OUR Executive team

Cider Australia is led by six volunteer office bearers

who we are

Cider Australia is an independent, not-for-profit organisation funded by cider businesses and sponsors. Our mission is to build a sustainable cider category by undertaking activities that improve the market penetration and quality of ciders produced and marketed in Australia.

What do we do?
  • PROMOTION – raise awareness of the cider industry and create marketing opportunities and strategies to assist our members to grow their businesses
  • ADVOCACY AND POLICY DEVELOPMENT – facilitate policy development and present the common views of the industry to government and others
  • EDUCATION – educate consumers about cider, and encourage professional and technical development, information sharing and benchmarking within the industry.

Key activities

We run the annual Australian Cider Awards – the largest cider competition in Australia and a key platform for promoting quality cider and helping producers to learn and benchmark their products.
We run the national cider conference AusCider which brings together cider producers, fruit growers, researchers and cider industry representatives from across Australia. 
We have launched the 100% Australian Grown trust mark, becoming the first country in the world to launch a trust mark to promote the authenticity of cider.

Our history

Cider Australia was established in 2012 after a group of cider and perry producers met in Orange, NSW in September 2011 and Healesville, VIC in January 2012 and agreed to form a united national association.
Cider Australia was formally incorporated under NSW law in 2013, and registered as a national body through the Australian Securities and Investment Commission the following year.

    

Warwick Billings - President

Warwick started making cider 35 years ago in Somerset, England, and has never really stopped. He is also qualified in winemaking and brewing and describes himself as "liking to ferment". Having worked for some of the larger wineries in Australia he has a keen technical appreciation of what is possible and an artisan ethos for putting it into practice.

Cidermaker and Director at LOBO Juice and Cider in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia.

    

Richard Feyn - Vice President

Richard is Marketing Manager at Sydney Brewery, producers of an award winning range of craft beers & ciders. He collaborates with the cider makers and suppliers to produce Sydney Cider, made from freshly crushed apples and fermented with Champagne yeast, and is always looking for new opportunities to innovate. Ask him about his cider cocktails!

Marketing Manager at Sydney Brewery, NSW.

   

Jo-Anne Fahey - Category Development

Jo-Anne and her family run a mixed deciduous fruit orchard and farm gate business at Darkes Forest on the Illawarra Escarpment between Sydney and Wollongong. Ten years ago they diversified into cider, made from their own apples, and have since planted cider apple trees which will enable them to expand their range further in the coming years.

Owner of Darkes Cider, NSW.

  

Mark Ellis - Digital

Mark has been restoring a 4th generation family orchard as a cidery in the Wimmera river plains area of Quantong, Vic. While at his day job he manages an eHealth company and this website.

Residing in Melbourne, VIC.

   

Nick Geoghaegan - Secretary

Nick is co-owner of Small Acres Cyder, an orchard-based cidery in Orange, New South Wales with an amazing track record of awards. Small Acres Cyder is real cider made from fresh apples from our Cider Variety orchard and local growers in and around the Cool-Climate region of Orange. 

Co-owner of Small Acres Cyder, Orange, NSW.

   

Shane McLaughlin - Treasurer

Shane is a wine maker by background who started dabbling in cider making when he moved to an orchard in Bilpin, Blue Mountains a decade ago. 20 years ago Shane also pioneered a new region for wine by planting a vineyard on his family’s 4th generation sheep station at Warren, NSW.  Along with Hillbilly cider, Shane and his wife Tessa run the family wine company Canonbah Bridge which exports to 8 countries as well as being sold domestically.

Founder of Hillbilly Cider in Bilpin, NSW.



  

Rosie Zollinger - Executive officer

In 2016 Rosie attend the Cider & Perry Production course with Peter Mitchell at Cornell University and in 2017 obtained a WSET Level 2 Award in Wine. She is currently the only Certified Pommelier in Australia. Since joining Cider Australia she aims to help raise the bar for cider and elevate the way cider is perceived. She has a passion for traditional methods and promoting the use of heritage and cider specific cultivators.

Certified Pommelier, VIC.

 
Cider Australia

PO Box 20883
World Square
SYDNEY  NSW  2000

© 2025 Cider Australia Incorporated          ABN 55 155 136 521          ARBN 601 152 916

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