In a bustling cooperage nestled in southern New South Wales, the rhythmic planes of master cooper John Carberry carve decades of ancestral knowledge into aged oak. A Scotsman far from his homeland, Carberry is on a crucial mission: to safeguard the dwindling craft of coopering, an essential but often overlooked trade vital to Australia's thriving wine and spirits industries.

With a career spanning over a century of generational expertise, Carberry has trained more than 25 coopers in Britain and is now dedicating his skills to his first Australian apprentice, Ciaran Quinn. "Most people don't know what [coopering] is; very rarely, you speak to someone who knows what it is," Quinn remarks, highlighting the obscurity of a profession that builds and maintains wooden vessels – casks and barrels – many of which can endure for more than two centuries.

Preserving the Flavours of Time

Coopers are the silent guardians of flavour, ensuring that the wooden vessels crucial for aging wines and spirits remain in prime condition. Over their long lifespans, barrels require meticulous care to prevent cracks, warping, or even re-charring to enhance their aromatic properties. For Carberry, passing on this highly specialised knowledge is paramount. "I've got all this knowledge up here that I need to pass on to the next generation," he asserts, noting that Quinn is nearing the completion of his four-year apprenticeship – a significant personal investment given the trade's lack of official recognition.

Carberry is one of only a handful of master coopers across Australia, working tirelessly to maintain hundreds of thousands of oak barrels for the nation's burgeoning wineries and distilleries. He estimates there are only about four accredited master coopers nationwide with the expertise to train new entrants, a critical shortfall exacerbated by the fact that Australia's national coopering certificate was downgraded to a cabinet-making elective more than a decade ago.

"Coopering is a food-grade industry," Carberry explains. "It would be good for them to re-establish that side of the craft... for the job getting done right. 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."

Industry Growth vs. Skills Shortage

The urgency to preserve and promote coopering is underlined by the rapid expansion of Australia's spirits sector. A recent report by Deloitte highlighted remarkable growth, with the number of national spirit manufacturers soaring from 500 in 2019 to 700 in 2024, contributing over $15 billion in economic activity. This boom, however, is increasingly challenged by a severe shortage of skilled coopers.

Dean Druce, managing director of Corowa Distilling Co, experienced this challenge first-hand before hiring Carberry. His company was forced to truck barrels on a gruelling 20-hour round trip to a South Australian cooperage due to the local scarcity. Druce’s search for a cooper became a global quest, mired in frustrating red tape. "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," Druce laments.

Despite the critical need, coopers are conspicuously absent from Australia's official occupational shortage list. Jobs and Skills Australia records only about 150 individuals under the broader category of "other wood machinists and wood trades workers," which encompasses coopers alongside wood model makers and cane furniture makers. Druce strongly advocates for coopering to be specifically added to the shortage list.

"On top of that, the ones that we do have they are slowly getting older, and they're retiring out of this," Druce adds, voicing concerns that "we've got a lost art that is slowly disappearing." He joins calls for greater recognition of the trade, hoping to inspire young Australians to learn coopering and safeguard this vital craft for the nation's future beverage industries. Jobs and Skills Australia is expected to conduct an online survey next year to better identify current skills shortages, a move industry leaders hope will finally shine a light on the plight of the cooper.