Every day we see hundreds of signs as we drive around the city and our regions. Signs are there to guide the behavior that’s expected of us.
Research suggests that the more we see the same signs, the more effective they are. Past recognition provides instantaneous guidance to our expected behavior.
Signage is also important in the biosecurity space. We endorse two types of signage at Vinehealth Australia and both guide expected behaviour when it comes to visiting vineyards, but target different audiences.
Farm-gate signs
In the wine industry, we commonly have farm-gate entries to our properties, used by staff, contractors and other industry personnel. These entrances are generally used by personnel known to the owner, coming onto the property to perform a specific task.
Many of these visitors will move from property to property and, therefore, use of the same signs for these ‘operational’ entrances, even across industries, provides a strong point of recognition for accepted behavior. These signs should ask the visitor to respect your property’s biosecurity and to report on entry to the site office or to the site manager.
Vinehealth Australia sells these landscape ‘farm-gate’ signs as either ‘Farm biosecurity’ or ‘Vineyard biosecurity’ signs. The aluminium signs with non-reflective UV coating and four pre-drilled holes come in two sizes – either 900mm x 600mm, or 600mm x 450mm – and can include your printed phone number(s).
These farm-gate signs were originally adapted from Plant Health Australia and now include Mandarin text that reads: ‘Without permission, you may not enter’. For further information on these signs, click here.
Consumer signs
Providing consumer experiences is integral to our industry. Cellar doors, restaurants and accommodation areas are often adjacent to our vineyards. Visitors to these areas can pose a risk to our vines in terms of unwittingly spreading pests, diseases and weeds into our vineyards if they walk amongst our vines.
For these instances, it is important to convey expected behavior to consumers but in a different way to how we talk to industry personnel. Consumer friendly signage should convey messaging such as ‘Please don’t walk amongst our vines’, or ‘Enjoy our wines, protect our vines’. These messages should be followed up by further information about the importance of keeping Australian vines healthy, through your customer interactions.
Vinehealth Australia sells 10 different ‘consumer-friendly’ sign options that include English and Mandarin messages that aim to build a partnership with visitors around vine health and protection. The aluminium signs with non-reflective UV coating are portrait 900mm x 1200mm in size. For an additional cost, private business logos can be added. For further information about these signs including assistance for where to place the signs, click here.