New Tweed businesses: Spangled Drongo, Nacho Baby, Coolamon Station
From an Instagram influencer’s artisan tequila bar to an accessible farmstay, there are plenty of great new businesses looking to open this year. See what is coming soon.
Tweed Heads
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Business owners are making plans for new ventures in the Tweed after a tumultuous year of border closures and Covid-19 restrictions.
Here are just some of the new businesses planning on opening this year.
Spangled Drongo
Tom Cornish doesn’t see success as the money he makes from his beer, but instead the social impact his new venture has.
Mr Cornish says one square metre of habitat where endangered Australian animals live will be saved for every beer Spangled Drongo sells.
The company is named after an Australian bird known for protecting its own and other bird’s nests.
Mr Cornish said his company aimed to do the same.
Pending development approval, Mr Cornish, with co-founders Steve Murphy and Brian Kiss Von Soly, plan to open a licenced cafe and then a microbrewery in Murwillumbah.
The first part of the development, situated underneath the Regent Cinema, will be the “bird bath” where people can come in for a coffee, wine or beer and sit inside in a stripped back room with a dive bar feel or outside in the alleyway.
Mr Cornish said the final finished brewery would include a skate ramp and restaurant serving all vegan food by former MasterChef contestant Shannon Martinez.
“Murwillumbah has gentrified really rapidly... and there’s still not what I would classify as a place to go that hits that target market of the new people coming in,” Mr Cornish said.
“We’re hoping to hit that different demographic.”
Mr Cornish is hoping to open the licenced cafe by March however is still awaiting development approval.
After the brewery is approved by the council he said it would take four months to be ready to open.
Nacho Baby
A mutual love of tequila brought Instagram influencer Carly Wilson, also known as Carly Electric, and Jamie Westerlund together to start restaurant Nacho Baby.
The pair already run clothing label Not Your Bby, which is where the new venture’s name came from.
Customers at Nacho Baby - an artisan tequila restaurant and bar to be built on Bay Street - can expect street style tacos, nachos and lots of tequila.
“We’re also building a tequila tasting room, so we want to have tequila tasting events and mescal tasting events,” Ms Wilson, who has 16,500 followers on Instagram, said.
“We want to put a lot of effort into the types of tequila and alcohol we have so that people can come and sample some new things and learn because tequila is so variant.
“We really want to educate people and offer an experience.”
The restaurant will go into an empty space where Chempro used to be on Bay Street.
It will use the 100-year-old building’s existing archways and brick in its interior design.
“There needs to be a bit more variety in Tweed Heads, especially there’s not a lot, everything seems to be in Queensland and nothing this side of the border,” Ms Wilson said.
“We love tequila and Mexican food and we just want to do something that’s not really done on this end of the coast.”
The pair are still awaiting development approval but said once that came in they expected to open within three months.
Coolamon Station
Vanessa Rose has spent most of her life travelling the world working for Qantas as cabin crew.
Now she’s ready for the world to come to her.
Coolamon Station is a farm stay business opening in Palmvale with a focus on being accessible and authentic.
The rural accommodation business centres around a woolshed made of a three bedroom cabin and multipurpose function room.
“It’s a mixture of uses,” Mrs Rose said.
“We’ll set up for six months, try and see what happens - farmstay might be it or accessible venue, education and training, I’m not sure how it’s all going to pan out.”
Guests will wake to the sound of roosters crowing and views of rolling hills but like a real farm experience they’ll be out and about early in the day.
There are horses, cows, chickens and pigs on the 42ha property along with native wildlife including koalas and possums.
The accommodation has been constructed using recycled materials including timber from the Murwillumbah Showgrounds.
Mrs Rose also runs a business with her husband rescuing fauna from mining and construction sites.
“We live here on the farm and go ‘wouldn’t it be great to bring people here and educate them on the land and wildlife and conservation’,” she said.
“Because there can be a balance between farming and conservation.”
Coolamon Station is expected to open in April this year.
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Originally published as New Tweed businesses: Spangled Drongo, Nacho Baby, Coolamon Station
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