Undersong, established in 2021, creates wild fragrances as an expression of the Tasmanian landscape. Using high-quality Australian essential oils and steam distilled botanicals, our Eau de Parfums are 100% natural – created, distilled, blended, and nurtured by hand in our East Coast Tasmanian perfumery.

The Australian island of Tasmania is at the heart of Undersong’s story. British-born founder, the acclaimed author, journalist and broadcaster Hilary Burden, spent her childhood and early adult years in Tasmania, before pursuing a career in magazines and media in Sydney and London. Returning to Tasmania to write and live closer to nature, Hilary wrote the much-loved memoir A Story of Seven Summers – Life in the Nuns’ House (2012), and the critically acclaimed Undersong – A Tasmanian journey into Country (2024).

The lessons learned in the writing of Undersong – a journey deep into place – inspired Hilary to explore the aromatic expression of the landscape in the island she now calls home.

The Tasmanian wilderness, inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1982, is an area of exceptional natural beauty and aesthetic importance. Thirty-five thousand plus years of Aboriginal settlement are cited as an outstanding example of humanity’s interaction with the natural environment, while the island’s plant life and wildlife are ascribed as having “outstanding universal value".

Undersong fragrances are an exercise in slow craft: distilled, blended, bottled and packaged on the East Coast of Tasmania.

Perfumer + author Hilary Burden made her first distillation of native botanical hydrosols in 2019 using a copper alembic still from Casa Luzarte, central Portugal.

Pandemic lockdown enabled Hilary to practise the distillation of native plants growing wildly along back roads and in open country where plants thrive in exuberant abundance, away from chemical fertilisers and human interference.

Undersong’s wild fragrances start with foraging and seasonally gathering plant materials sourced from particular locations.

The distilling process produces two end products: essential oil (the oil-soluble parts of the plant) and hydrosol (water-soluble parts of the plant which contain microscopic drops of essential oil).

Using perfume methodology, Hilary blends separate hydrosols with pure essential oils to create natural fragrances, each designed to deepen our connection to the wild places that inspire us.