Ink Gin was born on a family farm in the Northern Rivers, adding its rich colour to the Australian gin sector, and building up a global brand known for its unique botanicals. Ink Gin co-founder and Husk Farm Distillery head of brands, Harriet Messenger, reflects on a decade of distilling, and the process of growing an award-winning brand from the ground up.
When you’re building a distillery from the ground up, quite literally from a farm shed in regional New South Wales, there’s no blueprint to follow. For my father and I, that unwritten rule book emerged as a shining opportunity.
Ten years ago, my father, Paul, an earth scientist with a love for the land, was developing a paddock-to-bottle Agricole-style rum (Husk Rum) at our farm on the New South Wales North Coast. Because this style is seasonal, he spent the summer months tinkering with a gin recipe built on ingredients never before used in distilling. His search across the Asia–Pacific eventually led him to the butterfly pea flower: a vivid, naturally blue blossom that blushes pink with a change in pH. Common in herbal teas in Thailand but almost unheard of in Australia, it felt like a tiny piece of botanical magic.
He bought five seeds online for $5, planted them in our backyard (they thrived wildly!), and three years – and countless taste tests – later, the world’s first indigo gin was born. Its striking colour inspired the name Ink Gin, and in 2015, we quietly launched what would become a new chapter in modern gin.
For centuries, gin was clear. When Ink hit the market, the category was dominated by traditional London Dry styles and established European producers. We saw an opportunity to create a gin that didn’t just taste great – it looked beautiful. Although initially met with scepticism from some parts of the drinks establishment, the all-natural, colour-changing gin quickly became a conversation piece, helping ignite the global “pink gin” movement and paving the way for wine-grape and flavour-infused gins to follow.
Those values of creativity, quality and independent thinking have guided our growth ever since. From hand-bottling in a tiny farm shed to selling more than 1.1 million bottles globally from our swanky new distillery, we’ve stayed true to the vision and refused to compromise on quality. Ink Gin remains fully Australian-owned and produced at Husk Farm Distillery in the Northern Rivers, where we now welcome tens of thousands of visitors each year. Even writing that, I have to pause and pinch myself.
Building the first craft distillery in Northern New South Wales was the steepest learning curve imaginable. It showed me that innovation can’t stop at the product – it has to move through everything: how we source ingredients, how we operate sustainably, how we support our community, and how we compete with global, very well-funded players. Doing things differently isn’t just a strategy for us – it’s how we’ve survived so far.
Australia’s craft spirits industry is still young, passionate and wonderfully inventive. When Ink launched in 2015, we were one of a small handful of distilleries. Today, there are more than 700 – half of them in regional communities. Australians are drinking less but drinking better, and locally made spirits are at the heart of this shift.
But this boom comes with challenges, the biggest being outdated regulatory conditions that simply aren’t fit for purpose. A few fun facts that say it all: Australian spirits are taxed at the third-highest rate in the world; the tax increases twice a year; spirits are taxed at double the rate of beer and four times the rate of wine; and it is currently cheaper to buy a bottle of Australian gin in the US than in Australia. Crazy.
And yet, despite these barriers, the growth hasn’t slowed. If anything, it’s strengthened our resolve. What I’m seeing emerging is a movement: one defined by independence, creativity, regional provenance, and a new generation of founders rewriting the rules rather than following them.
As I reflect on the past decade, I’m struck by how far we’ve come from our little farm shed to a leading gin brand. Today’s consumers are more informed than ever, and they’re demanding transparency, creativity and integrity. That’s raising the bar for all of us in the best possible way. That momentum fuels our next chapter as we continue to expand into new markets. And in an industry built on tradition, we’ve learned that the future belongs to those willing to ask one small, radical question: Why not?
