‘A carefree spirit’: Sister inspires west coast distillery
When Rebecca Smith’s sister died she sought solace in the Outback, happening upon a distillery just as she was “clutching for anything that would drag me out of this grief”.
A humble, small-scale distillery on Eyre Peninsula’s West Coast is bottling the region’s wild and local flavours, with its spirits earning national and international accolades.
Located on the traditional lands of the Wirungu people, Streaky Bay Distillers overlooks turquoise waters wrapped by a rugged and naturally beautiful coastline.
It’s an environment emerging gin and whiskey distillers Rebecca Smith and Tony Bagnell are deeply connected to, choosing to return to their childhood haven to raise three children after living and working remotely, including on the Cocos Keeling Islands.
Tony is a commercial diver and still travels to the Indian Ocean islands for work year-round.
Their children are following Tony’s vocation, with Nili, 28, now a trainee dive instructor in Ireland, Isaac, 25, is about to start diving after returning from overseas, and Eli, 19, is currently working in Canada, also with commercial diving qualifications.
While Rebecca’s family explore the ocean, the former midwife forages the coastline for botanicals and harvests fruit from friends’ orchards for the next potential unique gin or sourcing locally coopered French oak barrels for a small whisky batch.
Indeed, Streaky Bay Distillers acknowledges distinctive West Coast landmarks with their gins labelled Back Beach, Very Little Islands and Smooth Pool.
The latter two awarded a silver at the 2026 London Spirits Competition and a silver 2025 Tasting Australia, respectively.
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The exception is Sister Gin, a 2025 Australian Gin Awards Gold medallist that quietly honours a cherished family member who partly inspired Streaky Bay Distillers’ creation.
In mid-2022, Rebecca’s sister Stephanie, aged 48, died within a fortnight of a Motor Neurone Disease (MND) diagnosis.
It was both shocking and life changing for family and friends coming to terms with the sudden loss of a care-free, vibrant and kind soul.
Grief-stricken, Rebecca sought solace in the outback.
“All I could think to do was to go for a big outback drive,” she says.
“While I was on this drive, I came across a distillery and got talking to the distiller – it piqued my interest.
“In the motel room that night I googled how to become a distiller and at the same time a distilling course offered by the University of Adelaide came up on my screen.
“I was clutching for anything that would drag me out of this grief. I rang Tony and said I was thinking of doing the course, and he said he would do it with me.”
Picture: Roanne Scholz, Down to Earth Photography
At home, Tony’s affinity for all things technical and mechanical were put to good use.
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He transformed a shed on the property into a purpose-built room to house their pride of joy – a large still purchased from New South Wales they christened Cyrel.
“This was the nickname dad gave Steph as a child,” her sister laughs.
Distilling gave Rebecca permission to create recipes and experiment with various berries, citrus and mostly local botanicals, like saltbush, quandong and abalone shell.
“There are so many elements involved when handcrafting a new recipe,” she says.
“I tasted an oyster shell gin and wondered if the shell of an abalone threw a similar minerality infusion.
“We had a friend who is an abalone diver with access to a lot of shells, so we cleaned and crushed them up, put it in the still and that is how Smooth Pool evolved.”
Rebecca also created Streaky Bay Distillers’ label.
A talented lino artist, a retro lino print featuring bold transparent straight lines of various lengths is an interpretation of their hometown’s namesake.
“If you look through the lines you will see an image reflecting the gin’s character, such as streaky water marks for Back Beach, abalone for Smooth Pool, and citrus flowers for Sister Gin.”
In memory of Stephanie, Streaky Bay Distillers donates part sales for every sold bottle of Sister Gin to MND SA.
“We saw and experienced firsthand the importance of the services provided by MND organisations during Stephanie’s brief time in hospital,” Rebecca says.
“Stephanie was able to use an iPad, giving her a voice and ultimately, dignity.”
Asked what Stephanie would think of Streaky Bay Distillers, Rebecca responds, “Oh, she would be happy, she was always encouraging of others, and she would be so proud to see us out of our comfort zone because life is too short”.
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