By HARRY CLARKE
A WESTERN Downs tourism operator is going to extreme and creative lengths to find a contractor to build his microbrewery, offering “free beer for a year” to the tradie who is willing, able – and available – to complete the project.
Steve Keating is the Chinchilla-based proprietor of Charleys Creek Brewing Co, a microbrewery add-on to his Clover Hill Ranch tourist park which he hopes will offer a unique new tourism attraction to the region.
The shed panels have been delivered and a pad has been cleared – but the problem is, he can’t find a local contractor to put the thing together.
“We’ve been looking around locally for the last three or four months to engage a builder contractor to build the shed, but the industry is just flat out,” Keating said.
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“Everyone is booked out for six to 12 months. The market is tight and it’s hard to find anybody to build a specialist shed like this. We need someone with the right kit and the right knowledge to do it all properly.”
The brewery will comprise a 30x36m shed with a high pitched roof and feature a cold room, tap room, function centre and storage space. There’s also requirements for associated infrastructure such as car parking and road extensions.
“The shed structure is here in panels. It’s got a special architectural design with a high pitched roof and we’ve worked the building out to be carbon neutral,” Keating said.
“We’re looking for a reasonably sized shed building business to take it on, to build the shed and the associated infrastructure.”
Having had no success finding a building contractor locally, Keating engaged the local chamber of commerce, Chinchilla Community, Commerce and Industry, and the idea came up to put the project to tender with the offer of free beer for a year to the successful applicant.
“Robyn Haig from the CCCI thought it would be a novel way to do it if we offered free beer for a year to entice a builder, and I thought it was a bloody good idea,” Keating said.
“We’ll obviously have the facilities here to keep them well hydrated for twelve months.”
Keating submitted a development application to the Western Downs Regional Council in mid 2021 and initially hoped to have the brewery up and running in time for next month’s biennial Chinchilla Melon Festival.
Because of delays, he’s instead spent this week at a brewery in Brisbane producing watermelon beer for the event. Kegs or slabs of cans will be available for purchase at Clover Hill Ranch, and the brew will also be on tap at the Chinchilla RSL in the coming weeks.
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“I did a bit of home kit brewing 25 years ago during my uni days”, Keating said.
“When my wife Ursula and I started supplying wagyu beef to the Terella Brewery on the Sunshine Coast we decided to have a go at brewing some ourselves.
“They’re fairly successful and we liked their model. They suggested to us that we consider building a microbrewery at Chinchilla.
“We thought about it for a while and we decided that the demographic in Chinchilla was right. There are plenty of people here working in the gas and the solar industries and we thought there was a good number of people to come in here and have a beer after work.
“We thought it all made sense and it was a good way to come full circle with our beef and with our tourism park.”