Australia Breweries History: Swan Brewery
In 1857 Fredrick Sherwood, the son of a bricklayer born in Surrey, England,
established a new brewery in Perth, The brewery was named the Swan Brewery
after the black swans that he had seen on the river.
In 1879 the Swan Brewery was moved to a site at the foot of Mt Eliza
not far from the Stanley Brewery and another start up – the Lion Brewery which
was taken over in 1888 by the Swan Brewery.
By this time Swan had market dominance, 24 hotels were tied to the brewery –
three quarters of all of Perth’s hotels.
On 6 March 1908, the Stanley Brewery changed its name to the Emu Brewery
so that it would be more identifiable with its extraordinarily popular Emu
bottled beer. In 1927 Swan acquired control of Freemantle’s Castlemaine brewery.
This was shortly followed by a more important acquisition, Swan’s major competitor
, the Emu Brewery. A decision was made to expand and modernize the Emu Brewery
and to run it as a separate concern rather than entirely amalgamate it with Swan.
In 1945 Swan bought the last large Western Australian brewing company,
the Kalgoorlie Brewing Co which serviced the parched throats of thirsty miners
throughout the Western Australian interior. The was owned and managed by the
remarkable Alice Cummins, a female entrepreneur who achieved great success in
a male dominated industry in a male dominated era. She refused to sell out to
Swan but after her death the executors of her estate were forced to sell the
brewery and Swan made the best offer.
In 1981 Alan Bond, through his Bond Corporation, purchased the Swan Brewery.
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