The Story

Hellyers Road is one of Australia’s largest whisky distilleries. Located in Burnie, in Tasmania’s stunning north western tip, the distillery was founded in 1999 by Betta Milk, a Tasmanian milk co-operative that saw an opportunity to expand after the Australian dairy industry was deregulated.

The company’s experience producing dairy products influenced their approach to making whisky, and the distillery, named after a famed local explorer, has taken a different path to the smaller Tassie distillers around the south of the island.

Greater volumes of spirit was the goal, and as a result, their whisky is now available in over 20 countries and there’s plenty of stock to satisfy demand.

Another difference in strategy was pricing. Hellyers Road is an affordable Australian single malt in comparison to many of its counterparts in Tasmania and on the mainland. Economies of scale have certainly helped to achieve this. The stills at Hellyers Road Distillery are absolutely enormous, even by Scottish standards. The wash still comes in at 60,000 litres, the spirit still 20,000 litres (most Australian stills are between 500–1800 litres).

Hellyers’ distillation regime is incredibly slow as a result. The middle-cut or ‘heart’ is collected over 24 hours – about five to six times longer than most.

The design of these stills also explains some of the flavours you get with Hellyers Road whiskies. Built locally, the still’s were made entirely of stainless steel (dairy folks love stainless steel) instead of the customary copper, although copper heads and lyne arms were installed later. Most stills used for whisky production will be built entirely out of copper because it strips away particular compounds that produce feinty, cereal, sulphury and meaty characters.

But intelligent distilling (a number of Scottish distillers also utilise stainless steel for various effects), and extensive maturation has meant that Hellyers Road whiskies strike an interesting between sulphury, fruity, green apple flavours.

The early core range – Original, Pinot Noir Finish, Peated, Twin Oak and Slightly Peated – was complemented by 10, 12 and 15 year old bottlings, some of the first age statement single malts released in Australia’s modern whisky incarnation. The Hellyers’ Master Series, which often featured heavily peated whisky using malt sourced from Scotland, scored the distillery a plethora of awards in spirits competitions and drew praise from many of the world’s leading whisky critics and tasters. Numerous independent bottlings, especially those from La Maison du Whisky, have also been favourably received over the years.

Mark Littler, the stalwart distillery manager who’d been with Hellyers for 17 years, moved on in 2020, signalling a new direction for the company. On the ownership front, TasFoods, a Launceston-based agribusiness, acquired the milk and dairy side of the business in 2019, giving Hellyers more scope to focus on whisky making.

A new Hellyers range and bottle design was unveiled in July 2023, with the core Double Cask and Sherry Cask bottlings complemented by older expressions including the Journeyman and Voyager Cask. A number of 20 year old-plus distillery bottlings are also being released, elevating Hellyers to another level in the Tasmanian scene.

At every point, Hellyers has forged its own path. And despite criticism of Hellyers’ whiskies and production methods in their early years, the work the company did to set the business up by filling large quantities of spirit into barrel (high-risk at the time) and develop a modern visitor centre is now paying off. With a sharply priced core range and some of Australia’s oldest single malts now being released from their bond store, this stalwart distillery has risen to become one of Tasmania’s top whisky producers.