Bundaberg Rum began over one hundred years ago in the sugar cane districts of Queensland. The town of Bundaberg boomed in the 1880s when Queensland enjoyed a surge of economic growth. Farmers began converting the molasses which was leftover from sugar refining into rum, and little distilleries began to crop up. Some came together in a co-operative called the Bundaberg Distilling Company. In 1961 the Bundaberg company introduced the polar bear as its mascot, to imply that the rum could ward off the coldest chill.