Breheny’s Family Brewers Poster

In addition to the Gippsland Brewery at Sale and the City Brewery at Bendigo, the Breheny brothers owned a brewery at Warrenheip, near Ballarat. They had joined William Kenna as partners in his Warrenheip Brewery in 1891, then purchased his share after his death in 1910. Brewing was later discontinued, and the premises were converted into a distillery, which the family operated. They sold in 1924 to Federal Distilleries Pty Ltd, a new company formed to amalgamate the operations of four Victorian distilleries.

Members of the wider Breheny family, including descendants of the six brothers, have held brewing positions at various times in all six Australian states. It was Victoria, however, the state to which John and Bridget and their seven children had migrated in 1854, that became the focus of the family’s brewing activities, both as employees and as brewery proprietors. Ironically, the family’s extraordinary influence has probably been least in its home state of Tasmania. Thomas was appointed to head Co-operative Breweries of Tasmania Limited in 1926, but that company was not a success, folding in 1930. His nephew, Michael John Breheny, had a brief stint with an earlier co-operative brewing venture in Launceston in 1911–12. In Tasmania, therefore, the Breheny family is mainly remembered as one of the island’s most successful exports.