Hawke’s Brewing Co / Landcare Australia: Saving Rainforests and Sinking Schooners Since '84

Hawke's Brewing Co., the independently-owned beer company established by former Australian Prime Minister, the late Bob Hawke, has unveiled a mural of the company's co-founder at popular West End pub venue, The Montague Hotel. Hawke's Brewing commissioned local artist, Bastian Allfrey, to create the 5m high artwork, which depicts a deeply-tanned Hawke wearing nothing but a pair of budgy smugglers, while holding a beer in one hand and a newspaper in the other, with the headline reading ''HAWKIE SAVES DAINTREE''. The headline is in reference to the Hawke government’s victory over the Anti-Heritage alliance in 1988, ending a long battle between the Federal and Queensland Governments, loggers and conservationists, ultimately leading to the listing of North Queensland’s Wet Tropics as a World Heritage site. At age 87, Hawke gave his endorsement to Hawke’s Brewing Co. on the condition that 100% of his royalty share from the business be provided to Landcare Australia, the environmental not-for-profit the Hawke government established in 1989.