Meet the Eucy Distillery Museum’s Ambassador

Published on 30 October 2017

Since starting as the Inglewood Eucy Distillery Museum Ambassador on 7 September, Sheridan Symons has discovered that her role varies from day-to-day.

“Each day is different, because it is such a different type of business,” Mrs Symons said.

“Not all jobs have as much variety as the Eucy Distillery Museum, and there is so much potential to promote the museum to the community and our visitors. There is retail, the café and its history as well.”

Mrs Symons, whose background is in retail and customer service, said she saw the advertisement for the Ambassador role at the museum and decided it sounded like an interesting role.

“I saw it as an opportunity to learn more about the distillery museum, to help build the business and to make people aware that it is here, including the café,” she said.

“I knew about the distillery museum – my family is from Wedderburn, so we would regularly see it on site. I hadn’t had the chance to visit since it opened in 2011, so it was all new for me too.

“I’m really, really enjoying it,” she added. “I enjoy going to work every single day.

“My role involves many things – frontline customer service, café services, retail and history tours of the site. There are so many different things it entails throughout the day.

“I also work with the distillery museum’s volunteers and we try to give the community as much information as possible.”

Mrs Symons said the museum received “quite a mixture” of visitors.

“We have families from the area who have never been in here and people that come across to the museum every year to buy the eucalyptus oil products. We have people who are curious about what is inside after seeing the shiny shed, and also tour groups that come through.

“Once inside, the visitors don’t realise what is actually at the site, including the café, retail products and a miniature eucalyptus distillery. The tourists that come through are quite amazed at everything here.”

The distillery museum recently held its inaugural Dogs Day Out on 21 October, which saw pet owners bring along their dogs to the site. 

“It was a really nice day,” Mrs Symons said.

“It was something new for the distillery museum. We had some owners bring along their dogs and had instant photos of their pets taken. We also put together some special Bosisto’s pet packs for purchase. It was a great event.”

Mrs Symons said the Eucy Distillery Museum was now looking forward to taking part in the garage sale event as part of the Inglewood Alive Festival on 5 November.  

“We’re also having a High Tea on Sunday 26 November, which we’re looking forward to,” she added.

“The High Tea will be held in the distillery museum café and will feature all the trimmings, including linen tablecloths, napkins, china tea sets, finger sandwiches, cakes, scones and pots of tea. We’ll also be playing records on the record player – which is something that’s a bit different nowadays.”

The Eucy Distillery Museum has also launched the Building a Quilt fundraiser, with money raised to go to the local fire brigade.

“We have set up a gold bird cage along with square pieces of fabric. People can purchase these pieces of fabric for a dollar,” Mrs Symons explained.

“The fabric square is then put into the bird cage. Once the bird cage is full, I will make a quilt from the fabric squares and donate the quilt to the Inglewood Hospital. All the money raised from the purchase of the fabric squares will go to the local fire brigade.”

Mrs Symons said the Building a Quilt fundraiser was a chance to support two important community organizations in the area.

“It’s helping the community to get involved in supporting these organizations as well,” she added.

The Eucy Distillery Museum is located at 20 Grant Street, Inglewood and is open Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm. Contact the museum on its new number 5438 3247.