Things to Drink in Tasmania
www.GBMRT2016.org.uk
With Rye whisky becoming increasingly fashionable in the UK, largely, it would seem, due to its
popularity in over-priced London cocktails, the Belgrove distillery is another Tasmanian producer worth
keeping an eye on. It’s located north of Hobart, and is the closest of the distilleries to Campbell Town. The only
whisky produced at Belgrove is rye; easily explained by the fact that it is farmed by the proprietor, Peter Bignell.
Faced with a surplus of the stuff due to a bumper crop in 2008, Peter did the only sensible thing, and decided
to use it to make whisky. Obviously, you can’t just make whisky; it requires certain specialist equipment, such
as a still. So Peter had to make one of those first. If there’s one thing you can’t fault the Aussies for, it’s their
‘can do’ spirit – if they decide they’re going to do something, very few things seem to get in their way. That was
something that we experienced first-hand on the last Match Rifle tour in 2010, when we shot on a 1500 yard
range at Coonabarabran. That range had been built during the previous year, apparently just because the locals
decided they wanted one.
The final distillery we will mention is Hellyer’s Road, the only one on the northern coast of Tasmania
(and, indeed, the only one north of Campbell Town). It’s also the largest distillery in Tasmania, and the largest
‘boutique’ distillery in Australia. Perhaps unusually for a spirit producer, the distillery is actually owned by
a cooperative of local dairy farmers. The distillery itself is named after Henry Hellyer, an early European
explorer to the north-west of Tasmania, and can be found on the Old Surrey Road – we might therefore have
to see if we can bring a bottle back to add to the vast array of liquor to be found on the shelves of the Surrey
clubhouse at Bisley.
For the other five Tasmanian distilleries, we don’t have space here - rest assured, however, that we will
do our best to carry out some ‘research’ while in Oz, and we’ll report back through our blog as soon as any fog
has lifted.
Precision Rifle Services Ltd
Precision Rifle Services, based in the Highlands of
Scotland, wish the GB Match Rifle Team
good shooting in the Woomera Match
versus Australia in Tasmania
in March 2016