Our Story | Waubs Harbour Whisky

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A family’s vision of a maritime whisky, connected to aboriginal heritage, located on the Tasmanian ocean.

A story we had to share

A Tasmanian Family Distillery

“If you could make whisky your way, using the best equipment in the perfect location, how would you do it?”

This was the question Tim Polmear (co-founder) posed to his brother Rob Polmear (ex-Lark Distillery Head of Production & Overeem Whisky Head Distiller) around the fire, whisky in hand, in early 2017.

That very night sparked the vision for what we, Tim, Rob and Bec Polmear, have now brought to life as Waubs Harbour Whisky; maritime Tasmanian single malt whisky made our way.

A Maritime Tasmanian Whisky

From that defining night around the fire, the vision became clear. Our Tasmanian heritage, our deep personal connection with the ocean, our natural resourcefulness and experience with crafting single malt whisky collided. We knew what we were meant to create.

“A truly maritime Tasmanian single malt whisky that not only embraces but encourages the influence of our wild, coastal provenance, made meticulously and with intention to be rich, oily and distinctively our own.”

An old Oyster Hatchery

We set out to find a location that could bring our vision to life. An old oyster hatchery, right on the ocean’s edge on the east coast of Tasmania couldn’t be any closer to the provenance we were after and immediately felt like home. Over the last few years, we’ve painstakingly converted the hatchery into our world class production facility.

Our Heritage

Our name, Waubs Harbour, is the former name of the old fishing town of Bicheno and was named after Tasmanian Aboriginal woman, Wauba Debar. Growing up around Bicheno and with Aboriginal heritage ourselves, we'd always connected with Wauba’s story and are proud to carry on the Waubs Harbour name.

Wauba was stolen as a teenager to become a ‘sealer’s slave’. She is said to have rescued two men from a sinking boat in a wild storm after swimming 1km offshore and dragging them one by one. Known as ‘heroine of the sea’, the town was named after her. Wauba died in the early 1800s with the only known gravestone erected to a Tasmanian Aboriginal person during the 19th century and the only Palawa woman known to have been buried and commemorated by non-Indigenous locals.

You can still visit Wauba’s gravestone today, only a few hundred metres from our distillery.

While the town name was changed to Bicheno, Wauba’s name and story live on through local street names, the beach, the bay and now our distillery, all named after her.

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