FROM HERITAGE LANDMARK TO STRATEGIC ASSET
RETROSPECTIVE SERIES
The West End Brewery Decommissioning
The closure of the iconic West End Brewery in Adelaide marked the end of a 160-year chapter in South Australia’s brewing history. But it also marked the beginning of a complex, high-stakes transition.
Hydra Consulting was engaged by Hilco to lead the technical decommissioning, deconstruction planning, and relocation enablement of the sprawling brewery site. What followed was a demanding multi-month engagement.
A Brewery of Complexity and Scale
Located on prime real estate in Thebarton, the West End Brewery was a web of integrated systems: packaging lines, brewhouses, utilities infrastructure, effluent treatment, refrigeration, lab spaces, and heritage equipment. The decommissioning and relocation had to account for:
Plant complexity
Safety and regulatory compliance, particularly around high-pressure systems, ammonia-based refrigeration, caustic delivery systems and confined spaces
Asset preservation, with many items destined for sale, repurposing, or relocation
Tight timelines and coordination with multiple parties including site owners, equipment buyers, and demolition crews.
Hydra was brought to project manage, and provide on-the-ground expertise in manufacturing infrastructure and strategic asset value preservation.
Decommissioning Strategy and Execution Oversight
To ensure that shutdowns were risk-driven and aligned with resale and relocation timelines, we developed a comprehensive and sequenced decommissioning plan, with a focus on:
Pre-decommissioning asset/s condition reports
Decommissioning planning and scheduling
Decommissioning team and dependent OEM collaborations
P&ID reviews & updates
Electrical control system validations
Safe workflows, SWM’s, Risk plans, Lift plans, traffic management
Live utility transition plans (ammonia, gas, water, power)
Environmental risk mitigation
Asset integrity management throughout the decommissioning phase
Deconstruction and Dismantling Plan
To enable a confident sales process and effective downstream relocation.
Hydra designed and supervised a structured dismantling process, including:
Engineer-approved lift and disassembly plans – covering major packaging line elements, brewhouse filtration/ pasteurisation equipment and fermentation tanks up to 240 hL.
Asset preservation protocols – particularly for saleable lines such as:
Krones Vario-Flash pasteuriser
60,000 bottle per hour glass packaging line
30,000 can per hour beer canning line
RTD dosing and mixing plant
Cider & beer Filtration Systems
Cider flash pasteuriser
Fermentation Cellar Tanks.
Technical documentation packs – Every lot included a Hydra-authored dossier of available information on manuals, dismantling and reinstallation guides, and detailed specifications.
Reviewing and mapping of plant systems and interdependencies, updating schematics prior to decommissioning and process diagrams (P&IDs).
Project management and financial control.
Relocation Readiness and Value Recovery
Hydra ensured that all equipment marketed for sale was:
Fully validated for future use
Logistically ready for transport across Australia and internationally
Accompanied by documentation that supported regulatory, operational, and technical approvals in new locations
Supported through direct buyer engagement and technical clarification
Key enablers included:
Stakeholder engagement (Hilco, Lion, McMahons)
Local logistics of plant and equipment relocations, coordinated across multiple facilities
Results That Mattered
Hydra’s methodology delivered tangible results:
Zero safety incidents throughout decommissioning and dismantling
Schedule compliance, meeting Lion’s strict timelines for demolition handover
Cost and risk mitigation, through proactive hazard identification and systematic shutdown planning
Successful sale and relocation of several major plant components
Positive engagement from local/global buyers due to high-quality documentation and advisory support
Acknowledgements
Hydra Consulting acknowledges the valued expertise and collaboration of the following companies in the successful execution of this complex project:
Hilco Global – Project principal
FA Maker – Equipment brokerage and relocation support
Adlingtons – Technical and process engineering, equipment deconstruction
Fleurieu Cranes – Heavy lifts and cranage logistics
Fusion Systems Integration – Systems and automation support
Foodmach – Packaging line dismantling and logistics
Della Toffola – Filtration and processing equipment support
TGI Cargo – Export logistics coordination
VERIS – Surveying and spatial verification
Turning Industrial Heritage into Global Opportunity
This project was more than dismantling a brewery—it was about reimagining industrial heritage as a global asset base. Hydra Consulting applied its signature approach: risk-based decommissioning, deep technical validation, and practical enablement of downstream use.
The successful transition of West End’s brewing infrastructure demonstrates how legacy manufacturing assets can be repositioned for global markets when projects are engineered for strategic recovery, not just demolition.
For future plant closures, site rationalisations, or industrial relocations, Hydra’s West End methodology provides a blueprint for safe, valuable, and sustainable transition.