Australia's Craft Beverage Boom Faces Threat as Ancient Cooperage Skills Vanish

In a warm workshop in southern New South Wales, Scotsman John Carberry carefully planes an aged oak stave from a whisky barrel. Carrying more than a century of generational coopering knowledge in his hands, he is determined to preserve a set of skills that are becoming increasingly rare.

Mr Carberry, who has trained more than 25 coopers back in Britain, has spent the past three years mentoring his first Australian apprentice, Ciaran Quinn. Coopers specialize in constructing and maintaining wooden vessels like casks and barrels, many of which remain in service for 200 years or more. Over time, these barrels require specialized care to prevent warping and cracking, and are sometimes re-charred to enhance the flavor of the wines and spirits they hold.

A Trade in Decline

For Mr Carberry, passing down this highly specialized expertise is critical. "I've got all this knowledge up here that I need to pass on to the next generation," he said.

Currently, Mr Carberry is one of only a few dozen coopers responsible for maintaining hundreds of thousands of oak barrels across Australia's wineries and distilleries. He estimates that he is one of just four accredited master coopers in the country with the skills to train newcomers. This challenge has been compounded by educational shifts; more than a decade ago, Australia's national coopering certificate was reduced to a cabinet-making elective.

Mr Carberry believes that formal training oversight needs to be restored. "Coopering is a food-grade industry, so it would be good for them to re-establish that side of the craft, more for the fact of the job getting done right," he said. "There's so many wineries, there's so many distilleries; you don't want people just haphazardly trying to repair a barrel or trying to do stuff with a cask because it is a food-grade vessel, so it has to be done right."

Spirits Boom Clashes with Skills Shortage

The shortage of skilled coopers comes at a time when the domestic spirits industry is experiencing rapid growth. A Deloitte report on the economic contribution of the sector showed that the number of national spirit manufacturers surged from 500 in 2019 to 700 in 2024, generating more than $15 billion in economic activity.

Despite this boom, finding local coopers is incredibly difficult. Before hiring Mr Carberry, the Corowa Distilling Co had to transport its barrels on a grueling 20-hour return journey to a cooperage in South Australia. The search for a resident cooper eventually forced the distillery into a global hunt and a frustrating red tape battle over visas.

Dean Druce, the managing director of Corowa Distilling Co, expressed frustration over the situation. "We need coopers and we need to get them in from overseas, but yet [the government] makes it so hard to get them in from overseas; we are going to end up with no coopers here in a matter of years, really," Mr Druce said.

Coopers are currently omitted from Australia's occupational shortage list. According to Jobs and Skills Australia, there are only 150 individuals employed nationwide under the broad category of "other wood machinists and wood trades workers," a classification that groups coopers together with wood model makers and cane furniture makers.

Preserving a Lost Art

Mr Druce is advocating for coopering to be added to the skills shortage list to help protect the industry. "On top of that, the ones that we do have they are slowly getting older, and they're retiring out of this," he said. "We've got a lost art that is slowly disappearing". He also supports calls for better recognition of the trade. "So that we can get young Australians learning what coopering is and protecting this trade that we need in Australia," he said.

Some progress may be on the horizon, as Jobs and Skills Australia plans to launch an online survey next year to help better determine where skills shortages lie.