Discovering Australia’s Bundaberg Rum

By Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon
CJ Travel Editor

Australia doesn’t come to mind when you think of rum-producing countries. But perhaps it should.

That’s because the continent has been producing its own version of the classic Caribbean liquor since 1888, when the Bundaberg Distilling Company was established in the Queensland town of the same name.

Apparently it was a surplus of molasses (yes, they grow sugarcane in Australia) that prompted five enterprising growers to start making the potent potable, and since that first bottle rolled off the production line 128 years ago, Aussies have been hooked.

The dark rum was originally sold in barrels to private bottlers but in 1953 it was finally branded Bundaberg and decanted into the now iconic square bottle. The polar bear on the label is, depending who you believe, either a reference to marketer Sam McMahon’s surname (Irish for “son of the bear,” apparently) or implies that the rum can “ward off even the coldest chill.”

Today the company manufactures at least a dozen varieties of “Bundy,” including ready-to-drink Rum and Cola; several fruit-flavored rums, and its Master Distillers’ Collection Black Barrel, aged for 10 years in charred American Oak barrels and sold in individually numbered bottles.

While we couldn’t find Bundy available for sale in our local liquor store, we were lucky enough to sample it on a recent Virgin Australia trans-Pacific flight, where the rum is proudly served at the business class bar. Decidedly strong, it went down pretty easily, and made a 15-hour flight that much smoother.