Originally posted by the Sydney Morning Herald, below is an excerpt on Bicheno Tasmania.

There’s a small stretch of Bicheno, on Tasmania’s east coast, known as The Gulch. It’s actually a natural breakwater, where a strip of rock they call Governor Island shelters the shores from the surf of the Tasman Sea.

Governor Island hosts Tasmania’s largest colony of crested terns, who settle in and safely breed there between August and March. Just across the water from the terns, and the occasional lazy-looking seal, The Gulch hosts the spirit, or maybe the spirits, of the town.

In what was once an oyster hatchery is now something that looks like an oversized science project, with gleaming pipes and shiny vats and timber casks aplenty. This is the home of Waubs Harbour Whisky, the venture of brothers Rob and Tim Polmear and Tim’s partner, Bec.

“When Tim and Rob and I started looking at making our own whisky, we really wanted to make a maritime whisky,” Bec Polmear says. “Back in 2017-18, there wasn’t a Tasmanian maritime whisky as such, yet it had been proven in Scotland that whiskies matured by the ocean are full of character.

“So we wanted to bring that to life in Tasmania and our climate is perfect for it. This building had been vacant for a few years so we approached them and said, ‘What are you doing with this building? It’s right on the ocean, it’s incredible.’

“So we bought that off them in 2018 and spent the next few years renovating, and building and installing all the new equipment. Fast forward to – what, eight years on now – and we get to make whisky and share it with guests every day. It’s pretty awesome.”

There’s a lot of local content – the stills are Tasmanian-made and the grain comes from Oatlands, but the casks the whisky matures in travels a bit further – bourbon barrels from the US and from mainland Australia, former sherry and tawny port barrels. “All the colour and a fair amount of the flavour comes from the cask,” Bec Polmear says. “That’s why we use different casks in different releases, it brings these beautiful different influences to our spirit.”