Ale in a day’s work: Bushfire-ravaged town gets emergency beer delivery from Australian Navy

The Australian bushfire crisis took a new turn when the flames threatened to cut one scorched Victorian town off from its beer supplies, prompting the Royal Australian Navy to step in and make an urgent alcohol drop.

The town of Mallacoota hit the headlines worldwide when hundreds of tourists and locals were evacuated from the coastal site by the military on New Year’s Eve, after being forced down to the shoreline by the encroaching blaze. Many residents chose to stay behind, though, and have been struggling with serious supply shortages, including beer.

While the navy has been dropping crucial deliveries to bushfire-trapped areas, one of their emergency runs on Friday included bringing 3,000 liters of beer to a Mallacoota pub before its taps ran dry. 

“A pub with no beer is bad enough at the best of times,” Carlton and United Breweries CEO Peter Filipovic told AFP. “After what Mallacoota residents and firies have been through, the least we could do is make sure they could enjoy a beer.”

A spokesperson for the Department of Defence has clarified that the beer didn’t occupy any unnecessary space during the supply run, nor was anything essential cast aside so as to make room for the emergency alcohol provision.

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