The Short Story
In remote North West Tasmania, the untamed Tarkine wilderness bounds Australia’s richest farmland, both nourished by the world’s purest air and rain, fresh from a 20,000km journey across the Southern Ocean.
We have been rooted in this place for eight decades - first as a dairy cooperative, then in 1997 drawing on our spirit of community and sense of place to establish Hellyers Road Distillery. Hellyers Road Distillery is Australia’s Oldest Operating Whisky Distillery.
Today, the second, third and fourth generations of those original farming families remain custodians of Hellyers Road.
Marrying time-honoured tradition with innovation born of that remoteness, Hellyers Road has carved its own patient path to make Australia’s Finest Aged Whisky.
For those about to read on, we suggest you pour yourself a glass of Australia's Finest Aged Whisky.
A Sense of Place
North West Tasmania has the purest air in the world. This is not hyperbole; it has been measured by renowned science and meteorology organisations for more than 40 years.
This incredibly clean air, the pure rainfall it releases and the uniquely North West Tasmanian climate are a product of where we are located - to our west is 20,000 kilometres of wild Southern Ocean, stretching all the way from Patagonia. This ocean is whipped by the Roaring Forties - furious winds named for their latitude south - that have been favoured and feared by mariners for centuries.
These winds bring our cool, temperate and maritime climate. Even within Tasmania the climate of the North West stands alone. Throughout the day, and throughout the year there is quite limited temperature variation. These stable temperatures, high humidity, and constant flux of atmospheric pressure with passing storm fronts combine with the sea salt, literally hanging in the air to contribute a unique coastal attribute to our maturing whisky.
The distillery itself sits on a narrow band of deep, rich volcanic soil, which together with the regular, year-round rainfall make North West Tasmania among the finest farming land in the world and one of Australia’s most important food bowls. This fertile farmland is bounded to the southwest and south by the vast untamed Tarkine Wilderness and Tasmania’s World Heritage Area temperate rainforests.
If paradise is pure, cool, windy and perfect for making whisky, then this is definitely paradise.
Heritage
Hellyers Road Distillery sits on the route of the original Hellyers Road which once
led from Tasmania’s Bass Strait coastline deep into the wild, rugged, and remote mountains of North West Tasmania.
Close to the coast, thick mountain forests give way to the rich, fertile red soil. It was on this soil in 1956 that a small group of family-owned dairy farms joined to form a cooperative. The business thrived and by 1997, they sought to diversify, choosing to respect the world's purest air, purest water and temperate climate of this incredible land, to start a whisky distillery.
So began the Hellyers Road Distillery, Australia’s oldest operating whisky distillery. Still largely owned by the descendants of those dairy farming families, Hellyers Road today brings you an unbroken heritage of the finest and oldest single malt whisky, still handcrafted with a restless spirit in remote North West Tasmania.
Brand Evolution
Hellyers Road proudly introduced a new look bottling and packaging presence into the market in 2023. The additions have included new 700mL glass bottles, natural wood and cork stoppers, as well as a refreshed label design and descriptor conventions.
Our outer pack presentations see a transformation too, with a focus on supporting new local supply partners, Australian-made packaging and materials, as well as the best of Tasmanian artisan skills. The pinnacle of our expressions are closed with hand-formed copper seals and presented in hand-crafted wooden boxes, made locally with the finest Tasmanian furniture-grade timbers.
This representation of the finest Tasmanian craftmanship reflects the patience and passion essential to Hellyers Road’s fine aged single malt whiskies.
Our People
Hellyers Road has a small but incredibly dedicated team of around 20 staff across all aspects of production through to market. Our team is a showcase of our regional and remote origins, with many of the team being locally born and bred, including our very own Head Distiller, Fiona Coutts.
“It is this recognition of our surroundings - our ‘sense of place’ that is inherent in how we showcase our whiskies. Understanding our landscape and climate and the influence they have during maturation is so vital to the whisky we produce”.
In a nod to our dairy and farming roots, many of our distillers past and present have come from a dairy production background - all with a passion for crafting award-winning single malt whiskies. Our tour guides and customer tastings teams are Burnie locals too. Sharing their love for their landscape and how it shapes our single malts is core to the Hellyers Road philosophy – a showcase of our environment and people.
Our Head Distiller, Fiona Coutts, was, in her former life, a microbiologist and biochemist. Fiona loves the scientific side of distilling – she gets visibly animated when talking about fermentation and distillation reactions – but also relishes the creative scope offered by the entire distillation and aging process. Along with the intellectual excitement, there is an emotional connection for her. Her father was a whisky-loving Scotsman, with whom she shared a passion for brewing and distilling.
For Fiona, distilling at Hellyers Road is a way to connect with his legacy and remember him. Her background in quality control provides the perfect foundation when focusing on the important quality aspects of producing the very best whisky, from raw materials at the beginning through to having an ever-watchful eye over the maturation framework.
Fiona relishes in the fact that the distilling industry allows her fantastic scope to apply her scientific methodology across several disciplines, from thermodynamics and engineering principles to the biochemistry of yeast metabolism. “The creative bent also comes into play here, to think outside of standard practise and encourage innovation within our business and the industry is important to me.” She says.
