Toscana Olives History of Australian Organic Olive Oil

We are a 100% Australian family owned business, producing Australia’s most exquisite certified organic olive oils from a unique heritage property in the quintessential Australian landscape of the Grampians.  Our historic grove is farmed using sustainable and organic principles which are reflected in the unique quality and flavours of the olives produced. Our olive oil is cold pressed and hand bottled on the property in small batches. Over the years our grove has survived bushfires, droughts, a period of neglect and changes in family ownership.  Through our careful custodianship of the land and devotion to best practice and organic principles, we have emerged as Australia's best producer of premium quality organic olive products.

Pioneering Olives in Australia

Grampians Olive Co. is today run by two generations of our family; Andrew and Susan Mathews and son Greg Mathews, but as one of the oldest groves in Australia we have a longer story and a history stretching back over 70 years. Our property was originally planted by an immigrant farmer, Jacob Friedman, in 1943 under the Grampian Olive Plantations Co, as it was known in those days. It was the first large scale planting in the country. At that time, olive oil was often found in the medicine cabinet rather than pantry and sadly the founders saw little reward from their hard work.

Toscana Olives

New owners took over from the founders and renamed the grove "Toscana" in the early 1960s - honouring Italian involvement in the grove’s establishment and similarity in climate and scenery to the Toscana (Tuscany) region in Italy. For over 50 years the Toscana name was synonymous with our grove’s reputation for producing quality Australian oil and it remains on our labels today.

Around 2000 an additional label was introduced "Grampians Olive Estate". In 2015, wanting to simplify our range and reflect the beauty of the unique Grampians location in which our products are grown and produced, we have renamed our estate "Grampians Olive Co. - the home of Toscana". Grampians Olive Co is a throwback to our original name from 1943 "Grampian Olive Plantations Co."  The new look combines our two brands, reconnects with our roots and better communicates the origin of our products.

The grove today

Our family is proud of our property’s heritage. It is a pleasure to meet local people who worked on the plantation as a picker, pruner or tractor driver in their younger days. We work hard to produce our organic extra virgin olive oil from the unique mix of traditional and now rarely planted olive varieties including Verdale, Bouquettier and Benito. The grove is 100% organically dry farmed with absolutely no irrigation. This means, from our 28,000 heritage olive trees, we produce a low yield of exceptional organic olive oil with concentrated flavour.

Grampians Olive Co. is the largest family-owned, single estate, certified organic olive grove in Australia. We have over 100 years combined horticultural experience on our team and are delighted that we continue to contribute to our grove’s tradition of excellence and quality through our award winning and sought-after olive oils.