Page 14 - Gin Journal - The Hobart Edition

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TASMANIA’S SPIRITED HISTORY
In 1804, a group led by Captain David Collins settled at Sullivans Cove on the west bank of the Derwent River. Over the next
few decades, Tasmania’s clean water and excellent conditions for growing crops meant it became home to a thriving spirits scene with 16 legal distilleries dotted across the island, as well as many small-scale farmhouse operations. But that all changed in 1838 when
“ Lady Jane Franklin convinced her husband, Governor John Franklin, to outlaw the production of spirits.
I WOULD PREFER
BARLEY BE FED TO PIGS
THAN IT BE USED TO
TURN MEN INTO SWINE.
— Lady Jane Franklin, 1838
For the next 150 years, people might have enjoyed the odd
bottle of moonshine, but making whisky (or gin, for that matter) was strictly forbidden. That was until 1990, when Bill Lark managed to overturn prohibition, establishing his own distillery in 1992. Two years later, Sullivans Cove opened on the site of an old brickworks before moving to Cambridge in 2004 under the watchful eye of head distiller Patrick Maguire. Since then, Tasmania has become renowned the world over for its whiskies and – if Heather has anything to do with it – its gin.
We hope that, secretly, Lady Jane Franklin might have grown to love it, too.
Sullivans Cove Distillery pays respect to the Muwinina people, the traditional owners of Hobart, whose ancestors walked this land long before anyone thought to make whisky.
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