Jacobs Creek with Keith Conlon

It is Australia's most famous creek. It certainly is in the UK, and probably in many of the fifty countries where the "Jacobs Creek" wine brand is sold to.

Some international drinkers think it is a whole wine region, and understandably, because it is the nation's biggest selling label. About three-quarters of a million glasses of it are drunk every day. Yes as we could see from the Mawson Trail above, Jacob's Creek itself is only a few kilometres long, emerging out of the Barossa Range near its peak, Kaiser Stuhl and gurgling along the river red gum marked bed to the North Para River. As we revealed on Postcards, however, its banks are brimful with Barossa heritage.

Its bed is all bare rocks and bone dry at vintage time in Autumn, and yet the Jacobs Creek name conjures an Amazonian flow of Australian "sunshine in-a- bottle" to the world. In a sense, too, it all began 150 years ago on the creek just where it spills alluvial soil out of the hills. Here it was that the first commercial vintage of Barossa wine was released in 1850, from a modest cellar and cottage (now restored). It was built by Johann Gramp, a young Bavarian banker who came to South Australia in the first year of the colony, 1837. A decade later, he came to Langmeil in the Barossa Valley, and bought land and planted vines on this spot. (Orlando & Whydham have now replanted his pioneering vineyard and scored their first vintage).

Back in 1850, Johann's first release was one small barrel, an octave, making about seven dozen bottles. This year, in another anniversary year, the "Jacob Creek" labels twenty-fifth, it will feature on about three and a half million cases for international markets.

By way of celebration, the company has cleaned up the creek line and the olive trees, and fig thickets and more are gone. It is a classic Aussie creek again, as it should be. After all its famous, so famous in fact that bus loads of Brit's insist on standing by the small creek sign on the main road to Tanunda to get a snapshot.

On our creek tour, we discovered some picturesque and relaxing B&B's where you can linger much longer. Slate roofed Jacob Creek Retreat is over the creek from the original Gramp cellar, Kirkala Estate B&B overlooks the watercourse and vineyards, and there's the chance to share some history with Mr Jacob himself.

The man who gave the creek its name was none other than an assistant surveyor to Col. William Light, "Founder of Adelaide". Young William Jacob was aboard the Rapid as Light sought a site for the new city back in 1836, and he was with him as he named the "Lynedoch" area and the "Barossa" Range.

Jacob surveyed the land round the creek in 1839, and within a year he made it his home. With brother John, and sister Ann, he built a homestead overlooking the flood plain of his creek, and now it is run as an historic B&B, Jacob's Estate.

William Jacob also ran an early winery here, and the old Moorooroo cellar is part of the classy Grant Burge Wines cellar door operation. Moorooroo is long lost from the wineshop shelves of London, but just up the road, as the vintage rolls on, there are trucks queuing for the crush. The Rowland Flat operation for Orlando Wyndham will fill forty million bottles that will take William Jacob's name to the world.

The four-star way to enjoy the Jacob Creek geography sits on the ridge above its junction with the North Para River that defines one edge of the Barossa Valley. We watched two majestic wedge tailed eagles soaring on thermals in the late afternoon. The Barossa Valley Resort can't quite match their view but the centre piece of its quintessential Barossa outlook is the gum lined creek from hills to river. The architect designed every ensuite studio and apartments to have its own postcard picture of vines and range beyond. It adds something special to a beautifully appointed and well patronised new accommodation offering in this popular region.

I hope the taxi fraternity are familiar with it, there's a yarn that an international tourist couple hoped into a cab at Adelaide Airport and said, "take us to Jacob's Creek"! The driver, we trust, also included a call to the Rowland Flat winery's tasting - room-cellar-door in the old school house at its front. In our short call for some Postcard's footage, German and English accents abounded. And that's where most of the Jacob's Creek label ends up - eight out of every ten bottles filled just up the hill are exported.

Meanwhile, back in the creek itself, I was on a pilgrimage of sorts. Having known for years about "Menge's Cave", I was keen to discover if this fabled and historic spot was still visible. And there, close to Jacob's Creek final gurgle, the legendary figure's home came into view.

Johannes Menge was a German mineralogist employed by the South Australian Company as the colony began. Insignificant in stature and eccentric in lifestyle, he was, however, so energetic and enthusiastic that he became known as the "Father of Mineralogy" in the State. There's something to a claim that he is the "Father of the Barossa", too, because he wrote back to England proclaiming it as "the cream, all the cream and nothing but the cream", and commending it as vineyard country. It helped persuade the Klemzig Lutherans to set up the first villages here in 1842.

It is fitting, perhaps, that the creek on which Menge lived in his half-house-half-cave should now be synonymous with our outstanding international wine industry. Menge's house is currently inaccessible to casual callers, but in this year of anniversaries, watch out for announcements that will signal your opportunity to walk the banks of the short and very historic Jacob's Creek.

The Orlando Cellar Door is at Barossa Valley Way, Rowland Flat, SA 5352 phone 08 8521 3111 and is open 10am to 5pmMonday to Friday, 10am to 4pm Sat, Sun and Public Holidays.

Orlando Whydham now has a website devoted to the creek and the wines that bear its name - www.jacobscreek.com.au

Local accommodation is as follows:

The All Seasons Barossa Valley Resort Golf Links Road
Rowland Flat
Barossa Valley SA 5352
Phone: 61 8 (08)8524 0000
Reservations 1300 657 697
email: barossavalley@allseasons.com.au
web: www.allseasons.com.au

Kirkala Estate Gourmet Retreat Jacobs Rd (P.O.Box 1001)
Rowland Flat SA 5352
ph 61 8 (08)8563 3812
email: kirkala@camtech.net.au
web: www.kirkala.com.au

Jacobs Creek Retreat and Historic Court Barn
Rowland Flat SA 5352
ph 61 8 (08)8563 0344