Wine pioneer honoured

BILL Casimaty has been awarded the Order of Australia for services to horticulture.

Mr Casimaty, 73, is one of only four Tasmanians to receive the honour in this year's Australia Day awards.

He was the first person to establish a commercial vineyard in the Coal River Valley,

After starting his career growing grass for sports fields, racetracks and homes in 1972, Mr Casimaty saw an opportunity and moved into wine.

He opened GlenAyr Vineyard in 1975 and later Tolpuddle Vineyard, the region's first commercial vineyard.

"I believe that we have the perfect growing climate for a lot of crops here and we have to make sure that we take advantage of that," Mr Casimaty said.

"But we have to make sure we are also looking at the long-term benefits of the markets and not lending ourselves to some fad that is at the top of the tree for one year ... you just have to be persistent and work at it and get it right."

The drive to make the most of Tasmania's conditions has made Mr Casimaty a pioneer of many of the state's now common crops.

He was one of the first to look at the benefits of growing poppies as a commercial crop.

He believes water is the biggest challenge for the state and he says we have a long way to go to get it right.

"We have the water - it is just how we make sure we capture it and distribute it properly," he said.

"That is my next big challenge."