, India. Litchfield saw great agricultural promise in the hot and arid areas of Australia where access to water existed just as we do.
