A Bogan = An Australian cross between a redneck and a chav

Bundy = Bundaberg Rum, Bogan drink of choice

Much of the north of Queensland is given over to sugar cane farming. The industry has been going strong ever since the 1770s when cane was brought over by the First Fleet. The plant was supremely suited to the rich coastal soil and sunshine of the north – Highway 1 cuts through miles and miles of sugar cane farms on the way north to Cape Tribulation.

Where there is sugar, there is rum. Having discovered the spirit during their West Indian endeavours, rum became the drink of choice for British colonialists in the 18th century. Rum was therefore very much a part of life in 'New Holland', especially for the convicts and navy types who made up most of the original settlers. Taxes from rum sales built most of Lachlan Macquarie's famous civic buildings that we saw in Sydney.

With this vibrant market in mind, in 1885 Mr Frederick W. Buss proposed to a group of local sugar millers that they club together and build a rum distillery to generate some extra cash from the otherwise wasted mollasses – a by-product of their refining. Despite burning to ground twice within the space of 50 years, the distillery was a great success and still exists on the same site, next to the Millaquin Mill on the outskirts of the town of Bundaberg.

Having heard a bit about the rum brand from our friend Kate, both Sarah and I were looking forward to visiting the distillery on our road trip up the coast.

The distillery is as straight-up and no-nonsense as the brand. No smoke & mirrors here. Rolling up the dirt track to the front gates we the raw chopped cane shunted past us in dusty cane trains. On the tour we were taken into the working distillery and saw the Olympic swimming pool-sized vats where they store molasses, their column and pot-stills, the bonded warehouse where they age their rum in giant 60,000l barrels and the small bottling line where they package their main brands.

There was also an interesting museum section which displayed historical advertising for the brand. Bundy's big breakthrough came in the mid 80s when the marketing manager introduced a new logo and label for the rum that, inexplicably, featured a polar bear. The bear has since become so iconic that no-one seems to ask why he was chosen as the front-man for an Australian rum made in sub-tropical Queensland...

Sarah and I both enjoyed tasting the finished result in the Bundy bar. We found Bundy Original to be pretty rough straight up (bloody soft Poms!), and much preferred the new Bundy 'Red' which is filtered and has some added vanilla for smoothness. We bought a couple of tinnies for the road and after a break for lunch to let the buzz die down to legal levels, we drove off into the sunset.