A recent change by Wagga council to allow the artisan food and drink industry to operate in certain areas in Wagga is allowing local businesses to flourish.
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An LEP amendment that introduced 'artisan food and drink industry' as a use in a number of zones across the LGA was approved by council.
"The amendments will have positive social and economic benefits as it will support business development and growth," said Wagga council's Senior Strategic Planner Crystal Atkinson.
"Particularly with small start-ups and primary producers, as well as catering for increasing demands for boutique businesses. This in turn will create local jobs, support economic development and investment, as well as local tourism opportunities."
One such beneficiary is a burgeoning local Gin business, Riverina Gin.
The business has until recently distilled their product at a distillery in Bright, Victoria, but the new LEP has allowed the local operators to come home and finally open their own distillery in Borambola.
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Husband and wife team Tess and Jake Eaglesham started their company in the early chaos of the pandemic in 2020.
They'd spent time in Jake's native Scotland in the preceding years, where there is a growing gin scene, and they dreamed of one day producing their own gin with a distinctly Riverina flavour profile.
And as the pandemic bit and jobs were lost across the country, the duo took the plunge.
"The thing we love about gin is that you can really capture the character of a place in gin," said Jake.
"You literally use the botanicals from the area in the product ... as we were visiting these distilleries we were thinking this would be a great thing to do when we got back to the Riverina."
So, in 2020 they started tinkering with some recipes, 33 variations in all, before they settled on number seven, a formula which now forms the basis of their current recipe.
"This gin, it's the oranges, we use fresh organic Riverina oranges from Piccolo Family Farm in Griffith. We wanted, when you pop the cork on Riverina gin, to get that nice citrus aroma," he said.
"We've got a fairly traditional botanical base ... we wanted to bring a gin that we can introduce to farmers after they've worked a day on the farm."
Tess is a Riverina native and her family farm merino around Humula and Kyeamba and the original plan was to distil the gin there.
But with the previous regulation and cost of setting up a distillery from scratch was prohibitive at the time, so when Reed & Co Distillery in Bright offered them the chance to try their recipe and eventually produce gin at their stills, Riverina Gin was born.
"It turned out to be a great idea, we set up this business to sell online and that was when every single Australian started ordering booze online," he said with a laugh.
Distilling using somebody else's infrastructure allowed the business to find its feet, test the market and build up capital. And now with the change in LEP, the time has come to launch their own distillery on the property at Borambola Wines.
"I really struggled with imposter syndrome at the start. How can I feel like I'm promoting the Riverina when I'm producing [the gin] elsewhere," Jake said.
"It was the only way we could get going," said Tess.
"I think people understand we're trying to build this for the Riverina, for the region," Jake continued.
The pair produced 144 bottles in their first batch which all sold within three days in December 2020. They're now on batch 26 and have produced close to 4000 bottles.
They hope to go full time with the business as they settle into their new homebase nestled in among the rolling Riverina hills out at Borambola.
Over the coming months they'll set up production and create a cellar door where people can gather and sample their goods with other like-minded people.
"The tagline for Riverina Gin is country spirit, " Jake said. "Country spirit to us is saying hello when you pass someone on the street, helping your neighbour, waving at someone as you drive past them."
"We wan't people to feel like they're a part of our community, not that we're a business or a product. We're a friendly place where you can come and be a part of the furniture," said Tess.
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