Chris Shanahan: Wowsers rejoiced as cabinet rejects early Canberra brewery

On 9 October, historian Dr Brett Stubs published Capital Brews, a brief history of brewing in Canberra. Stubbs piece marks the national capital’s centenary.

Surprising in a city not noted for moderation, let along abstinence, plans for Canberra’s first brewery ran aground in 1933. The territory’s liquor laws failed to allow for the granting of brewers’ licences.

“An application was made to establish a brewery at Braddon”, writes Stubbs. But approval of the venture would require an amendment to the law. The cabinet declined to do so. Subsequently the Methodist minister in nearby Reid sermonised relief at the decision, “not to allow the national capital to be disgraced by the erection within its bounds of a brewery”.

Ironically, Canberra’s first brewery, the Parson’s Pint, opened in 1989 at Glebe Park, just a stone’s throw from Reid.

Read Capital Brews by Brett Stubbs.