Internationally acclaimed olive grove listed with mentorship offer
A multi-award-winning South Gippsland olive grove, world-renowned for its premium extra virgin olive oil and boutique production process, has been listed for sale, and its long-time owners are offering to mentor its next custodians.
Grassy Spur Olives, at 32 Moyes Road, Stony Creek, covers 10.12 hectares of rolling, lush countryside just two hours south-east of Melbourne, and about an hour from the stunning beaches of Wilsons Promontory.
The picturesque property combines a thriving agribusiness with a relaxed rural lifestyle, producing gold-medal-winning olive oil from four varieties of fruit hand-picked from more than 1500 trees. There are also 100 truffle-inoculated oak trees and a busily buzzing apiary that produces another boutique product, Grassy Spur Pure Honey.
The property is being offered for sale via expressions of interest, without a price guide, through Ray White Leongatha’s Peter Bellingham and David County.
Passionate owners Peter and Helen Wright are preparing to retire, but are committed to ensuring a smooth handover, offering all their secrets for the first two harvests.
The couple planted their first 800 trees in 2005, steadily expanding the grove and adding bees to aid pollination. Over the past 14 years, they’ve brought in the same team of seven farmhands to help with harvesting, which typically occurs in April, with the oil processed and bottled on-site and sold locally.
For Peter Wright, who also assists with the production of many neighbouring farmers’ produce, the joy has been in creating something from nothing.
“I think the highlight is to get it to where it is today,” he says. “When we bought the place almost 20 years ago, it was just a turnout paddock for a local dairy farmer – absolutely nothing on it except a couple of cypress trees, which we knocked down.
“It probably took about five years before we could actually harvest an olive from the trees.”
“Gradually, we built the house, put in a whole lot of equipment sheds, and later installed the processor – because we wanted everything to happen on site. We grow it, we harvest it, we process it, and we bottle it. Nothing leaves the property except the finished product.”
That hands-on approach has delivered consistent success, with Grassy Spur Olives earning gold medals at the New York International Olive Oil Competition and national recognition from the Australian Olive Association since 2011.
“Every olive is processed within three hours of picking – that’s what contributes to the good quality,” Wright says. “The moment you pick an olive, it starts to ferment, so if you keep it nice and fresh, the quality is on another level. That’s why we bought the processor, so we could control everything ourselves.”
While the Wrights are immensely proud of what they’ve built, they say it’s time for a new chapter.
“We love it as it is at the moment,” Wright says. “If someone could guarantee us another 10 years of really good health, we wouldn’t be [selling]. But to take it to the next stage – to expand the volume a little bit – there’s a lot of effort and work.
“At our age, we’re comfortable with where it is now, but it’s an opportunity for someone to really take that platform and go where they want to go.”
“You can’t choose your buyer,” he adds, “But ideally, we’d like someone who would look at it passionately, because it’s a lifestyle. This property, it’s a lifestyle.”
The couple, who plan to move to nearby Fish Creek, say they’ll remain close enough to help the new owners learn the ropes.
“That’s something we’ve offered to do for maybe one or two processing seasons,” Wright says. “During the first one, I’d probably do the processing for them and they’d learn, and then the second season, I’d get them to do it and then I support them.”
“I pride myself on producing good quality olive oil out of the processing side of it, and I’d just like to pass on those tips and tricks. Rather than it being scary walking in from scratch, you learn as you go. It’s a bit scary if you haven’t got someone to hold your hand for the first year at least.
“Whoever buys it, if they want some help, we’re only half an hour’s drive away.”
Wright also tends to the apiary of about 40 beehives – a passion that began as part of the grove’s pollination process and has grown into a love of beekeeping he plans to continue.
“I initially put beehives in here to help with the pollination of the trees, and it sort of got out of hand – and I like doing it,” he says, adding that he’ll continue to be a beekeeper at their new Fish Creek property, where he’s spent the past four years restoring a derelict farmhouse as a hobby to move into in retirement.
The Stony Creek property includes a three-bedroom, two-bathroom Considine & Johnston-built home with light-filled open-plan living spaces, a modern kitchen, polished timber floors, sweeping rural views and established low-maintenance gardens.
Key infrastructure includes a fully operational olive processing plant, a tasting room for samples and sales, processing and machinery sheds, a 10-kilowatt solar-energy and battery system, two large dams, and an underground fire bunker.
Wright says he’s open to offers, and could potentially remove the processing plant if new buyers aren’t keen on taking that aspect on.
“If they don’t want the processing equipment, then I’ll sell it and they can just have a lovely lifestyle property and not do any processing,” he says.
The property is listed for sale via an expressions-of-interest campaign through Peter Bellingham at Ray White Leongatha, in conjunction with David County at Ray White Foster.
