00:02For more than five decades, Jack Papagiorgio has lovingly tended this farm at Kooltong in the Riverland.
00:08But while next year's wine grapes are bursting on the vines, he's ready to walk away.
00:15Six years of making a loss on his wine grapes has been too much for his family to bear.
00:20We kept injecting money, particularly my wife had to let her own $50,000 of soup and that's really hurt.
00:28A recent survey found 72% of the Riverland's wine grape growers reported a loss last year.
00:34The state government is offering loans to transition growers to other crops.
00:38But Jack says the support has come too late for him to open new doors.
00:42But I wish I would have looked at the wine industry five years ago.
00:46It's a sad end for the Greek migrant who started his farming journey with his brothers in the mid-1970s.
00:52Growing citrus, wine grapes and dried fruit through highs and lows like the crippling millennium drought.
00:58But the pressures of a global downturn proved too tough.
01:02It's around the world, that's the other problem. It's not Australia, it's everywhere.
01:06Banks are reluctant to finance loans for new buyers for properties with vineyards, so sellers are struggling to get a
01:12good price.
01:12Let's hope somebody will come along and make me a reasonable offer so I can enjoy a bit of life.
01:20And Jack just hopes he will now be able to dedicate that time to his loved ones.
01:24I'm 73, I've still got years to live yet and all that stuff and I like to share that time
01:29with my wife and my daughter and my grandson now.
01:33Shifting gear from farming to family.
01:37Chemo
01:39So
01:39yeah
01:40yeah
