Meet Australia’s first luxury perfume house: An exclusive interview with Goldfield & Banks founder Dimitri Weber 

Luxury does not necessarily mean heritage. That’s especially true of Australia’s first ever luxury perfume house, Goldfield & Banks – remarkable for more than pioneering perfume from the land down under. Not only are every single one of its high-end fragrances unisex, but its unique ingredients make for scents rather unlike any other. It’s no wonder that the perfume house has been described as the “modern darling” of the perfume world. 

Its scents are the brainchild of French-Belgian perfumer Dimitri Weber, now based in Australia, and inspired by his adopted country’s landscapes, native botanicals, and the people who cultivate them. “For me, perfume is all about bringing together the work of many different producers and artisans to create something that celebrates their work and their inspirations,” the founder explains to The Luxe Review.

Here at The Luxe Review, we’re big fans of the brand’s ‘Sunset Hour,’ a bright, fruity fragrance which will transport you straight to Bondi beach, and the woody citrus of ‘Desert Rosewood’. But, the house’s latest fragrance, ‘Ingenious Ginger’, with top notes of Australian ginger accord, Italian bergamot and lemon, and base notes of Australian sandalwood and amber, may just become our go-to for warming up our winter nights. 

Here, Weber tells us how he came to found Australia’s first luxury perfume house, using the most expensive and exclusive scents in modern perfumery, and how every Goldfield & Banks wearer can expect to feel after a spritz…

Goldfield & Banks is Australia’s first luxury perfume house. How did its inception come about? 

The day I discovered that no Australian luxury perfume houses existed was the day I realised I had to create the first. I’ve always loved the scents of Australian botanical essences like sandalwood and mimosa – called ‘golden wattle’ in Australia – but when I had the opportunity to visit the country I was amazed at the sheer abundance and variety of scented species, and I knew I had to make them into perfumes.

Goldfield & Banks takes its name from the 18th century botanist Joseph Banks. How did Banks’ spirit of exploration influence the essence of your brand?

The reason I named the brand after Joseph Banks – and also Australia’s famed goldfields – is because I related to his story on a personal level. I like to think of myself as an explorer, and when I first visited Australia I experienced some of the excitement that Banks must have felt when he arrived here, though in my case the excitement was more specifically around the scents that the thousands of native species which Australia contains. In keeping with this theme of exploration, I want every Goldfield & Banks perfume to transport its wearers to the places in Australia that inspired it, just like how Europeans seeing specimens or sketches of these native botanicals for the first time must have felt transported to another world. 

Goldfield & Banks prides itself on featuring rare Australian essences previously unexplored in modern perfumery. Could you reveal some of these elements and the unique sensory experiences they bring? 

Some personal favourites are agarwood, boronia, and of course, the iconic Australian sandalwood. The agarwood we use in ‘Silky Woods’ is a worldwide exclusive for Goldfield & Banks, and it is also one of the most expensive essences in perfumery – it costs up to $100,000 Australian dollars per litre. It also has a beautiful contemporary, soft feel that more classical agarwoods from Southeast Asia don’t. 

Boronia flowers are tiny and grown on the windy island of Bruny, Australia’s southernmost island. It takes 12.5 million of these delicate flowers to produce a litre of boronia absolute (like a concentrated essential oil), and the resulting liquid has a smell like nothing else on earth – floral, green, and magnificent.

How do you translate Australia’s diverse landscapes into fragrances which resonate with wearers worldwide?

Australia is a country – and continent – which truly has something for everyone. We have crystalline oceans and white beaches, expansive deserts and vast floodplains, sun-baked salt pans and lush tropical rainforests, and each is filled with wondrous scents you simply can’t imagine until you visit them. For me, sharing these experiences with people around the world is about reinterpreting the scents of Australia’s native botanicals and expressing them in ways that are both exotic and contemporary, but also somehow familiar and comforting to those who have never visited this country.

The concept of gender-free fragrances is gaining momentum. How does Goldfield & Banks embrace this notion, and how do your perfumes cater to a wide spectrum of preferences?

All our perfumes have been unisex since day one, as I wanted to make sure clients can choose for themselves which scents match their personalities, rather than having me give them suggestions. There was actually a time in the past when all fragrances were unisex… until 100 or so years ago marketers realised that couples were sharing perfume bottles.  

Luxury often carries a sense of heritage and tradition. How do you balance this classic luxury with Goldfield & Banks’ contemporary approach?

You’re right – for a lot of people, heritage is the first thing that comes to mind when they think about luxury. But of course every heritage brand had to start somewhere, and we’re seeing more brands appearing today that don’t work their way into luxury over the decades or centuries, but instead build off the collective experience of craftspeople and artisans to create luxury that is more contemporary and fresh. At Goldfield & Banks, we work with leading perfumers to create fragrances that make the most of the luxurious and coveted essences that grow here in Australia, and which in many cases aren’t used in any other perfumes.

What is your personal favourite Goldfield & Banks scent? 

‘Desert Rosewood’ was my favourite for a long time because of how rugged yet refined it is, and because creating it was such a challenge – the main botanical, buddhawood, creates all sorts of strange scents when it’s blended with other ingredients in perfumers’ palettes, so it took a particularly great perfumer, Francois Merle-Baudoin, to formulate a perfume with it. But I think that my favourite now is our latest launch, ‘Ingenious Ginger,’ since it’s the first perfume in the collection that I truly created for myself and my taste. I love to share it with people, since it feels like an extension of myself.

What trends are you noticing in the world of luxury fragrances?

Storytelling is something I think we will see more and more, as customers aren’t just interested in what goes into a perfume physically, but how each of those essences is created and the people behind them, as well as stories of their inspirations and how things like design elements and branding were created.

What’s next for the future of Goldfield & Banks? 

I won’t say much, but you can in particular expect to see some exciting new launches in our Botanical Series of perfumes. The collection will also be expanding to things other than just perfumes. Watch this space… 

View and shop the full range at Selfridges.