Tom and Sarah Freeman capitalised on their enviable location on the Murray River when they took over historic property Wilkadene near South Australia’s Renmark.
Brewing beers and serving tinnies wasn’t always on the cards for South Australian Tom Freeman. Like most teens who move from their hometown (in this case South Australia’s Renmark) to the big city (Adelaide) for schooling and university, he had no real plans for the future. “Playing cricket for Australia was never going to happen,” he laughs. “Even wine marketing [which he studied at uni] was more of just an interest.” Little did he know that studying wine marketing would eventually serve him well.
Fast forward 12 years to 2005 and Tom’s parents had called a meeting to discuss the future of the family property, Wilkadene. “They had decided to put the place up for sale,” Tom says. “I didn’t want to see that happen, because of all the fond memories we had here, so I thought I’d come back and give it a crack.”
Located at Murtho, about 20 kilometres from Renmark, on the banks of the Murray River, the first cottage on the historic property was built in 1859 from locally quarried limestone. The property has since had three owners, including a family who drowned, on separate occasions, in the river. (The bodies of the father, son and two daughters, all of whom were taken by the mighty Murray, rest in the cemetery adjacent to the property.) Tom’s parents bought Wilkadene in 1988, when he was just 10. There they raised sheep for wool, cropped wheat, farmed almonds and rented out houseboats to tourists. When Tom took over the property in 2005, he knew the business strategy had to change quite drastically.
“It was during the big millennial drought, so it was a really stressed economic time in the area,” he explains. “My parents and two older brothers had all moved away, and at the time we were still involved in the farming side of the business, mainly the almonds, the irrigated farming. The drought made us realise that our reliance on the Murray was a bit of a problem. I’d always had this idea of doing something with this part of the old shearing shed, and I’d been inspired by a brewery pub I had visited in England. Everyone said I was mad, but I thought now’s the time to take a chance and do something crazy.”
Twenty years later, that “crazy” idea has blossomed into a successful business, Woolshed Brewery, which Tom operates with his wife Sarah, head brewer Jack Beavis and a team of six full-time staff, two permanent part-timers and about 10 or so casuals for weekends and peak periods.
The journey to success has not been without its challenges. “As we were one of the first craft breweries in the state, there wasn’t much of a precedent for councils to work with in terms of brewery instalments and requirements,” Tom explains. “So there was a real feeling of being passed around between different government departments for a long while without much progress being made. Also, due to our location on the riverbank, we had significant issues with the EPA [Environment Protection Australia] and the Department of Environment and Native Title, to name just a few. After a year of negotiations and with help from planners at our local council, we were permitted to start brewing in July 2009. However, we only officially opened to the public in 2013 once we had finished our new toilet block.”
Today, they brew and serve a range of craft beers, including lagers, ales, stouts and kettle sours, most of which have won them awards. They also make seltzers, ciders and hard lemonades under the Utopia label. Tom’s current favourite brew is called the Big Orange, which is a kettle sour beer mixed with local fresh orange juice. Like most good things, Tom says “it’s a bit divisive. You either love it or you hate it”. To reduce the reliance on the Murray for water, they use only rainwater for the brewing process, which Tom says in a low-rainfall region can be challenging at times. Although they don’t have a kitchen on-site, they do offer a range of local produce, such as cheeses and olives. They also have a rotation of caterers each weekend, serving everything from fish and chips to wood-fired pizzas and Thai food. But the brewery’s biggest attraction is its position on the Murray. Customers can park their vehicles, whether houseboats, tinnies or jet skis, right out front. “We’re quite unique because we’re right on the river,” Tom says. “So just today [3pm on a weekday], we’ve already had four or five houseboats pull through.”
Located in South Australia’s rural Riverland region, Renmark is the oldest European settlement on the Murray, dating back to 1887. Situated just a few kilometres from the Victorian-SA border and not far from the SA-NSW border, it’s a haven for tourists, who flock to the area to experience the iconic Murray and sample the local food and drink that the region is famous for. The Woolshed itself sits on three acres (1.2 hectares), with Tom and Sarah’s home less than 50 metres away. There is another 1000 acres (404 ha) attached to it, which they lease out to a neighbour for cropping. The four-bedroom Heritage-listed house where the Freemans live is also the home Tom grew up in. Built in 1913, it’s a constant work-in-progress for the couple. “You’re always painting and patching,” Tom says. “It’s basically the cracks. But, having said that, it’s been wonderful. It’s held together really, really well.” They’ve just recently built a pool and garage and while they haven’t had to do any big renovations, they’re currently saving for a new roof.
As for the brewery, the Freemans have recently installed two big decks out front and are currently working on improving efficiencies and their environmental footprint. This has seen them increase their solar power from 10kW in 2010 to 120kW today, while further initiatives include new pipework and plumbing for the installation of a glycol battery, to enable them to use their solar farm to chill enough glycol during the day to keep the tanks cool overnight. It’s safe to say the current landscape at Wilkadene is a stark contrast to when Tom was a young boy. And while he admits he’s more at home brewing beers than he was shearing sheep, those formative years working on the farm have led him to where he is today. Cheers — or shears — to that.
