PICS: STEVE BELL
In the rolling hills of Tasmania’s Central Highlands, the town of Bothwell has long been a place where history and hospitality intersect. Known for its heritage charm, fishing streams, and its claim as the home of Australia’s oldest golf course, the township now has another jewel in its crown. F or almost a decade, the property – best known to many as the former Nant Distillery – stood silent. Its sandstone homestead, historic flour mill, and distilling equipment were left dormant following the collapse of the previous business, which had attracted national attention for all the wrong reasons. The chequered history of Nant left not just a vacant building, but also a missed opportunity for the region. That was until late 2024, when local farming couple John and Annie Ramsay decided to take on a project they never quite expected to own. “The place came on the market late last year and Annie and I were pretty thrilled to be able to secure it. We actually didn’t ever think we could, but the bank backed us in and we got it over the line,” John recalls with a laugh. “That was the first hurdle, the second hurdle is getting everything up and going. So that’s been a fair process, but it’s been good to put deadlines around it.
“We had an event back in July that we had to get some stuff ready for, and then whisky week, we probably weren’t really ready for that, but it was good to just push us along to get systems in place.” John and Annie are no strangers to hard work. As poppy and lamb farmers, they’ve built their livelihood on the land, with a deep connection to Bothwell and its surrounding landscapes. Purchasing the property initially made sense for practical reasons: it offered valuable grazing land, multiple dwellings, and the chance to live in and restore a magnificent sandstone homestead. However, the lure of reviving the distillery was a pull too strong to ignore, both for the couple and for the local region. “You don’t get many opportunities in Bothwell for more land and water, and it also had a few houses,” John says. “Annie and I were looking at building a new house, it’s got a lovely old sandstone homestead that we could renovate and live in, so it ticked a lot of boxes. It was a good opportunity, right next door to us, and then you had the distillery on it as well. That hasn’t been operating so one of the drivers was also to get it up and going for the community, just have another venue, another place to go.”
19 Tasmanian Hospitality Review August/September Edition
Made with FlippingBook Digital Publishing Software