New spirit to move church building

• A three-dimensional impression of the Bridport church distillery project.

By Tony Scott,
June 21, 2021

The old Church of England in Bridport’s Main Street is again to host spirits, but not of the holy kind.

The local family who bought the church late last year have had plans prepared to turn it into a micro distillery and cellar door operation.

The building was sold as part of the Anglican Church’s response to the Royal Commission into Institutional Abuse in its efforts to establish a redress fund for compensation payouts.

St Mark’s Church was bought at auction by siblings Danielle Butler, Joe Krushka and Sam Faulkner for $520,000 last December.

At the time they had no specific plans, but most options included tourism or hospitality-type operations.

Ms Butler said at the time the site and its business zoning were an attraction.    

“It’s such a good spot and we were really keen to get it so we’re glad that we did,” she said immediately after the sale. 

The proposal for a distillery and tasting room has been developed since with the help of Launceston design company the S Group.

Ms Butler said the $500,000 building project would involve remodelling the church building to be a tasting room and hospitality venue with a new building at its rear to house a working distillery.

“What we’re looking at is something fairly up-market with a difference. It’s not something that Bridport has at the moment.

“I think it should work with the visitors attracted to Bridport including to the golf courses.

“We’d like to work with Barnbougle to offer their guests something else to experience when they’re not on the golf course.”

The hall at the back of the property is not part of the project and options for it are still being considered.

“We’d like to get the work underway as quickly as possible so that it can be operating by the busy summer tourist season, say by November or early December.”

But she’s concerned about the impact of a building boom in the state.

“I don’t think we’ll have too much trouble finding tradies, but there’s also a bit of a shortage of some materials because of the home building going on and delays caused by Covid.”

Plans for the development have been publicly advertised indicating the relaxation of boundary setback and parking conditions under the interim planning scheme.