August 8th, 2020Roger McLean – a Legend of Lockdown

HERBAL Lore and Terra Australis Distillery founder Roger McLean has been nominated by a number of people as a Legend of Lockdown.
One person wrote to The Local saying Mr McLean “supplied, free-of-charge from his distillery to the locals of Daylesford and surrounds, ethanol-based hand sanitiser to correct standard”.
“Yes…for nothing. He supplied his time and opened his door to all that took up that offer. A true hero.”
Another person seconded the nomination saying Mr McLean had supplied, at no charge to the community, bottles of hand sanitiser over weeks in April and May this year.
“It was offered to the local community to come in and just bring an empty bottle to obtain this legal sanitiser that was produced from his distillery using his ethanol. People were also welcomed with a smile and correct distancing measures applied with ease.
“He lovingly gave his time and product for free, for all us to take up if we wanted to. I see this as a true hero act in this time when so many other places were capitalising on the COVID-19 with 200 plus per cent and more mark-up on items of personal protection equipment (PPE).”
The Local ran a story about the free hand sanitiser in April with Mr McLean saying at the time that Herbal Lore and Terra Australis Distillery had a foundation, Medicines of the Earth, which was all about humanity and this was one of its projects.
“When we thought about it a few weeks ago and realised there were no bottles and no glycerine and lots of obstacles, but decided if we worked with refills we could really crank up our still and get the most beautiful alcohol to make a really crackingly good sanitiser. I have driven 5000km in the past three weeks to get what we needed, some from the back blocks of Queensland.
“It means there will be no people home with young kids, or the elderly, or anyone that really needs a sanitiser and just can’t get it or can’t afford it.”
Now, that’s a legend!