Starting a distillery in Australia is exciting — and heavily regulated. Distilling spirits without the right licence carries severe penalties, so it pays to get the foundations right. Here is the path from idea to first bottle.
Note: This is general guidance, not legal or tax advice. Confirm your obligations with the ATO, your state liquor regulator and qualified advisers.
1. Plan before you spend
Before buying a still, get clear on:
- What you'll make — gin, whisky, rum, vodka? It affects equipment, cash flow and maturation time.
- Your model — cellar door, wholesale, contract distilling, or a mix.
- Your numbers — a realistic distillery business plan with startup and running costs.
Whisky in particular ties up cash for years while it matures, so many distilleries launch with a gin to generate early revenue.
2. Choose a business structure
Most distilleries operate as a company for liability and tax reasons, but the right structure depends on your circumstances. Talk to an accountant early — it affects licensing, tax and the excise remission scheme eligibility.
3. Secure compliant premises
The ATO assesses your premises as part of licensing. They look at security, layout and how you'll store and measure spirit. Key points:
- Spirit is high-value and high-duty, so security matters to the ATO.
- You'll typically operate a bonded area where spirit sits before duty is paid.
- Get the premises right before you apply — see choosing premises for your distillery.
4. Apply for your excise manufacturer licence
This is the core requirement. To manufacture spirits commercially you need an excise manufacturer licence from the ATO. The application covers:
- Details of the business and everyone who manages or controls it
- A fit and proper person declaration for each of those people
- Details and photos of your premises and security
The licence itself is free, but the application is detailed and approval takes time. Read how long an excise licence takes and our full ATO excise compliance guide.
5. Sort out state liquor licensing
The excise licence lets you make spirit. To sell it — cellar door tastings, on-premise sales, events or wholesale — you generally need a liquor licence, which is issued by your state or territory and varies by model. See distillery liquor licences by state.
6. Understand your excise obligations
Once licensed, you'll pay excise duty on the alcohol you produce — calculated on litres of pure alcohol (LAL) — though the Excise Remission Scheme gives eligible small producers up to $350,000 per financial year back. Build good record-keeping in from day one; it is far harder to retrofit. Our remission scheme guide explains the cap in detail.
7. Buy equipment and run your first batch
With licences in hand, fit out your distillery:
- Still(s) — pot, column or hybrid
- Fermenters and tanks
- Packaging and labelling
- A system to track production and excise from the very first run
See our equipment checklist for a new distillery.
8. Set up records and software from day one
The distilleries that scale smoothly are the ones that tracked production, stock and excise properly from their first batch. Doing it in spreadsheets is possible, but it gets fragile fast — and excise mistakes are expensive.
CaskPilot is built for exactly this: production, casks, inventory and ATO excise in one place, with the remission cap tracked automatically.
The bottom line
Plan first, get your premises and licences sorted before you produce, and put proper record-keeping in place from batch one. Do that and you'll spend your time making great spirit instead of fighting compliance.
Planning your distillery? Book a demo and set your record-keeping up right from the start.