October 2025 | Western Queensland Spirit Desert Oasis Gin

The early days were hands-on in every sense. Recipes were tested in the old machinery shed, while the pair built the distillery themselves – digging trenches, painting walls, and racking up hardware store runs. Will, once better suited to spreadsheets than spanners, quickly earned his stripes as a sunburnt, calloused, honorary tradie.

“It’s fair to say that at the end, I had an epic sock and short tan and a mouth that fit right into the tradie crew.”

In August 2022, they launched their first two gins, and sold out their pre-release packs in a single day. By Easter the following year, the distillery’s new cellar door opened to a crowd of 1,000. With no staff on the books, friends and family stepped in to pour drinks and plate food – a fitting start for a distillery built on camaraderie, curiosity, and a deep love for the land.

As demand grew, so did the team. Tiff – originally hired for admin – quickly showed a natural knack for distilling and now heads up production. Bailey, who’d impressed them while running food and beverage at a local festival, joined as Chief Operating Officer. Kira came on board as Events & Operations Coordinator after the team hosted a surprise 40th for her husband – a party so memorable, she stuck around. Harry, a junior team member turned Cellar Door Lead, now helps bring the WQS experience to life on-site and on the road. Chloe, their Toowoomba-based brand ambassador, rounds out the crew, while a dedicated group of cellar door staff keep things humming day to day.

Desert Oasis Gin was one of those first two spirits released in 2022, and it remains a clear favourite. Crafted with a very specific feeling in mind – that moment of deep relief on a scorching summer day – it was designed to capture the cooler, greener, more refreshing parts of Western Queensland: the bushlands, the waterholes, the shade under a tree with a breeze rolling through.

“This is the gin we drink after being in the cattle or sheep yards, a day at the races, or sitting by the river,” Will says.

The journey to the final recipe was anything but smooth. One early batch – affectionately dubbed “minty D.O.G.” – came dangerously close to derailing their launch. Just days before, a rogue chicken had eaten all the native mint they’d been growing for production. In a rush, the team substituted with dried mint, bottled the same day, and set everything aside.

“When I did a little taste test of what we’d already bottled, it tasted like toothpaste!” Will recalls.

With just hours to go before their big event, he was frantically cracking open bottles and replacing the batch – a last-minute scramble no one at the party ever saw coming.

While Desert Oasis may be the flagship, it’s only one chapter in the wider story of Western Queensland Spirit. The distillery’s growing portfolio is a showcase of outback ingenuity and botanical creativity. Outback Gin, with its drier, savoury profile, brings a cooler-season contrast to Desert Oasis, while Western Skies – steeped in blood orange, grapefruit and lilly pilly – captures the deep hues and earthy notes of an outback sunset. Stagecoach Gin is perhaps their boldest expression, combining toasted wattleseed, native lemongrass and prickly pear in a flavour journey that starts bright and fruity, and finishes with a warming hint of chocolate. Then there’s Mulberry Gin – a once-limited release now in high demand, fuelled by backyard fruit and childhood nostalgia.

Beyond gin, the distillery has expanded into vodka, rum, liqueurs and even pre-mixed cans. Their Bushranger Rum is a spirited nod to Queensland’s rich rum-making heritage, reimagined with a smooth, spiced profile that reflects the distillery’s modern approach. Meanwhile the Bottlebrush Vodka and Sticky Date Liqueur are floral and decadent respectively, each one playful but precise. Their lemoncello and orangecello, made from regionally sourced citrus, round out a range that’s as colourful and varied as the landscape itself.