1843  Good Friday - the Madras set sail from Portsmouth for the Province of South Australia.

 1843  September 12 - Henry & Sarah Evans & four year old son, Henry Angas, disembarked at Port Adelaide with Sarah's younger brother, John Howard Angas. The new arrivals removed to the district of Barossa and to the seven Special Surveys owned by Sarah & John's father, George Fife Angas. Settling into Valley House on the Tarrawatta farm near the Gawler River (now North Para River), John, having been trained in surveying skills and the rudiments of the German language, proceeded to 'learn the ropes' to oversee his father's landed interests.
1843  November 3 - On behalf of the Angas family, Sarah laid the foundation stone for the Union Chapel at Angaston with Henry delivering the official address.  The construction of this interdenomin-ational chapel enabled numerous settlers and their families of varying Protestant faiths to worship in a church building, many for the first time since arriving in the colony.

 1844   South Australia Directory listed Henry Evans as gentleman & stockholder owning a significant sheep flock at Flaxman Valley - managed by his brother-in-law. In the colony at that time there being few stockholders with greater sheep numbers, opportunities abounded for Henry and he soon leased Crown Lands for pastoral-runs east of the North Rhine River.

 1846   Henry planted grape vines at Tarrawatta that inspired the gardener who tended them - Samuel Smith, founder of Yalumba.
 
1847-48   Oversaw the design & construction of Lindsay House for the anticipated visit of his parents-in-law and in which Henry and his little family temporarily resided.

 1849   Invested in the North Rhine Mine when copper was discovered.

 1850 March - Purchased five eighty-acre sections from his father-in-law, George Fife Angas, to the east of Angaston in the Hundred of North Rhine.

 1850 July 2 - The Evans family removed from Lindsay House to their newly built homestead of Evandale on the recently acquired land.
1850-1853   Henry, a manufacturing chemist by profession, realised soon enough there was more glamour than gold as a pastoralist. Orchards, nursery & vineyards were planned & planted at Evandale for the commercial production of fruit & wine. Vines progress slowly and only small quantities of wine were produced from primarily Frontignac grapes, plus Tokay & Early Portugal varieties.

 1857   Seven acres of vineyard produced 85 hogs-
heads of wine sold at 6/- a gallon representing a return of more than 260 pounds (sterling) per acre.
 
1857 June 24 - John Howard Angas wrote his father that brother-in-law Henry's wine cellar with three floors and thick walls cost 5/9 per yard.
 
1858   Henry made plans for the planting of 200,000 additional vines to meet supply demands,  ultimately expanding the vineyard from over twenty acres (8Ha) that yielded twelve thousand gallons (54,000 litres). Total acreage under fruit production would reach 100 acres (40Ha).

1859   The nursery became commercially viable supplying not only Evandale's expansion, but settlers from near and far. J Frederick Wood was engaged as Nursery Manager.

Advertising                                                                     South Australian Register 20 July 1859 
FRUIT TREES, VINES, SHRUBS, &c., &c.-EVANDALE NURSERIES, near Angaston.
-The usual excellent Assortment of Fruit Trees, the best Wine and Table Grapes, Shrubs, and Ornamental Trees, in great variety, are now on Sale at very reasonable prices.
Agents- Adelaide, Mr. Thomas Hawken, fruiterer, Hindley-street; Gawler Town, Mr. Lane. Mr. S. Keightley, of Penrice, will attend at Jenning's Hotel, Kapunda, every Saturday through the season.

Note.- The Evandale Nurseries are seven miles from, Angaston, North Rhine. Letters addressed to J. F. Wood, at the Nurseries, will have immediate attention, few descriptive priced Catalogues may be had on application.

Advertising                                                                    South Australian Register 6 August 1860
VINES, VINE-CUTTINGS, FRUIT TREES, &c,&c. EVANDALE NURSERIES, near ANGASTON, South Australia.
10,000 very fine Fruit-Trees, of the best sorts;
10,000 Ornamental Trees, Shrubs, and Roses; and a few hundred thousand Vines - will be sold at very reduced prices.
Parties dealing in trees will be liberally dealt with; but the establishment, in order to avoid mistakes, will have no accredited agents this season.
J. F. WOOD, F.H.S., requests that his customers and intending purchasers will address their orders to him at the Nurseries as above.

P.S.-Vine Cuttings of the best Wine and Table Grapes in any quantity. Priced Catalogues for 1860 may be had on application.
The Nurseries are seven miles from Angaston, on a good road. Parcels of Trees will be delivered free at the nearest railway, and plants added to help defray further carriage.

 1860   To improve yield & quality the distance between vines was increased to eight feet by five (2.4m x 1.5m) with the pulling up of every alternate vine.  Future plantings were eight by eight feet (2.4m x 2.4m) further increasing yields and volume.

Vineyard expansion was continual & the production facilities were increased as a consequence. Believed to have been the biggest winery in the colony at that time, the main building 154ft long by 44ft wide (47m x 13.5m), the walls constructed of stone & the roof double straw thatched.
 
1862 January 21 - An extensive fire in the main winery destroyed the building & contents including two stone casks & fifteen hogsheads of wine. Fortuitously the bulk of the winestock was held in an adjoining building which was not damaged.

The winery was rebuilt & new equipment installed for the 1862 vintage of Shiraz, Pineau, Black Portual, Muscat of Alexandria, Espanoir (Mataro), Frontignac, Riesling, Tokay, Morillon, Verdeillo, Grenache, Carignan, and Malbec.


1862 May 1 - November 1  Regarded as being some of the colony's best, pure Riesling & Espanoir samples from the estate of Evandale were exhibited as part of the Colonial Exhibit at the Great London Exposition sponsored by the Royal Society of Arts, Manufactures and Trade held over 21 acres in South Kensington.  This was the third world's fair where 28,000 exhibitors were featured from 36 countries.
 
1867   Exhibited at the fourth world's fair, L'Exposition Universelle (d'Art et d'Industrie), Paris.
1868 April 14 - During the inaugural vintage for neighbours Johann Christian Henschke and his son, Paul, Henry Evans - chemist, pastoralist, speculator, entrepreneur, man of piety, horticulturist, viticulturist, & winemaker - died suddenly at
age 56.

The winery was closed and winestocks sold, vines either pulled or grafted to currants under the instruction of Henry's heir. This included the conversion of the winery buildings exclusively for the processing of apples for the already flourishing Evandale fruit business to which 29-year-old Henry Angas Evans (married with a young family) inherited & prospered.