Wee Jasper Wandering

16 September 2025 / Words and photos by Rod Nicholas

I first went to Wee Jasper almost 50 years ago. It took nearly three hours over a rough and dusty dirt track, all for a few hours splashing around in a creek. Today, the 70 km trip to the Wee Jasper Distillery took an hour, and the roads are a delight in an MX-5 (mostly).

The drive down Mountain Creek and Wee Jasper Roads is one of my favourite local runs. But the roads demand attention from the driver—they are narrow, wildlife encounters are a constant threat (evidenced by the plentiful ‘roos and wombats lying by the roadside), and the pothole status varies from year to year. For all that, it is a lovely country trip through picturesque farmland and forest, with a few good twisties for the brave driver, and gorgeous scenery for the passengers—so green this year.

Once on Wee Jasper Road the road twists uphill on uneven ground with the guardrails all but obscuring the rather sudden descent on the left-hand side into the farmland below. The drive then takes us along the ridge line for a while, meandering through the bush, until as we approach the descent to the village, the road narrows and drops steeply. The guardrails disappear, and the blind corners are adorned with mirrors. We hugged the roadside, mindful of the unforgiving rock wall to the left and the abrupt 50m drop to the right and with a smile crossed the Goodradigbee River into the little village.

Our thirteen-car cavalcade filled the carpark at the distillery, where Shannon and her staff had prepared a few tables that just managed to hold the 22 members on the run. Food, drinks and tastings were organised, seats were seated, and stories unfolded. Our destination is a little oasis for some top-notch gins and vodkas in a pretty village, which also boasts great camping, walking and fishing—if that’s what you like—although we didn’t have much time for that today.

The sun shone, and the birds chatted in the trees, but the chilly breeze reminded us that winter had only finished a few days ago. The samples of the citrus liqueurs helped get over that slight downer.

The water levels of the dam were well down on last year. I was told ‘they’ had let the dam drop to 50%, for irrigation purposes far away. It was certainly noticeable, but the now drier shores were lush with greenery, and the site was still picturesque.

As the chatter slowed, several of us exchanged our digital dollars for a bottle or two of the good stuff. I’m rather partial to the dry gin, but for others the pink was the go, and more than a few bottles of limoncello (not to mention the orange, mandarin, and lime) made their way into the boot of a member's MX-5.

For most of us the route home was a reverse of the trip in (it feels very different when you are going uphill), although a few made their way into Yass for an arvo caffeine refill.

It was another near perfect day out, and one that I am definitely going to repeat.

There are more photos on our Facebook page - thanks Rob & Lili.