The national EcoVineyards program supports winegrape growers throughout Australia to ‘enhance soil health, establish ground covers and increase functional diversity in their vineyards’. The substantial expansion of this program was funded by Wine Australia from 2023-2025, with all resource development, trial sites and activities delivered by Retallack Viticulture. In most cases, participating grape growing businesses contribute towards the cost of the program. The program has been very successful for some winegrape growers who are passionate in this ecological / biodiversity space. 

However, there is a significant proportion of the sector whose businesses would benefit from the sustainable soil practices explained in the EcoVineyards resources who have not engaged with the program. 

Wine Australia has identified an opportunity to increase the adoption of the beneficial soil management practices detailed in the EcoVineyards Best Practice Management Guides (BPMG) it funded, by repackaging and pitching the resources for a targeted and broader grape grower audience 

The two BPMGs which are included in the scope of this RFP are: On Soil Health in Australian Vineyards Part A: Chemical and Physical and Part B: Biology. 

This RFP aims to significantly increase the capacity and willingness of growers to implement beneficial soil management practices in their business, whilst also increasing Wine Australia’s ROI into the prior development of EcoVineyards methodologies and resources.  

In addition to increasing grower awareness of the importance of soil health on the sustainability of their business, this RFP aims to accelerate the adoption of sustainable practices (across diverse Australian wine regions and business types) which improve water use efficiencies, enhance soil health and improve measurable ecological and biodiversity outcomes. It will also support transition to practices that lower the sectors carbon emissions as outlined in the Emissions Reduction Roadmap.  

A parallel objective is to use this soil health subject matter to test a range of extension marketing and learning methodologies and tools which are novel to our sector, but have proven to work elsewhere. 

Wine Australia is inviting proposals to develop and deliver vineyard soil health extension resources that support grape growers to adopt sustainable soil management practices.  

Full details, including scope, deliverables, evaluation criteria and submission requirements are available in the Request for Proposal document.  

Submissions and enquiries should be directed to Libby Tedstone, National Extension & Adoption Manager via libby.tedstone@wineaustralia.com.

The submission deadline is 2 March 2026 at 5pm (ACDT).