Female owned distillery opens at South Murwillumbah

THE female founders of Tweed distillery Birds of Isle are paving the way for more women to enter the male-dominated industry.

After releasing their first product, Bunya Nut Rum, Chanel Melani and Sally Carter are working on their second release. They hope to expand the South Murwillumbah business and get more ladies on board.

“There’s still not a lot of women in rum and we think that’s something very unique for us,” Melani said.

“Maybe women haven’t wanted to enter the industry before, but that’s something we really want to change. At the moment we’re a business of two, but we hope to grow over the next 12 months.

“We really want to turn the rum category upside down, open it up to women and help Australia become one of the world’s greatest rum-producing countries.”

They are one of a growing number of distilleries in the Northern Rivers region, including Husk Farm Distillery at South Tumbulgum, Lord Byron Distillery in Byron Bay, Cape Byron Distillery at McLeods Shoot, Winding Road Distilling Co. at Tintenbar, Bunker Distillery at Spring Grove and Cabarita Spirits, which is also run by a female distiller, Keri Algar. Melani said the region is prime territory for making rum, which is made from molasses.

“It makes sense because it is made from sugar cane, and we have three sugar mills in the Northern Rivers,” she said. For their first release, the pair worked closely with Indigenous cultural advisor, Bundjalung chef Mindy Woods, to hand-forage nuts from prehistoric Bunya Pine trees found in the area.

They then roasted and fire-charred them to give the light and dry Spanish-style aged rum a sense of Australian terroir.

It is available in select venues throughout the region, including Bistro Livi, M-Arts and Murwillumbah Cellars in Murwillumbah and Elements of Byron, The Sunseeker and No Bones in Byron Bay.