Frank Potts, seaman/ builder, clears land for Bleasdale vineyards at Langhorne Creek, south of Adelaide, in 1850s

Frank Potts, a map showing the proximity of Langhorne Creek, south of Adelaide, to the Wellington crossing of the River Murray, and (right) old timber from the area's red gums evident in the Bleasdale Winery cellars.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia and Bleasdale Wines.

The Bleasdale winery founded by Frank Potts in 1850 at Langhorne Creek was a byproduct of his love of building things – especially boats that were part of his life from the age of nine. That’s when Potts joined the British Navy, carrying powder to the ship guns. He served on HMS Victory (of Horatio Nelson fame) and travelled to Australia, the Middle East, India, China on HMS Challenger (1828-33).

Potts came to settle in the new colony of South Australia in 1836 aboard HMS Buffalo with first governor Captain John Hindmarsh. Starting colonial life as a carpenter, Potts built some of Adelaide’s first houses. He then worked under the first harbour master Captain Thomas Lipson, build his own ketch Petrel, and traded from Kangaroo Island selling salt at Port Adelaide.

In 1849, at Wellington on the River Murray, he built a ferry, with William Carter and George Mason, and public house for travellers to the Victorian goldfields. Crossing the Bremer River, Potts had noticed its fertile floodplains. He bought the first section of Langhorne Creek town in 1850 and, with his new wife Augusta Wenzel, began clearing land, including huge river red gums, either side of Bremer River, for a vineyard. He built a bullock-powered sawmill, watered by a bullock-powered pump, and began farming.

Augusta Wenzel’s father and three of her brothers, who’d made money at Bendigo goldfields, also took up land at Langhorne Creek, as did Henry Ayers, George Mayo, John Ridley and others.

In 1858, Potts planted shiraz and verdelho vines, Langhorne Creek’s first, and built a cellar and still. He also built redgum vats for other nearby vineyards: at Montura  and Metala (later taken over by Ronald Martin of Stonyfell) for Arthur Formby. Potts built his own-design wine press in 1860 and named his property Bleasdale after viticulturalist, the Rev. Jon Ignatius Bleasdale, in 1868.

Potts kept adding to his buildings and estate but, in later years, handed over running of the vineyards and winery to three of his sons and went back to building boats: three paddle steamers, barges and several yachts he and his sons enjoyed racing on nearby Lake Alexandrina.