About
Small-batch artisan distillery nestled along the Derwent River in Dromedary, 25 minutes north of Hobart. Owned and operated by Emma and Robbie Gilligan. Head Distiller Robbie produces Scottish-style single malt whisky alongside Last Sanctuary Gin and liqueurs. Strong focus on sustainably sourced, local and organic ingredients, with botanicals foraged from the distillery property. Cellar door open by appointment or Saturdays, tours capped at 8 people for intimate experience.
Production Details
The Derwent Distillery Tale
Along the Derwent River, twenty-five minutes north of Hobart, the ancient eucalyptus forests give way to a pocket of cleared land in Dromedary where Emma and Robbie Gilligan have carved out something entirely their own. Here, where the river winds through Tasmania's southeastern valleys, the Derwent Distillery sits like a well-kept secret among the native timber.
The Derwent River has been Tasmania's lifeline since the island's earliest days, carrying ships and stories from the Southern Ocean to the island's heart. Now it carries something else—the pure water that flows into Robbie Gilligan's copper pot still, transformed from Highland snowmelt and mountain springs into the backbone of his Scottish-style single malt whisky.
This is whisky-making stripped to its essence. No industrial columns or automated systems, just Robbie working batch by careful batch, his hands reading the spirit as it flows. The stillhouse operates on island time, where patience isn't just virtue but necessity. Tasmania's maritime climate—cool, steady, kissed by Southern Ocean winds—creates maturation conditions that Australian distillers on the mainland can only dream of. Here, the angels' share evaporates slowly, allowing flavors to develop with a precision that the island's clean air seems to magnify.
Between distilling runs, Robbie and Emma forage their own property for botanicals, gathering ingredients that grow wild in soil shaped by ancient Gondwanan geology. This is the new Australian whisky story—not just about making spirit, but about understanding place. Every bottle carries the fingerprint of this specific valley, this particular bend in the river.
The cellar door tells the whole story of Tasmania's whisky revolution: intimate tours capped at eight people, appointments made by handshake rather than algorithm. When visitors step into the stillhouse on Saturday mornings, they're witnessing something that would have been impossible to imagine a generation ago—world-class whisky emerging from a island once considered the edge of nowhere.
The Derwent flows on, carrying new stories downstream, while in Dromedary, Emma and Robbie continue writing Tasmania's chapter in whisky's expanding atlas, one small batch at a time.