Aldinga’s Big Easy Radio winery and vineyard has gone child-free and is getting a lot of love for the decision on social media.

Owner and winemaker Matt Head (himself a father of three) told ABC Radio yesterday the decision was primarily a safety issue.

He said as people had a few drinks and relaxed they sometimes lost track of their children.

“We’ve had multiple instances down here of kids wandering into the neighbour’s vineyard, into farm sheds,” he said.

“What people have to appreciate is that, coming to a vineyard or a winery you are coming to a working farm and we’re a working farm, the vineyard. We make wine.”

“With working farms you’re going to have safety concerns.”

“Parents that are not keeping an eye on their kids on a rural property are asking for trouble.”

“We’ve got signs up asking people to supervise their kids, we’ve got warnings about snakes and people don’t seem to want to read those signs and it’s falling back on us to manage people’s children and that’s not what we’re here to do. We’re here to sell wine.”

The decision was posted on Big Easy’s Facebook page on Thursday in a post that says “Due to the ongoing safety issues pertaining to unsupervised children we have decided to become an adults only venue.”

“All visitors must now be 18+. Sorry to our regular family visitors.”

Matt says the decision wasn’t an easy one to make and hasn’t been popular with everyone, with one social media user accusing him of hating kids. 

He said while the majority of parents did the right thing there were a few that “ruin it for everybody.”

Many of the commenters on his Facebook post agreed with the decision with one commentator saying, “It’s an awesome place with great local talent. I’ve been there several times and some people just let their kids run around everywhere, even in the carpark. Not only danger to the kids but adults too. Actually looking forward to kid free zone.”