A new whisky distillery, Greenbanks Tasmanian Whisky Co., has opened in Bridgewater. They specialise in contract distilling, where clients work with head distiller John Slattery to create and perfect their desired whisky style. Greenbanks then makes small test batches of the whisky to ensure it meets high standards before full-scale production. The whisky is aged until it’s right for bottling.

Co-founder Hugh Roxburgh has been working to start a distillery in Australia for years, and also attempted in the United States. Finally, he settled on Tasmania as the ideal location to build a large whisky-making facility. His goal is to elevate Tasmania as a top whisky-producing region, alongside the likes of Scotland and Japan. All from Bridgewater’s backyard.

“We chose to invest in Tasmania due to the favourable business environment, superior climatic conditions for making and maturing whisky, and the deep local engineering and distilling expertise,” Mr Roxburgh said. “Tasmania makes some of the best whisky in the world and has won almost every award there is to win globally, but very little is exported overseas because not enough is made.”

Located in Bridgewater’s Industrial Area, Greenbanks is close to Brighton Transport Hub and the Midland Highway, making it convenient for shipping by road and rail. The industrial zoning ensures they have all the necessary utilities and can operate around the clock. That’s why they chose Bridgewater for their base of operations.

“The local Brighton Council has been great to deal with during our distillery build. Bridgewater was the ideal location to build a world-class Tasmanian distillery and we look forward to working closely with the local community going forward.” At full capacity, Greenbanks will use about 10% of Tasmania’s annual grain production (around 10,000 tonnes). This means they will need local farmers to grow lots of high-quality Tasmanian grain. “If you’re a local grain grower we would love to hear from you,” he said.

“We also need to work very closely with local livestock farmers to manage our stillage – a nutritious byproduct of our distillation process. At full scale we estimate the volume of stillage produced at Greenbanks will be enough to supplement the feed of approximately 4,000 cattle.”

Looking ahead, Greenbanks plans to become one of the world’s first industrial sites powered by green hydrogen by 2026, in partnership with TasGas and Countrywide Hydrogen through their Brighton Hydrogen Project.