NT Draught ‘The Territory’s Own Beer’ Poster

In 1956 Carlton & United Breweries established their Darwin brewery, N.T. Brewery Pty. Ltd., in the suburb of Berrimah. The first beer, Carlton Draught, was brewed on 13 October of that year. The brewery, however, did not have an associated bottling plant, so bottled beer still had to be shipped from Melbourne. Due to the logistics of shipping bottles such a long distance, the company decided in April 1958 to introduce a bigger bottle, a 2,270 ml (80 imp fl oz; 77 US fl oz) bottle, which became known as the “Darwin Stubby”.

At that time most hotels in the Darwin area were owned by the Swan Brewing Company of Western Australia, which preferred to sell its own beer from these outlets, so the “Darwin Stubby” was only available from one or two independent hotels and licensed stores, mostly grocers and supermarkets.

In 1981 Swan Brewery and CUB formed a merged entity Northern Territory Breweries Pty Ltd. In 1981 CUB bought out Swan’s interest leaving it in sole control of the Northern Territory beer market. The Darwin brewery closed in 1989 however NT Draught continued to be brewed from the company’s Melbourne brewery. In October 1996 CUB acquired the 200,000 hl Darwin Brewery in Winnellie from Goldchill Brewing, and commenced production of Victoria Bitter and Carlton Light for the Northern Territory in November. The brewery also produced NT Draught in kegs and in the Darwin Stubby.

In May 2015 Carlton & United Breweries announced that due to decreasing volumes and increasing costs that it would be ceasing production of NT Draught.