The lodges are named after significant characters in local and family history.
Lodge 1. The Hans Ebeling
Hans Ebeling MBE and his family were owners of the Mount Avoca property for most of the twentieth century. An excellent sportsman Hans Ebeling played cricket for Victoria and played one test for Australia along-side Bradman in the deciding fifth test at the Oval in England in 1934. He was later Vice President and President of the MCC and conceived the idea of the 1977 Centenary Test and who, by his persistence, got it carried out.
Lodge 2. The Sir John Barry
Sir John Vincent Barry (aka Jack Barry), Victorian Supreme Court Judge and eminent jurist and historian played an important role in Victorian legal history. Father of John Barry, founder of Mount Avoca and grand-father of Matthew Barry, the current owner, he introduced the joys of wine to John Barry long before wine was fashionable. Many of the books found in the lodges are from his private library. Most of his library was donated to the National Library in Canberra on his death and the rest shared amongst the family.
Lodge 3. The Horatio
Edwin Horatio Mackereth, born in Yorkshire in 1828was the regions first winemaker. He worked on his father’s farm, until the prospect of gold and a new life lured him to Australia in the early 1850’s. Edwin and his German born wife Catherine settled on a block of virgin land about two kilometres west of Avoca which he named Hedon Farm in 1860. 1888 saw the first vintage produced and by the 1890s was a thriving business.
