NA ="Perth";
FE1[0]=" Although the Swan District is a very large , the wineries and vineyards are mostly concentrated in a narrow band along the Avon River just north of Midland and the upper reaches of the Swan River around Guildford. The Swan Valley,";
FE2[0]=" 30 minutes drive from the centre of Perth, is home to an excellent selection of wineries, restaurants, galleries and accommodation options. The Swan Valley (which is the core subregion of the Swan District) has always been a frie";
FE3[0]="ndly place in which to grow vines and make wine. The completely flat alluvial river plain provides soils, which are immensely deep and well drained (or are so in the prime vineyard locations) and the hot, dry summer means that gra";
FE4[0]="pes ripen easily and quickly. This was and is an ideal climate for table grapes (huge quantities were produced for export markets in bygone years) and for fortified wines. It was likewise suited to the production of bulk table win";
FE5[0]="e which was sold to a large but uncritical local clientele, many of whom were of Yugoslavian origin, and they brought their own flagons, drums and sundry other containers to be filled up at their chosen winery. The export market f";
FE6[0]="or table grapes has shrunk, the fortified wine market likewise, and third-generation Yugoslavs have entirely forgotten their cultural heritage and abandoned their parents' ways. Two of the state's largest wineries (Houghton Wines ";
FE7[0]="and Sandalford Wines), are located in the Swan Valley, along with many small boutique wineries. The main table wine varieties of the District are Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, Semillon Verdelho Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz, w";
FE8[0]="ith Muscat Gordo Blanco and Muscadelle grown for fortifieds. The elevation exposes the area to the afternoon sea breeze in summer. Average summer temperatures are few degrees lower that the Swan Valley.";
FE9[0]="";
LA1[0]=" The grape growing area is mainly located in the Swan Valley which is a flat alluvial plain flanked by the Darling Range and permeated by the tributaries of the Swan River. The completely flat alluvial river plain provides soils wh";
LA2[0]="ich are immensely deep and well-drained and the hot, dry summer means that grapes ripen easily and quickly. This is an ideal climate for table grapes and fortified wines. In the region's northern coastal strip (around Wanneroo) th";
LA3[0]="ere is the typical 'tuart' country (deep free-draining sands over limestone). The area has a unique feature that is not widely known. In this northern part of the Darling Range several permanent flowing brooks run from the foothil";
LA4[0]="ls west into the coastal plain wetlands.. Red Gully Creek, Gingin Brook, Moondah Brook, Wowra Brook, Lennard Brook and Breera Brook all flow from natural springs in the hills, through valleys of orchards, vines and market gardens,";
LA5[0]=" to feed a series of swampy wetlands on the coastal plain. Almost all other WA creeks and rivers flow only during winter. The availability of water has attracted the horticulture industry which is being squeezed out of the rapidly";
LA6[0]=" expanding northern and souther suburbs of Perth. Soil types vary widely. Rich red and chocolate loam are side by side with sandy loam and plain white sand in the hills. Where the creeks flow west into the flood plain and swamps t";
LA7[0]="here are deep moist peaty soils and bottomless sand. Together with available water the peaty and sandy soils are much sought after by market gardeners and grape growers. Typically the wines of the Swan Valley are soft, flavoursome";
LA8[0]=", medium-to full-bodied styles. The Swan Districts wine region is renowned for its fortified wines and rich white wines. Several wineries also have vineyards in and/or source fruit from the more southern regions to produce attract";
LA9[0]="ive, well-flavoured blended wines from, for example, Chenin Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Chardonnay and Verdelho.";
CL1[0]=" In this upper river district, with the Darling Ranges to the east and the Indian Ocean to the west, the warm Mediterranean style climate provides steady winter rainfall and hot, dry summers which produce grapes of wonderful flavou";
CL2[0]="r, richness, balance and style.  The Swan District, which extends along Perth’s Swan River, is one of the hottest wine regions in Australia. Some fortified wines may be found here. Perth has a  Mediterranean climate, with long dry";
CL3[0]=" summers and mild rainy winters. It is because of these long hot summers that many Perth activities revolve around the water. Summer officially starts in December and finishes in March, although there is plenty of warm weather and";
CL4[0]=" sunshine leading up to and following these months. The hottest months are January and February, and temperatures can frequently reach the mid to high 30's Celsius (95-100F). Occasionally the weather can reach 38 degrees Celsius o";
CL5[0]="r more (100+ Fahrenheit), and when it does, it is colloquially referred to as 'a scorcher'. Autumn runs from March through to the end of May. You could almost call this season, late summer. The weather is cooler, although still us";
CL6[0]="ually warm. There is still plenty of sunshine left before the onset of winter. You can expect things to start cooling down toward the end of April. The mild Perth winter begins at the start of June and finishes in September. It is";
CL7[0]=" generally a rainy season, interspersed with chilly yet sunny days. A typical Perth winter day may fall between 16-18 degrees Celsius (60-65 degrees Fahrenheit). There are however, occasionally storms, characterised by thunder, li";
CL8[0]="ghtning and heavy downpours of rain.  Spring begins at the start of September and from this point the weather quickly warms to fine sunny conditions again. The temperatures will continue to rise from now in the lead up to the next";
CL9[0]=" summer.  Location: 31°50’S, 116°E;  Annual rainfall: 740mm;  Mean January temp:24.3°C;  Sunshine hours per day: 9.7.";
HI1[0]=" The alluvial soils of the Swan Valley and its proximity to Perth saw early horticultural development. Vines were planted in the 1800s for both wine and fruit and production became quite substantial by the 1860s. Not long after the";
HI2[0]=" first settlement in the West in 1829 a syndicate comprising Richmond Houghton, Ninian Lowis and Thomas Yule planted the vine in the Swan River Valley. For almost 150 years, Swan Valley was the only significant wine-producing regi";
HI3[0]="on in Western Australia. The oldest winery in W.A., Olive Farm, was established in 1830 and is situated here, along with others including Evans & Tate, Sandalford and Houghton, who are now household names. The District maintained ";
HI4[0]="its economic equilibrium through tough times by supplying the rush of gold diggers to the state, who in turn invested in horticulture when their time on the gold fields came to an end. As a number of the estate names attest, the r";
HI5[0]="egion was also settled by a significant number of southern Europeans who came after the First World War. Growth since World War II has been steady with peaks in the 1970s at the time when consumption of table wine really took off.";
HI6[0]=" Two waves of immigration by Yugoslavs, the first at the turn of the century (principally from Dalmatia) and the second after the Second World War gave the Swan Valley two claims to fame. The first is that, most surprisingly, for ";
HI7[0]="a time it had more wineries in operation than either New South Wales or Victoria; the second is that, more obviously, it joined the Barossa Valley (German) and the Riverland (Italian) as a significant ethnically driven wine produc";
HI8[0]="ing region. It was not always so. Viticulture was started by English settlers, most notably Thomas Waters, who dug the cellar at Olive Farm in 1830, thus giving this winery the distinction of being the oldest winemaking establishm";
HI9[0]="ent in Australia to be in use today. Perhaps fittingly, it passed into the ownership of a Yugoslavian family in 1933, with present-day winemaker Ian Yurisich making some of the better Swan Valley wines of the present time.";