When Nayana Patmore got a casual job last year working at one of Darwin's few breweries, it didn't cross her mind to think she was following a path less travelled.
And not only did the 19-year-old's decision to permanently base herself in Darwin cement an entirely new passion and career path – it also made her one of the first-ever female brewers in the Northern Territory.
After moving up to the Top End, Nayana soon landed herself a job at Beaver Brewery in Darwin's northern suburbs, which she loved, but she moved back to Melbourne before realising what she'd left behind.
"I realised that I had a good opportunity to actually work full-time and learn about brewing up here," she said.
"I would have been disappointed if I didn't take that, so I came back up which I'm really happy about."
Nayana previously had little exposure to brewing, but after a few months of canning and bartending at the microbrewery, she was on an entirely new trajectory.
The complexity of brewing methods, the recipes and the social rituals, she said, drew her in.
"I really like the process, I find it really interesting that you can come up with so many different flavours and styles just by manipulating the process a little bit and changing it up to get a product that you really enjoy drinking," she said.
"To see people come together on a Friday night to enjoy that is something special too."
A pioneer and role model
There are just four craft breweries in the Northern Territory, and like the sector across Australia, the industry remains male dominated.
Chris Brown, the owner of Beaver Brewery, said Nayana's presence at the business is fantastic for the local industry.
"Nayana is [one of the the] first females brewing in the NT so she'll pioneer a bit of a role up here, " he said.
"She's become part of the family and it's been fantastic for us – someone you can trust and someone who works hard."
The Pink Boots Society, which works to inspire and encourage women and non-binary people to take up beer making and distilling as a career, says it's still hard to gauge diversity in the industry.
Tiffany Waldron, the organisation's president, said while the diversity split still needs a lot of work, it was better than it was a decade ago.
"We have 270 members in our chapter of [the organisation] ... and we know there is probably three or four times as many women and non-binary people that work in the industry overall," she said.
"And what we do know is when it comes to more leadership and management roles there is even less women and non-binary people."
With change unfolding slowly, Tiffany said there are many challenges ahead, from equitable uniform options to addressing concerning levels of abuse.
"We know that getting close to 40 per cent of women in our industry have experienced harassment or abuse in the workplace," she said.
"As much as I would like to say the floodgates [of diversity] have opened [in the industry], maybe they were opened, but not that many people have really gone on that journey yet."
