Kent & Ann Hallet

Goodworth Estate Olive Oil began in 1996 and produces a range of oil from cultivated wild olive trees.

The property of Goodworth was one of the first to be settled in the area near Rhynie in SA, and is at the southern gateway to the Clare Valley. Once owned by Robert Messiter Cole, mayor of the fledgling Rhynie District Council, this was one of the first properties in the district to experiment with growing olives. These original trees still contribute to the Goodworth Estate extra virgin olive oil, which takes its name from the original property.

The Modern Olive Oils

Kent and Ann often join forces with other Clare Valley olive producers so that, by carefully blending their olive oils they can achieve a flavour with depth and complexity that will compliment the food with which it is being served. Australians have very quickly realised that good olive oil offers a range of flavours that will enhance foods as diverse as salad to bruschetta to meats to fish and even cakes. In fact Kent and Ann were the first to ever sponsor an Olive Oil Cake Competition at a South Australian Agricultural Show.

Not Just the Olives

Olive oil production has become even more of a family affair with the Halletts, and Kent’s mother Lee became involved in 1998 when she decided to buy a small olive press and station it at Riverton, near Rhynie, SA. Within a year the little press was replaced by a larger one, and then a larger, and then a still larger one again. The production capacity has grown from a very modest 100 kg per hour to almost 2 tonnes per hour, using two modern centrifugal machines. This means that Kent and Ann can arrange to press their own olive fruit at exactly the right time to get the very best olive oil from it.

And the innovation continues

In 2003 Kent and Ann pioneered the packaging of extra virgin olive oil into ultra-modern bag-in-box packaging. This called for a huge research effort into liners, taps, boxes and packaging techniques. The effort paid off and Goodworth Estate created a world first when it released its extra virgin olive oil in the new packaging. Kent and Ann now also package olive oil for other producers under the name of Olive Oil Packaging Service or OOPS for short. The tradition of innovation in olive oil production continues.