Hoochery Distillery

In the red dirt country of the Kimberley, where Western Australia stretches toward the Timor Sea, Raymond Bernard 'Spike' Dessert III made a decision that would define a legacy. The year was 1995, and on his farm in the Ord River Valley near Kununurra, he built what would become the oldest continually operating legal distillery in Western Australia.

This was frontier country in every sense—a place where the wet season brings biblical floods and the dry season bakes the earth to dust. Here, where cattle stations measure in millions of acres and the nearest city lies a thousand kilometers south, Spike saw opportunity in the valley's abundance. The Ord River scheme had transformed this corner of the Kimberley into an oasis of agriculture, sugar cane thriving in the tropical heat.

Spike's hand-built pot still became the beating heart of Hoochery Distillery, fed by the clean waters of the Ord River Valley. In a land where rum seemed the natural choice—sugar cane growing practically at the distillery door—he also turned his attention to whiskey, understanding that Australia's extreme climate would work magic on the aging process. The relentless Kimberley heat accelerated maturation in ways the Scottish Highlands could never imagine, concentrating flavors in re-charred oak barrels over two to fifteen years.

The distillery's vat fermentation and patient distillation process reflected Spike's understanding that great spirits couldn't be rushed, even as the climate rushed everything else. When he passed in December 2017, the Australian Distillers Association honored his pioneering spirit with the Raymond B 'Spike' Dessert III Trophy for Champion Rum—recognition of a man who helped write the opening chapters of Australia's modern distilling story.

Today, his daughter Kalyn Fletcher carries the flame forward, welcoming visitors at 2pm each day to witness the alchemy happening in this remote corner of the continent. The red dirt still surrounds the distillery, the Ord River still flows, and the pot still—built by Spike's own hands—continues its patient work, transforming the essence of the Kimberley into liquid memory.