James Squire Produces Hops from a Vine Cultivated in New South Wales

In 1806, brewer, publican, and farmer James Squire produced hops from a vine cultivated near his brewery at Kissing Point in New South Wales. The surviving historical account describes a single productive vine that became the basis of a plantation reaching about five acres and producing roughly 1,500 pounds of hops by 1812. Squire’s cultivation mattered because imported ingredients were expensive and uncertain in the young colony. Locally grown hops helped connect agriculture with a more regular local brewing trade. The evidence makes Squire an early and demonstrably successful Australian hop grower; it does not require treating every broader claim about absolute priority as settled.