HERITAGE

Coombe Farm is part of Melbourne’s heritage, located on the original St Huberts vineyard in Coldstream, planted by Hubert de Castella in the mid 1800s.

The property was purchased in the late 1880s by David Mitchell and was a fully operational vineyard and winery under his supervision. He was the stonemason responsible for some of Melbourne’s most renowned buildings, such as the Royal Exhibition Buildings in Carlton and Scots Church in Collins Street.

David Mitchell was also the father of the world-renowned Australian opera singer  Dame Nellie Melba, who built her retreat on the property in 1909 and named it Coombe Cottage, after a house she resided in while performing in Covent Garden.

Coombe Cottage is at the gateway to the Yarra Valley in Coldstream, where the ‘Melba’and Maroondah highways fork, and the vineyards of Coombe Farm are the first you see as you travel along the Maroondah Highway.

The 60 hectares of Coombe Farm vineyards were planted in the late 1990s under the guidance of the current resident of Coombe Cottage, Dame Nellie Melba’s granddaughter, Pamela, Lady Vestey.