EVERY GOOD COUNTRY TOWN NEEDS ITS OWN BREWERY In 1952 Grafton opened its very own state-of-the-art brewery in North Street, but it didn’t come without a hard-fought battle with community spirit triumphing over government bureaucracy. The following year the local paper proudly announced that unlike the rest of NSW, Grafton would have sufficient supplies of beer for the upcoming summer – the “El Dorado of beer lovers in NSW”. By 1958 Sydney-based breweries flooded the northern market with inferior product using cheap rail freight, causing substantial staff cuts. A debate even came to blows in State Parliament when the premier, John Joseph Cahill, had to be dragged off a colleague by the member for Lismore Jack Easter. The brewery was eventually bought by Tooheys in 1961 and would spend most of its working days under the label, eventually closing in 1997. In 2019 the historic complex was purchased by Rick Firth and his family, who have since set out to bring the complex into the 21st century, investing heavily in overdue maintenance, installation of a 300kw solar system, and recycling and repurposing the old timbers from the original brewery used throughout the complex. The first stage of this exciting vision is the family friendly Brewery, a distillery and coffee roastery to complement the existing café and other tenants in the complex to become a destination for locals and visitors alike. The old brewery has a rich heritage intertwined with the history of Grafton, and the new Grafton Heritage Brewery aims to honour this legacy, and once again with community spirit triumphing over government bureaucracy.