Beer production in Australia

I didn't find it fair to talk about Marijuana in Australia without pointing out Australia's "Beer Culture". So I did something I've wanted to do personally for awhile now, determine exactly how much beer is produced in Australia. So I turned to Wikipedia...

The 'Breweries in Australia' Wikipedia article divides breweries into 3 categories.'Major Breweries', 'Microbreweries' and 'Brewpubs'.

'Major Breweries' currently consists of 9 breweries consisting of nationally recognizable beer brands.

'Microbreweries' are distinguished by adding that "The maximum amount of beer a brewery can produce and still be classed as a microbrewery varies by region and by authority, though is usually around 15,000 barrels (18,000 hectolitres/ 475,000 US gallons) a year."

There are a total of 114 Microbreweries listed in the article. I did note that one microbrewery was closed, so I am unsure how many are still active in the complete list (sorry, no. I won't be crecking them all individually :P)

Brewpubs; restaurants or pubs that have breweries attached to them...34 of them make the Wikipedia list.

157 recognised breweries in total...now for some figures.


Carlton & United Breweries

Producers of Victoria Bitter (VB), Carlton Draught, Melbourne Bitter, Carlton Cold, Carlton Midstrength, Carlton Black, Crown Lager...although I could only produce figures for how much Victoria Bitter (VB) that they produce.

"VB is Australia's only billion dollar retail beer brand and sells the equivalent of one slab (24x375ml cans/bottles (9 Litres) every second"  

9L X 60secs X 60mins X 24hrs X 365days = 283,824,000 Litres per year
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Bitter)

Cascade Brewery

36 million litres (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascade_Brewery)

Coopers Brewery


"Production during 2010-11 reached a record 62.9 million litres"
http://www.coopers.com.au/about-us/news - "Coopers continues Record Production" 21/12/2011

Boag's Brewery


J. Boag and Son currently (2010) employes over 150 people and produces over 76,000,000 litres of beer annually.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Boag_%26_Sons

Tooheys Brewery


Production output: 300 million litres
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tooheys - Citation provided

Providing these figures are true, between these 4 breweries and the most successful beer of just one other major brewery, a total of 758,724,000 litres are brewed! If Australia's population were to be 23 million (it's less) there would be enough beer produced to give everyone over 32 litres.

Thanks for reading :) To wrap things up here's a picture that illustrates what Australian's today think of our collective alcohol consumption...

Marijuana Figures for Australia

Yes sorry everyone, it's another Cannabis-related article. The figures surrounding it are interesting to note.


According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics: "On 17 March 2012 at 11:55:22 AM (Canberra time), the resident population of Australia is projected to be: 22,860,514" (Source www.abs.gov.au)

Whilst the director of the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre estimates that 750,000 Australians use cannabis every week, and approximately 300,000 smoke it on a daily basis (Source)

The 2007 National Drug Strategy Household Survey published in April 2008 by The Australian Institute of Health demonstrated that "Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in Australia, with a reported one-third of all Australians aged 14 or older (33.5%, about 5.8 million) having tried cannabis and 1.6 million using it in the past year" (Wikipedia Article: 'Cannabis in Australia')

Okay all this got me thinking some things...

Firstly, despite the laws imposed on Marijuana, evidence shows it to be readily available considering the amount Australian's are purported to consume in a week.

Secondly, the disconnected policy surrounding the States and Territories of Australia not only makes things confusing but it also provides prospects to drug suppliers residing in areas where the penalties are not as severe.

And finally the amount of money that the industry as a whole must make is insane (a technical financial term).

Let's use the figures provided and make some assumptions. 750,000 Australians use cannabis 'every week' - Alright let's say they use it during that week and between everyone combined each of the 750,000 users consume 1 gram of marijuana...that combines for a total of 750kg of Marijuana for one week...or about 39-40 tonnes a year...a little over 105kg on average, per day.

And how much does Marijuana sell for in Australia? According to the Australian Crime Commission (Illicit Drug Data Report 2007-08) "the average price for one gram of cannabis ranged from A$20–A$35, although prices in remote areas can be significantly higher" (Wikipedia Article 'Cannabis in Australia)

...but using prices for one gram wouldn't be accurate. Others say they 'bush weed' can sell for $200 for an ounce (28 grams), which sounds strange but I wanted to use the lowest figures anyhow. So 1g @ $200/oz. prices is equal to ~$7.14 per gram... Multiply that by the 750,000 weekly users @ 1g each and that is equal to $5,355,000 a week.

Of course some smokers wouldn't pay anything for their Marijuana, whilst others would pay a lot more than $200 for 'bush weed'. In any case at the $7.14 per gram price, the 750,000 weekly smokers and based on the figure of an average of 1g for each of them...the supply chain would still make $278,460,000 per year from a total population (i.e. babies, kids, adults, the elderly combined) of less than 23 million.

I think it's about time the Drug Laws associated with Cannabis in Australia reflected reality somewhat and stopped incriminating the unlucky ones that get caught and remove the money supply from the seedy illegal street dealers that can sell for as much as they like and to whoever they want to.

Super Rare Game - Terranigma (AUS-PAL)

Hi all,

I've been watching Pawn Stars on television lately, it's one show I'm really enjoying...and I haven't said these words for a quite a long time. 

Anyhow I've always been interesting in the business, I mean it's a mix of recycling and business incorporating all sorts of items. Something about eBay or trading games in franchised stores feels as though it really benefits the consumer rather than the person selling a perhaps valued item.

I've been evaluating things around my place wondering what I would be willing to part ways with and for what sort of cash or trade or service.

One thing always immediately springs to mind. A game I bought over a decade ago for my Super Nintendo - A game called Terranigma. To this day I'm not sure why I even bought this game, I was always a fan of Zelda and I had (and still have) Solstice for the NES and this game fits in with the genre so perhaps it's not really that much of a mystery.

A few years ago I must have been valuing my games going off eBay prices and searched for Terranigma...WOW...apparently this game is rare...like really rare. I remember low search results and high price tags. How High? $300.

I've conducted a search just now and 8 results (and 15 international) have been retrieved. The cheapest item is $19. It is for a 'new' box only which, I might add, looks different to the original box that I have. The highest priced item out of the combined results, which also happens to be the only complete set, is priced at $AU212.83 and is located in the United Kingdom and costs 9.99GBP in postage. This appears to be exactly what I possess besides the fact that the box art differs between the sellers version and mine, as well as the fact that my copy is labelled for use in Australia and New Zealand only and has an Australian Rating's Classification label - Curiously rated 'G'

I just thought I'd share this with my loyal followers, potential new followers (hi :) ) and hopefully a collector or someone that can put me in contact with one. I'd love to do a deal. I have plenty of pictures but until/unless there is demand shown, I will be showcasing only one.

It is the rear box art showcasing still in-game still images, general game info, Official Nintendo Seal of Quality, etc

The Australian Box Cover is displayed at the Wikipedia page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terranigma

Which reveals that this game was released in PAL format on December 19 1996 and an interesting piece in the 'Reception' section regarding how it measures up with titles Soul Blazer and Illusion of Gaia.

Enjoy