By Renee Wood
A dream expansion for Gruyere based winery Helen & Joey is one step closer to being completed after receiving a multi-million dollar grant.
The estate, that began as a cellar door in a tin shed, has welcomed $3.5 million dollars from the State Government’s Regional Tourism Investment Fund to go towards the Spring Lane, Gruyere winery’s development.
Construction is currently underway for the project that will see a 16 room boutique accommodation, 110 seat restaurant, event and conference spaces and inviting landscape designs.
The plans have been in the making since 2015 and the pandemic brought many sleepless nights for the business owners, not knowing how it will come to fruition while losing general trade.
“For the last two years, as everyone is saying we suffered a lot as a business and there were so many nights we lost a lot of sleep because we didn’t know what was going to end up,” Owner Helen Xu said.
Ms Xu said as a new migrant to Australia, this has always been a dream for herself and husband Joey to build a business like this and they were overwhelmed when they heard of the government’s support.
“You need to plunge yourself into this society and find a gate into this Australian community and to start a business like this is one on the best way,” Ms Xu said.
Ms Xu said the jobs will be doubled once the establishment is operating and further opportunities will be supported during the construction.
It’s a 20 million dollar project that’s hoping to draw in 40,000 visitors annually with international tourism a target market.
“We’re going to focus it quite heavily on overseas promotions to try to get more visitors to here, whether it’s from Europe, or the States or even from Southeast Asian,” Ms Xu said.
Sales and Marketing manager Stephen Powell said the new facilities will look to target off-peak times.
“A big part of it is general tourism but also really feeding a lot into midweek tourism as well around business, so it’s set up to really be fantastic for micro conferencing,” Mr Powell said.
Integration through to the whole farm experience with the orchard and the grape vines will also be on the cards, with landscaping works building a walking trail and decking overlooking water on the cards.
The project is expected to be completed by the end of next year.
“The business is about 40 per cent of what it used to be, but there’s a cash flow projection hold and this is where the department and the regional tourism investment fund has really come through and actually got us over the hump and start talking to us about a timeline of completion,” Mr Powell said.
Minister for Tourism Martin Pakula made the announcement and said it’s it will be a major boost to the Yarra Valley economy.
“It’s been a long time in the making Covid obviously had an impact on the timing and there is still a lot of work to be done over the next couple of years but I’m hopeful that the support in the state government will help bring this vision to fruition,” Mr Parkula said.
