Full bottle on quirky finds

The obsession began in Karratha in 1980 when Albany man Allan Grainger was given several mini-ature alcohol bottles.

Since then, his collection has grown to more than 500 bottles of whisky, scotch, vodka, gin and more liqueur flavours than anyone could ever need. “We went around to this lady’s place — a customer of ours — and she had this wall full of them,” he said.

“She gave me some and from then on I went.

“When I started, I couldn’t stop.

“We use to go to all the hotels and all the bottle shops and buy them.

“Everywhere I went, no matter where, if it was a pub I’d go in and have a look.” The collection — which fills two ceiling-high cupboards, with more stored in the back shed — has been gathered from across the nation, with some items collected from international ships docked on Australian land.

“I went for whiskies and then for brandies and all that sort of thing, just whatever was available at the time,” Mr Grainger said.

However, he said his passion for the 30-year collection had dwindled and he entertained the thought of selling it.

“I haven’t collected for ages, only because I have nowhere to put them, so I’ve got to the stage where we’ve tried to actually sell them,” he said.

“Sometimes I wished I had gone on but there’s not a lot around that are a great deal different.”