Sunny Hill Distillery
Our journey started with all grain beer brewing and a strong passion for single malt whisky. With a change of life circumstances and a need for a career change we were in the perfect position to start a new venture. A trip to Scotland and a dozen distillery tours later cemented the idea to build a humble distillery on our family farm.
Arthurton was the settling place of our forefathers in 1872 and we were always destined to return here. The Colliver family played a big part of the settling of Arthurton so it seems appropriate for us to carry on the tradition. Arthurton’s motto is “little town, big spirit” and we are now taking this literally! Anyone that has spent time in our tasting room would appreciate the views of the Yorke Peninsula that our property offers and it makes a superb location to enjoy a cocktail with friends and relax away from the everyday hustle and bustle.
Sam and Olivia are the owner/operators and we employ another distiller and a bar manager. We also employ five part time casual bar staff.
We are fortunate during this uncertain period of Covid-19 restrictions that with our equipment and skillset we have been able to change production into hand sanitiser that we have been providing to
hospitals, health centres, aged care facilities, schools and the general public in high risk categories. We have also built a new website with e-commerce store so we can now ship product Australia wide.
We have created a successful business from the start which can be attributed to a great deal of help in the planning, build and operation and an extreme amount of hard work. We have recently received recognition in the industry with our 100% wheat vodka taking out best Australian Neutral Vodka in the London World Spirits awards. We also had great success with the San Francisco World Spirit Awards with our Pink Gin taking Silver and our Dry Gin, Chocolate Liqueur and Vodka all taking bronze.
Low points are the continue struggle of being a small fish in a big market and the weight of countless
overheads which makes the business difficult to keep afloat.
The best part of Yorke Peninsula is the people that live here and there personality and integrity. I have travelled many places in the world in my former career in the RAAF and there isn’t a place on earth I found that I would rather live. With that aside we also boast some of the best coastline, fishing and camping on offer. On top of that we also have new tourist attractions that are not coastal related with us, Watsacowie Brewing Company, Barley Stacks Wines and Emoyeni Wines.
Our distillery was started as a whisky distillery. As we slowly fill our barrels and lay them away to rest in a few years we can start releasing our whisky into the market. We also want to extend the capacity of our venue and make it a place where people can get together and have an excellent time as we currently do with live bands and food caterers.