Project Ag-Resilience: Yarra Valley Sustainability Information Session > Start Here

Good sustainability is good business — and this session will show you exactly how.

Whether you're already on the sustainability journey or not sure where to start, this free afternoon session is designed for Yarra Valley winegrape growers and winemakers who want practical answers, not theory.

Brought to you by Wine Yarra Valley in partnership with AgriBusiness Yarra Valley (Project Ag-Resilience), Wine Victoria and the Australian Wine Research Institute, this session brings national experts and local producers together in one of the Yarra Valley's iconic wine venues — talking about what sustainability means for your business specifically.

What you'll hear

The session is structured as a practical journey from commitment through to confidence — three expert presentations followed by an honest conversation with three of your fellow Yarra Valley producers who've actually done it.

Bronwyn Koll — Project Ag-Resilience Co-ordinator, AgriBusiness Yarra Valley Bronwyn opens the session with the big picture: why sustainability is moving from optional to expected across all agricultural industries, and what the Project Ag-Resilience program — funded through the Australian Government's National Heritage Trust — can offer Yarra Valley producers right now. She'll explain what the Project Ag-Resilience sustainability commitment involves (it costs nothing and commits you to nothing more than an intent to improve), and how it opens the door to funded training and support.

Mardi Longbottom — General Manager, Engagement & Sustainability, AWRI / Sustainable Winegrowing Australia The national head of Sustainable Winegrowing Australia explains the program plainly — how it actually works, what membership gives you, and the step-by-step pathway from sign-up through to certification. Mardi will walk through the SWA platform in practical terms: what you enter, what the dashboard shows you, how long it takes, and what it costs at each stage (including the fact that you can explore the platform for free before spending a cent). If you've ever avoided SWA because it felt complicated or all-or-nothing, this is the session that replaces assumptions with facts.

Hayley Purbrick — Sustainability and Innovation Lead, Wine Victoria Hayley closes the presentations with a short, punchy session on data as a business tool. Her argument: most businesses already have the raw material — power bills, diesel invoices, water records, freight costs. The SWA framework gives you a structure to turn that into a baseline and track improvement year on year. Start where you are, it doesn't need to be perfect, and instinct is more powerful with evidence. Better data leads to better decisions.

The producer panel — hear it from people who've done it

After the presentations, we hand the floor to three SWA-involved Yarra Valley producers who will share their honest experience of the sustainability journey — the myths that turned out to be wrong, where they got stuck, and the wins they didn't see coming.

Lucy Etheridge — Owner, Yarrawalla Vineyard Lucy is a farmer, agribusiness graduate and passionate advocate for giving grape growers a voice in the wine industry conversation. She returned to run the family's 500-acre property in Gruyere in 2018 and has been a Sustainable Winegrowing Australia member and biodiversity case study contributor ever since. Lucy has presented on SWA alongside Mardi Longbottom at events across the Yarra Valley and Geelong, and brings a grower-first, family-farm perspective to the sustainability journey — including the honest account of what it looks like before certification.

Steve Faulkner — Viticulture Manager, Oakridge Wines Steve manages viticulture across Oakridge's vineyard operations in the Yarra Valley and has steered the business through SWA accreditation across both its vineyard and winery — one of only a handful of Yarra Valley operations to have done so. His perspective on navigating the combined vineyard-and-winery process, building internal systems that don't add to the workload, and the operational changes that came out of it will be particularly useful for producers managing both sides of the operation.

Leah Mottin — Winemaker, Domaine Chandon Australia Leah is a winemaker at Domaine Chandon, one of the Yarra Valley's largest and most established wine operations and an SWA member since the program's launch. Chandon's sustainability journey — including a published SWA case study on enhancing biodiversity — gives Leah a rich body of experience to draw on. Her perspective on how a large corporate operation approaches and benefits from SWA provides an important counterpoint to the small-operator story, and demonstrates that the program scales in both directions.

What you'll take away

• A clear, honest picture of what SWA membership actually involves — and why it's less daunting than you think

• An understanding of how your existing data can reduce costs, improve efficiency and support better decision-making — starting from your current invoices and records

• Knowledge of what markets are asking for — and how sustainability credentials are opening doors, particularly in export

• Information on funding support available through Project Ag-Resilience

• A concrete next step tailored to where you are right now — whether that's signing the Project Ag-Resilience commitment, joining SWA, booking a certification workshop, or simply understanding your benchmarks for the first time

This is the start of something

Subject to interest from this session, we're planning a series of follow-up workshops — including a dedicated SWA training session for those ready to go further. Coming along on 14 May helps shape what happens next for the Yarra Valley.

📅 Thursday 14 May 2026 🕑 Doors open 1:30 pm · Session 2:00–4:30 pm 📍 Domaine Chandon, 727 Maroondah Highway, Coldstream 💰 Free to attend 🍷 Wine (please bring a bottle of your winery's own wine to share) and nibbles to follow from 4:30 pm

Places are limited — register now to secure yours.

Project Ag-Resilience is supported by the Australian Government through funding from the National Heritage Trust under the Climate Smart Agriculture Program (2025–2028).