Jenny McAuley inherited the property in 2003. Jenny and husband Mike decided to experiment with growing the Perigord black truffle (melanosporum) because a lot of different varieties of fungus grew naturally on the property. The first planting of 300 trees was in March 2005 as an experiment.
The area was considered to be too warm to be ideal for truffle production. However Red Hill is 800 ft above sea level and has a microclimate that means that the temperatures are 4 -5 degrees cooler than on the coast and the area has a higher rainfall. In order for truffles to ripen they need the soil to get very cold. Therefore the best environment for truffles is a geographical area where there are a number of frosts each winter. Red Hill usually only has 2/3 frosts each winter. The average rainfall is conducive to truffle growing.
The trees planted were a mix of oaks and hazelnut trees. The original group of trees were sourced from Tasmania. The first truffle was found under a hazelnut in July 2010. It was relatively large approx 180 grams. There were further plantings of oaks in March 2010 and 2013. In 2015 a fourth section will be planted with 750 hazelnut trees for winter and summer truffles.
Red Hill Truffles was the first farm to produce truffles on the Mornington Peninsular.