Cairns Draught ‘The North’s Own Beer’ Poster

Before 1968 Carlton & United Breweries had a monopoly on beer served across the hotel bar in Victoria. That brand was Carlton Ale. With the entry of Courage Breweries a joint venture between local hoteliers, the British brewer Courage, Barclay & Simonds (it became Courage Ltd in 1970) and the British Tobacco Group put pressure on CUB to rethink their branding.

So Carlton Ale was rebranded as Carlton Draught and the beer across the bar was made available as packaged beer including a large 750 mL & 375mL steel can and bottle. Later on they brought out a half litre can. After that all cans were produced in aluminium.

Part of that revamp in Queensland, CUB had a brand called Cairns Draught which was produced at their Queensland Brisbane brewery for sale in the far north of Queensland. It was the same recipe as Carlton Draught.

“The north’s own beer” was released in 1925 as the first draught beer on the market out of the Cairns Brewery. Tasting similar to Carlton Draught, the beer was hugely popular – thirst-quenching in the hot and humid climate. The beer was last brewed in 1996. It was recently released as a special can edition in 2022.