In the mid to late - 50s Len Evans sat in a Mount Isa hotel and asked the waiter if he might take a still white wine with his meal.

 “What are you,” came the reply. “Some kind of poof?"

When he departed the World 50 years later he was considered the doyen of Australian wine.

 Born in England of Welsh ancestry Len was accepted into Cambridge University to study architecture but he had other aspirations. He wanted to be a professional golfer and after working as a fitness instructor with the Royal Air Force migrated to New Zealand in 1953.

While he was there, he taught golf and felled trees for the New Zealand Forest Service before moving to Australia in 1955. He headed to Mount Isa looking to kickstart his professional golf career while working to support it.

Lionel Bradford lived near Len in the mine’s barracks, and remembered him as a decent golfer but more interested in drinking wine. Len was 25 when he landed in the outback and worked as a storeman at Mount Isa Mines, welder and dingo fencer.

 Trish (a.k.a. Patricia Hayton) was also an immigrant making her way down under.

“I immigrated with my parents,” she recalled. “I was a good 10 years older than my siblings but even though I was 18 there was no suggestion of them coming without me.”

Trish’s father was a hard rock miner from the south of England but her parent’s decided they wanted another go at life. So around 1952/53 they immigrated under a government scheme. They spent two to three months in an immigration camp at Bonagilla near Albury doing odd jobs.

“Then they switched this little batch of people from a particular boat to a funny little village, in the bush somewhere in Belmont.” Trish said then adding disappointingly.  “Then they didn't give the minors decent jobs, they gave them jobs clearing out the big oil refineries for BHP.”

There was discontent between Trish’s father and his family and, 2 other families and the die was cast.

“They said, well, we've heard of this place in Mount Isa, which is a lead and copper mine and they're paying a premium on top of salaries if you go there, so they decided to go.”

It was just the three of them, Trish and her parents, that undertook the long hot jaunt from Newcastle area all the way up to Mount Isa. On arrival there impression was similar to many.

Her father got a job in the mines and eventually Trish knew it was time for her to find employment. The only work for girls was barmading or working in the BSD barracks’ mess.

“Oh, I just couldn't do that.” Trish said incredulously. “I was far too shy to get amongst all those men; you can imagine, masses of men. Anyway, in the end I did.”

Life was hard but the family did the best they could and Trish was always excited to learn anything new that was going on. Her father was a handyman and made lovely wooden floors for the tents and furniture and they settled into life in Mount Isa.

Trish left after a little while and went to live in Adelaide for a couple of years with a family member. Two years later she was back in Mount Isa.

“This time I got a job in the office in the general store.” 

When ever Len is written about authors always write ‘he met and married a local beauty queen.’

The truth is not as grand according to Trish but she is guilty of downplaying the title.

From 1954, the contest was associated with the Spastic Centres of Australia. The winner of Miss Australia raised money for the centres through her family and friends, raising money for children and adults with cerebral palsy. The Miss Australia Quest was sponsored and organised from 1954 until the early 1960s by the lingerie manufacturer, Hickory, until Dowd Associates transferred ownership to the Australian Cerebral Palsy Association in 1963.

In 1954, Colin Clay of the Queensland Spastic Welfare League met with US foundation garment firm Hickory’s representative and asked if the Miss Australia competition could be used as a fundraiser for the league.

Hickory agreed and from then on the contestants raised money for the league. Each state branch of the league conducted its own contest to find a state winner, based on traditional "beauty contest" criteria. They also awarded a Charity Queen to the young woman who raised the most money in each state.

The state finalists then competed in the national competition for Miss Australia and Miss Australia Charity Queen.

An enterprising Australian executive of Hickory’s Bernard Dowd had a vision for the contest and it was reshaped. That was to find a girl who would represent Australia abroad and, in doing so, attract suitable migrants.

The finalist were required to wear bathing suits but they also had to answer 72 questions on everything from the country's size and population and the date of white settlement and Federation, to the names of prominent public figures.

So in 1956 the previous two winners, Kissell and Shirley Bliss toured country towns encouraging young women to join up for the Miss Australia Quest.

“Somehow, I managed to get up amongst a dozen finalists and then, you know, ultimately I actually was lucky enough to win that little title. It was not exactly a beauty queen, you know it was just Miss Mount Isa of 1956.”

All in all it is evidence of Trish’s beauty when you consider Jennifer Hawkins was Miss Australia in 2004 and went on to be crowned Miss Universe.

At the time there were two young Englishmen and they wanted to write a review, some sort of comedy for the upper echelon of the Mount Isa Mines company.

“He (Len) was very clever with writing, as he always was. He and another chap wrote the whole review, all the words and very clever, very clever.”

Len and his partner thought it would be a good idea if the (beauty contestant) competitors selected at the time were given a part in the review.

“I would go in and do a bit of singing and dancing for the review and that's when I met him.”

At the time Trish had only seen him once before, when she went to a performance of the local theatrical society. The show was called Death of a Salesman and her biggest memory from the performance is that Len never got off the stage.

“So, anyway, we did the review and we became sort of an item.”

Len was never idle and as well as writing he played Golf, tried his hand at chicken farming, all while working as a storeman at the mines. The show was a success and the cast took it on a little tour, to places such as Mary Kathleen and other mines 

“We had a very happy social life.” Trish recalled fondly. “Mount Isa was full of socials and dances. We’d go out into the bush and travel miles just to go and have a dance in another town.

“It was very, very rough. It was almost like frontier in those days but quite exciting for someone like me, you know.” 

Eventually the couple moved to Sydney and got married.

Len decided when they got to Sydney that he was going to be a script writer. for television, Trish described a scene like the movies where he would go down to the letterbox and all the replies that came back said, ‘sorry, you're too far ahead at the time’ or ‘this isn't quite what we want.

So the couple lived very quietly and very meagerly, and he started washing glasses in a hotel part time and then got himself into a stock taking job. Len had always had an interest about wine drinking and used to woo Trish with small bottles of champagne.

“Sometimes we would drink a saturn and people would think we were very odd because they all drank beer out there (Mount Isa). It was just an aside for him though.”

“Out of nowhere his life developed into wine, it escalated quite quickly and he absorbed so much, so quickly. I went along with it all and sometimes it was very hard; we didn't have anything.”

It was not long before he was noticed and in 1962 he became the first regular wine columnist in Australia writing a column titled Cellarmaster for The Bulletin. He wrote an Indulgence column in The Australian until well into the 80s with his columns full of fun and not always to do with wine. 

It was in one of these columns he espoused “The Evans Theory of Capacity.” A theory that at least 10% of your income must be spent on wine.

And, because you only have the capacity to drink so many bottles in a lifetime you should never drink bad wine because every bad bottle you drink is like smashing a good bottle against a brick wall.

Len felt it was important that wine be demystified, and that an appreciation and basic understanding of it be available to everyone, not just to an educated elite. So, in the column he wrote in The Australian Women's Weekly for years he discussed various wines, usually very reasonably priced, in an open, relatively jargon-free manner.

“Eventually, we managed to buy a very small terrace in Paddington, had 2 girls, and then we had to move.” Trish recounted. “We needed a big cellar because he was getting a collection of wine. So we moved across to Greenwich, which is near North Shore, and had another son.”

When Len joined the Australian Wine Bureau as its first director in 1965 Australians drank just over five bottles of wine per head per annum. Most were fortified and wine was still regarded as elitist.

Len recognised that the future of Australian wine lay in table wines rather than sweet fortified wines. He saw the opportunities for a renascent Australian wine industry and almost single-handedly persuaded Australians to start enjoying dry red and white table wines. 

This kick-started what became known as the ‘wine boom’ and Aussie wine never looked back.

He was proved right and today Australians drink 36 bottles per head and the country has forged ahead of France as the best-seller in the UK.

He teamed up with expert gourmet Graham Kerr in 1967 on a 35-day worldwide trek to the finest restaurants around the globe and they co-authored a book, The Galloping Gourmets. However the name became more associated with Kerr, who later hosted a globally syndicated cooking show, The Galloping Gourmet.

Len’s love of good food and wine led to him opening a restaurant called Bulletin Place in Sydney in 1969 and it soon became a melting pot of future wine merchants, writers and winemakers. 

That same year with Murray Tyrrell and others he launched the Rothbury Estate winery and vineyard in the Hunter Valley.

Backed by Peter Fox he began the Evans Wine Co and acquired two small chateauxs in Bordeaux, invested in Petaluma, South Australia, and agreed to buy Chateau Lascombes, Bordeaux. 

In the late ‘70s, Evans attempted to create the first-ever multi-national fine wine company. Aiming to buy properties in the Napa Valley and elsewhere the dream fell apart in 1981 when Fox died when his Ferrari ran off the road. 

Fox’s company, Adelaide Holdings, went into receivership but Rothbury was salvaged with Evans at the helm until a hostile takeover by Mildara Blass in 1996. 

Len was too direct ever to be a diplomat but his unbridled enthusiasm, authority and charisma convinced businessmen and investors that his vision was sound.

“He was direct and he spoke his mind.” Trish confirmed.

Len was actually approached at one stage to think about the political world, but he told Trish he wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes.

“I knew what he meant.”

Michael Hill-Smith was a waiter and recalled the period as "one endless interesting wine party" with visiting actors, politicians and writers entertained with typical bravura by Evans holding court over great bottles of wine.

Evans established many dining clubs and on one occasion then Australian prime minister Malcolm Fraser held the Single Bottle Club at his residence at the Lodge in Canberra. 

Evans took along his waiting staff from Sydney, including Hill-Smith, who recalls: "We turned and said to each other that if you came from another world and had to pick the leader of this country, it would have to be Len Evans."

While he spoke his mind he had a lot of guile and was quite charming and people liked him. When he and Trish walked in a room and guest could sit anywhere it created issues. 

All of this was backed by a brilliant palate.

As well as the Single Bottle Club he had many different dining clubs.

It was at Bulletin Place the now widely played game of "wine options" was invented. Evans and several others would bring a wine to be tasted "blind" and pose a series of questions for the others to guess the wine's identity. 

He once tipped a bowl of pasta over Barry Humphries's head, in the days when Humphries was a drinking man. Andre Kostelanetz, Hank Mancini, Lord Snowdon, Jimmy Edwards, Freddie Truman, Lord Harewood and Harry Secombe were among his diners.

When I suggested to Trish that Len and Harry Seccombe would have been like peas in a pod she agreed with a hint of a smile.

“You know, you're quite right. I think in the short time that they had together they would have found great delight in each other. And entertained everyone around them.”

Len had his first heart attack in 1976 but his magnetic personality never allowed him to live the quiet life in Sydney. His secretary at Bulletin Place Annie Tyrrell told him one day that nobody was expected for lunch.

“Thank God for that’, said Len. ‘Just fix me a cold beef sandwich and a glass of Champagne.’

Before long he had been joined by a French winemaker, a friend from the Napa Valley, a ballet dancer and by the time lunch was over there were 14 people around his table.

It was a matter of great pride to Evans that he sold more Krug than anyone else in Australia from the tiny rooms in Bulletin Place. In his last full-time year at Bulletin Place (1984) the champagne bill for internal consumption, his parties and giveaways was $30,000.

Huon Hooke is now a renowned wine writer and critic who first arrived in Sydney in 1982. He remembers Len as a charismatic man, a great talker, a raconteur, singer and joke-teller; an entertainer, who hated pomposity in wine-talk.

“He much preferred to chat about golf or art, antiques or collectables.”

Hooke also remembers how extraordinarily generous Len was as a host who firmly believed in educating the younger generations.

During his long tenure as Chairman of the Sydney Royal Wine Show he astonished judges and associates with the staggering array of great wines he opened (and inspired or bullied others into bringing) at judging week dinners.

Though he had no formal architectural qualifications Len was always designing, including his own wonderfully eccentric rammed-earth house on a hill overlooking Pokolbin called Loggerheads.

He befriended an architect of quite good standing in the Hunter who helped him. The architect told Trish how mad Len’s innate ability made him.

“You know, it was just amazing.” Trish said. “Some of the ideas for the building of the Rothbury estate were his, but it was the tower lodge. The business that's called Tower now in Hunter. He designed that, he designed that building.”

In 1995 Len was the driving force for a 30-year vision toward a path ending in a $4.5 billion industry. He was of the belief that Australian winemakers (and, in the case of large producers, their corporate bosses) were too complacent.

His vision had its supporters, but also its critics. Those in the latter line were silenced when the vision was realised in 2001; 24 years early.

His willingness to help others  was with him until the end. Jeff Byrne arrived in the Hunter Valley and with a background in science figured some work in the wine industry made sense.

“My wife Bridgette and I moved to the Hunter Valley in 2000 for my wife’s work, “I was given a few names of local owners and managers to speak with for any job opportunities and one was Len Evans, who had just started his Tower Estate project,” 

Freshly arrived in Australia he had no idea who Len Evans was.

“I had no idea who Len Evans was and so on a phone call I asked him what his role was - he confirmed he was the chairman. Half-jokingly I said ‘that position sounds alright’. He didn’t laugh and replied rather firmly ‘that position is taken’.”

Jeff became a mentee of Len’s and continues making wine in the Hunter.

“I enjoyed so much about working for him, above all his generosity to share stories, unobtainable wines and knowledge.” 

Len Evans was described in The Oxford Companion to Wine as having done more to advance the cause of wine in Australia than any other individual. He has earned epithets such as Australia’s Mr Wine, the Godfather of Australian Wine and Australia's leading ambassador of wine. 

Though Len’s name is the one recognised and though he mixed in some very high profile circles his beloved Trish was never far from his side.

“Absolutely, we moved along together. We found ourselves doing things, in fact, we used to say sometimes, my God, what are we doing? He never felt that I couldn't manage, never. And it was a lot of fun, you know.”

“I mean, it was a riotous life.”

Trish admits Len’s life was busy and that he couldn't give as much as maybe some fathers could to their children because of what he did in his life.

“He adored his children.”

The pair came from very similar backgrounds. Len’s father was a very strong North Welshman but they lived in Felixstowe in Suffolk. It is a similar seaside holiday resort town to Margate in Kent where Trish came from.

“We came from a similar background but had to go all the way to Mound Isa in Queensland to find each other. And we had a very happy marriage for 47 years and three lovely children.”

The couple spent 25 marvelous years in the Hunter and she finds it a bit sad that he went and couldn’t have stayed a few more years. He always had so much more he wanted to do and so much more he wanted to give, never a dull moment.

“All I can tell you really is that I was lucky enough to hook out with somebody like him. Otherwise, I would have probably been bored to tears.”