I’m Jason Will and I’m a proud Aussie from Brisbane in Australia. I’ve been in Asia since 1999, Shanghai on and off since 2001. I’m currently Country Manager for Asian Tigers (who specialise in relocating people between Asia and the rest of the world).
While it seems like Australia has only been producing whisky for the last couple of decades or so, being a lover of whisky, Australia and history, I can correct that misconception by sharing a bit of my own knowledge of the facts.
Distillation was originally legalised in New South Wales (one of the 6 states that now make up Australia) at the end of 1820, by the then governor, Major General Lachlan Macquarie.
Lachlan was Scottish by birth, born on the island of Ulva, near to the Isle of Mull in the Inner Hebrides. Scotch whisky lovers will know that the Inner Hebrides also includes Islay, Jura, Skye and Raasay – all world famous for creating some amazing whiskies. So it’s fair to say that Scotch and whisky really was in his blood, and probably influenced his decision to legalise distillation and allowing the people of Australia to have their very own Uisce beatha.
Fun fact – Lachlan took up his post as Governor of New South Wales taking over from Governor William Bligh who’s officers had mutinied against him.
The second (and lessor known) mutiny for William Bligh in his career. His first mutiny being when he was the Commanding Lieutenant of HM Armed Vessel Bounty of Mutiny on the Bounty fame.
1822 – In The Beginning
The first legal distillery actually opened in 1822 in Hobart Town, on Tasmania. For a while, Tasmania became the centre of the Australian whisky industry, albeit it at a time when Tasmania was actually known as Van Diemen’s Land. It only became known as Tasmania on 1st January 1856.
The Tasmanian whisky industry came to an abrupt end in 1938, mostly due to the Victorian Distillation Act of 1862, allowing much bigger distilleries to start, to a thirsty market of gold miners. John Dunn’s Warrenheip Distillery (built in 1863) was the second largest in Australia, and in 1888, the federal distiller was built in Port Melbourne, the third largest distillery in the world at the time with 1.1 million LPA of production capacity.
1930’s – The Cheap Blends
In 1930, seeing the opportunities in Australia, the Distillers Company of Edinburgh (now of course Diageo) built Corio distillery which quickly became the largest producer of whisky in Australia. This was followed after the end of World War 2 with Gilbey’s of London opening their distillery near Melbourne. This led to almost all of the whisky in Australia being controlled by just two companies.
At the time they both benefitted from a 40% tariff being applied to imported whiskies, so both companies took the approach of producing cheap, inferior quality whisky. A sad time for Australian whisky lovers.
By 1960, these tariffs were removed making imported whisky much more affordable. This resulted in Australians shunning the locally produced whiskies in favour of imported whisky, and as a result of this, by 1980, both of these major distilleries were closed.
Australia’s Whisky Renaissance
In 1992 everything changed. Lark Distillery opened, thanks to Bill Lark lobbying the Australian government to allow smaller producers to get past the barriers to entry around the 1901 Distillation act. Thanks to Bill’s tireless efforts, the laws were changed and Australia benefitted from an explosion of small, boutique, craft distilleries. In fact, by December 2021, there were 333 new distilleries opened in Australia, with 50 of them producing whisky!
Bill was inducted into the Whisky Hall Of Fame in 2015. At the time, only the seventh person outside of Scotland or Ireland to be given such an honour. As the grandfather to modern Australian whisky, it’s well earned.
Nine Rivers Distillery
After my proud boast about Australia and whisky, it probably makes sense for me to talk about what drew me into Nine Rivers Distillery.
Like most of us on the Nine Rivers Distillery team, I was originally drawn into learning more about the project through a curiosity about the ambition of it. The sheer scale seemed to be bordering on the ridiculous. I honestly thought at first it was a wind up because (as those that know Jay can testify) he has a crazy side and will pull off some of the most crazy windups in some of the WeChat groups he runs.
As most people would agree, he’s what we would generally refer to as a nutter. One step over that line that separates sanity from madness. It created enough curiosity in me to take some time to talk to him on a personal level and quickly learned the difference between his online caricature-like personality, and the real Jay.
The online Jay, with the dark humour, the ability to trigger literally anyone within seconds (a skill he really has perfected to olympic gold medal standards) – it’s all pantomime. It’s entertainment. Polarising people ensures that whether they love him or hate him they are talking about him. It’s free marketing and it’s a genius approach.
Underneath all of that there’s a razor sharp brain that seems to be able to do literally anything. There’s not a single aspect of this project that he’s not completely on top of and literally dancing around the “experts” about it. Most people only see the fun side of things, when he’s smashing around in excavators and loaders. I’m lucky to have considerably more insight, having developed a personal friendship over the years and being a bit of a Jiminy Cricket figure in the project.
I’m the calming voice in Jay’s ear when he has steam coming out of his ears and needs to rant about the frustrations that arise when the people around him can’t keep up with his energy. Which is no doubt why I ended up with the “Responsible Adult of the Year” award at last years 9RD Awards Ceremony.
My Involvement in Nine Rivers Distillery
In addition to being Jiminy Cricket, I’ve had a number of different involvement in the project. Starting with being a member of The Think Tank (a group of us that brain storm new ideas, concepts, and value adds for 9RD) I’m also involved in the Social Media team. Whether it’s proof reading and editing content, or pushing and sharing content online, whatever is needed when I have spare time, I dive right in. I’m also part of the team that organise and manage the Shanghai Whisky Networking events here in Shanghai.
I’m also angling for the role of Chief Tester, Taster and Guzzler – but with more than 200 of us all putting ourselves forward for that job, it might end up being settled in a colosseum with us all fighting it out until the last man (or woman) is standing!
The Future
We have all of the same challenges that Australian whisky has had, and then a few more. Let’s be fair here, there’s a huge amount of international bias against anything that says “Made in China” on the label – despite the facts that China really does lead the world in so many industries!
It’s not going to be easy to convince the world that we have made amazing whisky, even if we do reach our goal to do that. But it’s going to be the kind of challenge that I’ll embrace and run with. There’s a lot more satisfaction in being the underdog and achieving something special, than it is to be starting at the very top of the industry with every advantage already there for you, on a plate.
Would You Like To Read More?
If you enjoyed reading about how we currently don’t see any alternatives to dramfunded, and you would like to catch up with some of our past articles, then please CLICK HERE and go to our News Section, where most of our other content is published.
Would You like To Know More About Helping Nine Rivers Distillery?
One of the easiest ways to help our project succeed is to take an interest in anything we have for sale. You can find out what we have if you CLICK HERE and go to our shop. We’ll make a few percentage points (after sales tax) and this goes directly to our project.
You could help us by simply buying your very own Brick for Life – a brick with a steel name plate wrapped around it, which will be cemented into The Plenum (our feature wall) in July 2023. Every brick owner is entitled to a free dram for life every time they visit us in Longyan, Fujian.
Or, you could learn more about being involved and help us grow to our target of 1000 stakeholders. You can read more about how we are Dramfunded if you CLICK HERE. Remember, we currently have no alternatives to dramfunded!
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