From colonial Sydney to outback campfires, rum has infused the Aussie way of life, so it is almost a rite of passage to take a trip to the Bundaberg Rum Distillery.
Story + Photos Mandy McKeesick
It is Australia Day and the Reise and Ezzy families from Brisbane are in high spirits, tattooed with flags and decked out in their best ‘Aussie Aussie Aussie’ T shirts. They are lined up, with another 50 people, at the start of the Bundaberg Rum Distillery tour. “We’re not really drinkers,” Kylie Reise says, “but we’ve come here today because it is such an iconic place.” Which says much about the way Bundy Rum has infused the Australian way of life.
Visitors to the Bundaberg Rum Distillery start their tour in the museum where towering oak vats, decommissioned when the country’s growing appetite for rum rendered them too small, house more stories. Then there’s the world’s biggest Bundy collection with more than 1000 unique bottles of Bundaberg Rum sitting on one giant wall.
This story excerpt is from Issue #131
Outback Magazine: June/July 2020
