Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
You might be surprised to find out that The Biltong and Jerky Brothers is actually owned by Robyn and Darryl Warnaar, a husband and wife team who have been supplying the mountain with top-quality dried meat products since December of 2020. Take a tour behind the scenes with them to find out the real meaning behind the name, as well as the adversities they’ve overcome to get to where they are and the surprising truth about Tamborine Mountain’s taste for spice.
by Kyle Hitchmough
What was your inspiration to open this store? How did you get started?
R: Me having a job! I suffer from what’s called functional neurological disorder that causes dissociative attacks, so I have seizures. I’ve been written off from working, so we decided to start our own business!
D: Robyn used to work for a guy who makes biltong and jerky, who also happens to be my best mate. He offered to supply us, so we thought “why not?”
R: He’s the other brother in the name.
Can you explain what biltong is, for those who might not know?
D: Biltong is a South African version of jerky, it’s their take on it. Jerky is dehydrated over three days, whereas biltong is air-dried over seven. It’s marinated and hung up to dry, like cured meat. We also sell drinks, cutting boards, herbs and spices, rubs for meats, sauces… anything that’s meat or meat related.
Where do you source your items from? You mentioned your supplier.
D: All our biltong and jerky come from Toowoomba, and it’s all locally sourced and handcrafted. All our herbs and spices are from our wholesaler down at Ipswich.
Is there anything you offer that sells particularly well?
D: Without a doubt, that would be our herb chili and garlic biltong. It outsells everything else in our store by a factor of five. It’s that insane. We do get a lot of chili lovers up here. It’s sweet with heat. Think of a sweet chili sauce on steroids. Anyone who tries to go for anything mild, we advise them to give that a go and it’s normally a yes straight away.
R: It’s usually what they walk out with.
D: It’s my favourite too! Which helps.
What goes into an average day working here for you?
D: Weekdays are very quiet up here, because it’s very tourist oriented. The weekends, on the other hand… are a whole new ballgame, from 10:30 to shutting time you just don’t sit down. To be honest, it’s grown a lot faster than we expected. When we started, we were lucky if we were getting one or two customers a day because of where we are. Most people tend to stop at the Castle and then head back down Gallery Walk from there. It doesn’t help that the tour guides here, when they come up with the buses, they stop at the other end and they tell everyone “twenty minutes, that’s all you’ve got.” Having said that, it’s grown, because we have a big South African community who come to us from around here all the way up to New South Wales or even Rocky. We have customers that buy from us online as far away as Melbourne. That aspect is quite fun, we do get to talk and meet people from all over Australia. I don’t think I’ve experienced that anywhere else.
Are there any other particular trends in your clientele?
D: It’s generally the people who liked smoked meats, but surprisingly enough, a lot of kids. They’ll drag their parents in and instead of buying lollies, they’re coming in to buy jerky! It’s quite unusual.
Are you locals? What’re your opinions on the Tamborine Mountain area and community?
D: Beaudesert. So local enough! It’s good! It’s been quite supportive.
R: We do have a lot of regular clientele.
D: Locals were slower to come, which is not unusual, because to them this is just a tourist spot, and they figure it’s going to be tourist prices but since we’ve started, they’re learning more and more to come have a look. It’s quite funny when you get customers after six months who only live three or four houses that way and they say, “You’re here, we didn’t realise, we love this stuff!” The biggest thing is trying to get your name out there, it’s the same for any business.
What do you think a store like yours really provides to the area?
D: Something new. That’s the main thing. It’s nice to have something that a lot of people haven’t tried. We get a lot of people come in because they’ve tried jerky before, but they’ve never heard of biltong. I am enjoying that, introducing people to something they haven’t had before. I still haven’t gotten bored going through my spiel of what the difference between the two is. I enjoy being able to interact with people, instead of just being a quick one-stop. It’s been interesting showing people the difference between what we sell and what the supermarket sells.
What do you enjoy most about doing this?
D: My favourite part is just interacting with people. I’m not usually a big people person in general, but with this I enjoy it because there’s common ground straight off the bat. People know what they’re coming in for. It’s not the kind of store that you come in and try to find what you want. The name says it already— you’re coming in because that’s what you like, and you can talk about things that are immediately related. That’s been fun!
What’s been your most memorable moment in your time here?
D: We do have weird and wonderful things happen. We had a gentleman come in and tell us that he grows chilis, so now he’s supplying us with fresh chilis that people are using. They’re chocolate scorpions, which is the fourth hottest in the world and people are devouring it like it’s nothing. We have a 13-year-old girl who came in who ate it like it was nothing.
R: She said it was “okay.”
Is there anything else that you’d like to go on the record?
R: Only that we’re finding our feet and getting there slowly!
We are always looking for new topics for our blog. If there’s something you like to see more of, email your suggestions to: social@professionalsserendipity.com.au, or email the writer at kyle.hitchmough@hotmail.com.
