At 30 April 2024, the total number of owners of vineyards of 0.5 hectares or more on Vinehealth Australia’s South Australian Register was 3,182. This represents 52 fewer vineyard owners than at the same time in 2023, or a 1.6% decrease in a year.
This change in number of vineyard owners has been the highest annual net decrease of the last four years, and just under three times that of the previous year (Table 1). Being a net change, this figure accounts for both new vineyard owners added to the Register as well as those vineyard owners who have left the Register.
On the Register, each vineyard owner is assigned a ‘primary region’; indicative of the Geographic Indicator (GI) Region that corresponds to the largest area of vineyard owned (noting that a proportion of vineyard owners own vineyards in more than one GI region).
The number of Registered owners by primary region that have both been added and removed from the Register over the 2023-24 year, and the resulting net change, are reported in Table 2 on a per Zone basis. Each of the five Zones showed both new vineyard owners added and vineyard owners leaving the Register over the last year. All Zones reported a net reduction in vineyard owners over the year, with the largest reduction being in the Lower Murray Zone with 18 fewer vineyard owners, followed by the Barossa Zone and Limestone Coast Zone. As a percentage change in the number of vineyard owners per Zone over the 2023-24 period, the largest impact was felt in the Limestone Coast Zone (Table 2).
Table 1. Net change in number of Registered vineyard owners in South Australia for each of the last four years.
| 30 April 2021 | 30 April 2022 | 30 April 2023 | 30 April 2024 | |
| Number of Vineyard Owners | 3,246 | 3,252 | 3,234 | 3,182 |
| Change from Prior Year | -25 | 6 | -18 | -52 |
| Percentage Change from Prior Year | -0.8% | 0.2% | -0.6% | -1.6% |
Table 2. Change in number of Registered vineyard owners in 2023-24 for key South Australian Zones.
| Zone | Number of vineyard owners removed from the Register | Number of new vineyard owners added to the Register | Net annual change in vineyard owners on the Register | Percentage change in vineyard owners over the year |
| Barossa | -25 | 16 | -9 | -1.3% |
| Fleurieu | -40 | 34 | -6 | -0.8% |
| Limestone Coast | -18 | 10 | -8 | -3.1% |
| Lower Murray | -55 | 36 | -19 | -2.0% |
| Mount Lofty Ranges | -34 | 30 | -4 | -0.6% |