Swan Brewery - History

History

The brewing of beer in Western Australia commenced with the Albion Brewery which opened in 1837 at the foot of Spring Street and Mounts Bay Road, central Perth by James Stokes. In 1880 Stokes constructed a second brewery, the Stanley Brewery, together with an icehouse and malthouse at the foot of Mount Eliza in 1848, using compensation he had been paid by the British Government after his attempts to start a distillery were thwarted by an Act of Parliament. The Stanley Brewery was later leased by John Ferguson, a Scottish sea captain, who appointed a German brewer, William Mumme, to manage the brewery.

In 1857 Frederick Sherwood established a new brewery at the foot of what is now Sherwood Court in Perth, calling it the Swan Brewery, after the black swans that he had seen on the river. Sherwood inherited a successful building firm from his father Richard in 1831 and migrated to the Swan River Colony, with his wife Jessey and three children in 1943. Sherwood, who had been working as an architect/surveyor/builder, established the brewery after the death of his wife, in order to support his six children. He saw the Swan river as the ideal place to build a brewery, as the Swan provided fresh, clean water for making the beer, hiring convicts as a source of cheap labour.

Following Sherwood’s death in 1874, the family offered the Swan Brewery for lease. The lease was taken up by Ferguson and Mumme who appreciated the value of its pure water supply. In 1879 the Swan Brewery was moved to a site at the foot of Mount Eliza not far from the Stanley Brewery and another new brewery, the Lion Brewery. The former buildings continued to be used as a bottling plant. In 1886 the partnership between Ferguson and Mumme was dissolved and Mumme continued as part owner of the Swan Brewery. The Swan Brewery Company Ltd was incorporated in Melbourne in 1887.

In 1888 the Swan Brewery took over the neighbouring Lion Brewery. In 1906 the bottling works attached to the brewery were destroyed by fire, with a new facility constructed closer to the city. In 1927 Swan acquired control of Fremantle’s Castlemaine Brewery. In 1928 the Emu Brewery Ltd which can trace it's origins back to the Albion Brewery was purchased by the Swan Brewery. In 1945 Swan bought the last other Western Australian brewing company, the Kalgoorlie Brewing Company. The brewery extended its operations to the Northern Territory in 1957, but in 1972 lost its foothold there to Carlton and United Breweries. The brewery ceased production at the Mounts Bay site in 1966 moved all brewing operations to the Emu Brewery site in Spring Street. In 1966, it made an arrangement to brew Skol beer in Western Australia, discontinuing the line in 1975. In 1972, it invested in the New Guinea company of San Miguel and Swan Holdings Ltd, which it sold in 1974. In 1978 the brewery was relocated to Canning Vale, an industrial estate in Perth's southern suburbs. In October 1981 Alan Bond, through his company, Bond Corporation purchased the Swan Brewery for A$164M. In 1983 Bond Corporation acquired Castlemaine Tooheys for A$1,200M, with this acquisition Bond Corporation controlled approximately half of Australia’s beer market, virtually all of Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales. In 1982 the Swan Brewery becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Alan Bond's Bond Corporation. In September 1990 New Zealand brewing company, Lion Nathan purchased a 50% stake in Bond Corporation's brewing operations, Bond Brewing (which included the Swan Brewery), subsequently purchasing the remainder of the company two years later. As of 2007, Swan Brewery Pty Ltd, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lion Nathan operating as independent brewery under the Lion Nathan umbrella. In 2009 Lion Nathan was taken over by Japanese brewer, Kirin Brewery Company.

On 12 October 2012 Lion Nathan resolved to close the Canning Vale operations of the Swan Brewery by March 2013 and move production interstate. The Swan and Emu beer brands and keg production would be transferred to the company's West End Brewery in South Australia and pack production would move to James Boag & Son Brewery in Tasmania