As I drive down the main street of the Tasmanian town of Oatlands, it feels like I’m on the set of a historic film. It’s frozen-in-time picture perfection, like a living museum. It’s a tiny town – in the 2021 Census, it was home to just 728 residents – yet it lays claim to having the highest concentration of historic sandstone buildings in any Australian town, with 150 of the well-preserved masterpieces. It’s the largest intact Georgian streetscape in the country.
Oatlands is halfway between Hobart and Launceston (about a 75-minute drive from both along the Midland Highway), making it a key stopover point between these major Tasmanian cities. I’m here to visit Callington Mill Distillery, where you’ll find the Lincolnshire Tower windmill, built in 1837 by a man named John Vincent.
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The mill has been restored to full working order, and it’s now the only operating mill of its kind in the whole Southern Hemisphere (and the third oldest windmill in Australia). You can climb up through the different levels of the windmill for a great view of the charming town and its surrounds – though, there is an even more attractive reason to come here, and that’s excellent food and drink. These days, alongside Sullivan’s Cove and Lark, Callington Mill is one of the major distilling players in Tasmania, a state that’s becoming world-renowned for its whisky production.
Even if you aren't a whisky lover, Callington Mill is an excellent day out for anyone, partly thanks to the historic site, the experiences they offer, and the food. We first take a tour of the site, including the windmill, and learn about the fact that, after establishing the flour mill, John Vincent also started producing sly grog on the side.
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There’s a beautiful blend of the past and the future at Callington Mill – while the original mill, granary, stable, house and cottages still exist, there’s a big, beautiful, modern building in the centre of the precinct, which houses a huge room of stills, including some copper stills that have a Willy Wonka-like quality about them. There are other rooms full of barrels, and then a dining room, where we feast on plates of mouth-watering Tasmanian produce, including scallops, crab cakes and gin-cured ocean trout (and chips cooked in duck fat).
After lunch, we take the Serendipity experience, where you create your own personalised blend of Callington Mill single malt whisky. We sit in a big room full of barrels with five tasting glasses in front of us, and glass test tubes. We experiment with adding a range of different proportions of tokay, brandy, sherry, white fortified and muscadelle into each of the test tubes. You pick your favourite mix from your different trials, then someone from the distillery helps you bottle your blend straight from the barrels. You label the bottle with your name, signature and the date – and Callington Mill even keeps your specific recipe on file, in case you actually really like your own handiwork and want to order the same blend again. Fun!
Whether you come for the history, the whisky, or just a great Tasmanian lunch, Oatlands is proof that the smallest towns can hold the biggest stories. And make sure to leave room in your suitcase – if you do blend your own whisky, you can take your own taste of that Callington Mill magic home.