Kevin Cullen

Kevin John Cullen, AM (22 November 1922 – 9 February 1994) was an Australian medical doctor, researcher, and winemaker, active in Western Australia's South West. He is best known for his role in founding the Busselton Health Study and Cullen Wines.

Biography Cullen was born on 22 November 1922 in the Western Australian town of Bunbury as the younger son of Alfred, an English-born surgeon, and his locally born wife Elvie (née Clarke). He was schooled locally for two years before boarding in Perth at Hale School from 1929 to 1939. Also in 1946, he married Diana Cullen (née Adams), a physiotherapist, in Hobart while Cullen was a resident medical officer at Royal Hobart Hospital; the couple had three sons and three daughters.

In 1966, the Cullens with friends and colleagues established a trial acre of vines, inspired by the work of John Gladstones, who had written papers about the potential of the area as a wine region. In 1971, Kevin and Diana founded Cullen Wines, originally known as Wilyabrup Wines, in a property they had bought in 1948 in Wilyabrup in what became the Margaret River wine region. and had the Busselton community health centre named in his honour by Premier of Western Australia Richard Court. In the 1994 Australia Day Honours, he was named a Member of the Order of Australia "In recognition of service to medicine, particularly in the Busselton region and to the wine industry". In 2006 Cullen Wines renamed its Cullen Chardonnay the Kevin John Chardonnay, and has since released the Kevin John Legacy Series.