John Watson (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Who is James Boag? This is the question posed over recent years through an innovative series of advertisements and through which the Boag’s brand of beer products has greatly raised its profile on the Australian—and indeed the international—market. For 12 years now the successful ‘Who is James Boag?’ advertising campaign has highlighted the premium beer products produced at the historic Boag’s Brewery on the banks of the North Esk River in Launceston in Northern Tasmania. Having lived in Launceston all my life, the recent success of the local brewery in reinventing itself as a maker of quality beer for the national market has been something of a very pleasant surprise. Part of this pleasing success has been the degree to which the Boag’s Brewery contributes to the economic life of the city of Launceston and to the prosperity of those who work directly or indirectly in this process. The other pleasing aspect of this success is the way in which Boag’s beers are now seen as a major part of the growing Tasmanian image of so-called clean and green products, which are increasingly characterising the output of my home state, especially in the food products area.

Earlier this year, Boag’s Brewery won the Crystal Prestige award at the 2007 Monde Selection in Brussels in Belgium, the world’s most renowned beer awards. The Crystal Prestige award is awarded to brands that have won gold medals during 10 successive years at the Monde Selection. James Boag Premium is the first Australian beer to ever win this award, and this shows that the historic brewery is reaching the highest standards in its product and bringing pride and prosperity to its home city of Launceston.

This brewery was established during the first decade of the 1800s. Launceston, like so many early Australian towns, soon had a number of small breweries which supplied the local market and whose proprietors were often counted among the more colourful characters in the local business community. James Boag and his son, also named James, officially set up a partnership to take over the Esk Brewery in 1883, and their initial output was seven hogsheads of beer weekly. By 1887, a new malt house had been built, output had risen to 500 hogsheads and the brewery was employing 30 staff. In that same year, James Boag II took over the brewery from his father and the company purchased the Cornwall Brewery and amalgamated it into one of the town’s major businesses.

In 1900, the Cyclopaedia of Tasmania reported:

Tasmanian ale and beer enjoy an international fame, and are generally admitted to being infinitely superior to anything produced elsewhere in Australia.

It continued:

Climatic advantages perhaps, to a great extent, account for the superiority of the article brewed on the island, but the aid of nature would be of very little service unless those who are engaged in the industry had taken intelligent advantage of it.

As a northerner in Tasmanian terms, I am forced to admit that these comments also included an excellent product brewed at the Cascade Brewery in Hobart.

In 1919, James Boag II died and was succeeded by his son, James Boag III. The company continued to grow and thrive, with James Boag III passing on in 1944. His place on the board was taken by his son George, the last of the family represented in the company. He finally retired in 1976. I have a particular interest in this because during the 1960s I used to do the audit for the brewery. Over the years, the quality of the product was maintained at very high levels, with techniques being refined, hops improved and the production process upgraded to meet modern standards and efficiencies. In 1994 James Boag’s Premium Lager was launched nationally and was destined to become the Boag flagship product around Australia. Even though the parent company has changed hands in recent years, Boag’s Brewery has continued to provide employment for many Launceston residents and joy to beer drinkers around the country—indeed, now around the world.

In 2004 the first stage of a $50 million expansion was completed with the installation of a new high-speed packaging line, and the international owners have shown great faith in the future of the brewery by their continued investment in its future. I understand that they have an imaginative capital program planned for the near future. Boag’s now boasts a full range of beer drinkers’ delights, including Premium Light, Strongarm Bitter and Boag’s St George. The Boag’s Brewery now covers a complete block on Launceston’s Esplanade, employs 156 people and produces 30 million litres of beer annually. It is a local enterprise which makes Launceston people proud, and which has survived the economic rollercoaster of the years to emerge stronger and more enterprising than ever. So when you next see the advertisement which entices you with the question ‘Who is Jimmy Boag?’ understand that he was an originator of a little beer-brewing business in Northern Tasmania which now produces beers which are considered among the best in the world. And please enjoy the ads for their originality and enigmatic character even if you do not drink the beer.