Bundaberg Rum Distillery

Bundaberg Rum distillery is about a 30 minute walk from the CBD.  Not a very fun walk for us as it started to pour with rain and the ‘trusty’ umbrella that I hadn’t used since we first arrived in Cairns was now missing 3 spokes and only kept half of me dry.  When we eventually got to the distillery, we were greeted by a huge model of a Bundaberg rum bottle and inside a stuffed polar bear in a glass case. 

‘Bundy.R.bear’ is a white polar bear and the logo of Bundaberg rum. 

  

 A few of the advertisements for bundaberg rum released over the years. 

The distillery has the option of a self guided tour and a guided tour. The self guided tour allows access to the small museum and the guided tour takes you around the distillery itself. As we are only going to here once we opted for the guided tour. We had a wander around the museum as we had 20 minutes until our tour started. 

We learned that there was a large fire at the distillery in 1936. Some rum that was not on fire flowed into the river and the locals were there filling up buckets and cans with the rum, who can blame them!

The rum and methylated spirit flowing into the river proved to much for its inhabitants. For miles the banks of the river were strewn with thousands of dead fish. Catfish, stingray, salmon, barramundi and even sharks. The health authorities had hoped that the tide would wash the fish back out to sea, until then  ‘the hawks, gulls and other fish eating birds were having a good time’.  

The one question that we wanted to answer was why is a polar bear used as a logo on an Australian rum? It was the clever marketing scheme of a Samuel McMahon. He thought that the polar bear implied that that the rum was a superb drink that could ward off the wickedest chill. The surname ‘Mcmahon’ is also of Gaelic origin and means ‘son of the bear’.  Mystery solved!

Our tour guide then came to find us and the tour began. We had to leave our bags and any electric items containing a battery, including watches in a locker, due to the flammability of the alcohol, so no photographs of the distillery itself im afraid.

The history of the rum factory is that it was formed by some clever sugarcane farm owners, as a good use for the molasses, which is a by product of sugarcane.

We were shown each stage of the distilling process and given some molasses to taste.

I lost Jamie for about 20 minutes and found him here 'savouring' the vapours of the distilling process...he could still smell rum a few days later. 

The last stop of the tour is the Rum bar, where you can sample 2 different rums. I recommend the red rum (as it’s a bit smoother than the original) and the Royal liqueur, coffee and chocolate flavoured rum that you can only get at the distillery.  There are lots of rum related products in the bondstore, where you also have the opportunity to purchase bottles of rum & cans of ready mixed rum.  We bought a bottle of red rum and the royal liqueur – beautiful.

Bundaberg Rum bar

Royal Liqueur 

So the distillery was a great day out and defiantly worth visiting Bundaberg for. So if your ever in Bundy it’s a must see! 

Some parrots just outside the rum factory. 

The following morning we boarded the train and headed for Brisbane. 


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