Innholdsfortegnelse for Australian Country Feasts i Australian Country Feasts

Even before the first passenger trains rolled into town in the 1880s, this spangled strip of the windjammer coast has been a lot of a show-off. The Kiama region, Minnamurra, Bombo, Jamberoo, Kiama, Gerringong and Gerroa, call it what you will — destination? Magnet? — where fresh mountain air meets the salt-smacked Tasman Sea, has always flashed its abundance of natural riches. Fresh could be its second name: the freshness of its land and seascapes brought the plein-air artists on those first trains; its fresh ocean, dairy and agricultural produce, plus the fresh discoveries of its enticing hinterland, attracted adventurers; and refugees from smoky Sydney keenly inhaled its fresh mood and relaxed atmosphere to become the first European tourists. The highway speeds today’s visitors to Kiama but perhaps a better…

Canberra, the indulgence capital of Australia? It’s always been special, a world away from normal life, a bit of a treat to visit and not always for the grand and celebrated things. It’s great for just strolling or cycling, foraging with a foaming latte warming your hands through the local food markets. One regular visitor says the best thing about the national capital is not the major galleries, the cafes, museums, the lake or even Parliament House, it is the duck laksa he always has at Dickson on the way in. And sometimes also on the way out. Others have said they only come for the coffee, and there are plenty of cool options there, always being conscious, of course, that — statistics say — you are among some of…

They kept it a secret. Gold had been found many times and in many places before, but the New South Wales government had suppressed the news, believing it would waylay the workforce and destabilise the economy. Instead of an exodus when the Australian gold rushes began in 1851, the same year Victoria became a separate colony, thousands of workers came from elsewhere in Australia and from around the world. The rushes significantly populated Australia. Some struck it lucky as miners and the legend of the “digger” was born. Others started support industries and companies, which, widely diversified, still exist today. Sidney Myer, who migrated from Russia to Melbourne in 1899, with his elder brother, Elcon, opened the first Myer store in Bendigo in 1900. Between 1850 and 1900, Bendigo produced…

To follow the course of the Murray River is to voyage into a puzzling Australia. Its water becomes bitterly contested soon after bubbling innocently from a spring in the Alps, where it can be straddled with one foot in NSW and the other in Victoria. Then it meanders along the border and through South Australia on its journey to the Southern Ocean. This is our inland holiday coast but also an ailing national symbol. It produces most of our prize-winning olive oil, substantial quantities of healthful fruit, vegetables and meats, yet its wines, though the most prolific in the country, tend to be dismissed, mainly unfairly, for being “warm climate”. There are simple huts and posh resorts, paddle-wheelers and gin palaces afloat on the Murray, but also spiritual sites and…

This is inharmonious Australia writ small. From the edge of the sprawling, arid outback to the Yorke Peninsula poking a toe into the Southern Ocean, the whole area is fraught with contradictions. Clare Valley wines typify this. A scorching district, if you’re cycling in summer, produces the coolest of cool wines. It is stony, hard, unforgiving — reflecting the famously flinty dry Rieslings — yet everyone who has ever been there has a soft spot for the Clare. There are not many Australian towns that could qualify as chocolate-box picture candidates but the town of Clare is undeniably cute. Whereas, on Yorke Peninsula’s 700 kilometres of pristine coast, you can enjoy great fish and chips barefoot on the beach while watching the sun go down. Or sample the oysters and…

They called it the dump of the decade in Victoria’s high country. Mount Hotham was a white out. Australian Country was there as the blizzard swirled around, diamond-patterned chains on our wheels, squinting for the red and yellow tips of the buried poles that said here is the road. When we reached Dinner Plain and the sun began to emerge, we could see the stark, icy outlines of huts and lodges bathed in silence. We’ve got the place to ourselves, we thought. And then we realised that all the other cars were buried under vast snow drifts. That afternoon, we had an appointment with a musher. That’s the Husky handler who was to drive the dogs pulling our sled on a spin through the snow gums. And, even more bizarre…

Just a picturesque 90-minute drive from Sydney, nestled into the prettiest nook along the South Coast, find famous blowholes, unspoilt beaches, lush rolling hills, world class waves, ancient rainforests, and contemporary towns and villages with a warm welcome. Along with the world’s largest blowhole, and nationally significant attractions such as Illawarra Fly Treetop Adventures and Jamberoo Action Park, one of the most popular attractions is the Kiama Coast Walk. This unbroken ribbon of exploration spans approximately 20kms from Minnamurra to Gerringong, offering easy entry and exit points, hidden rock pools, geological wonder, grassy tracks, beautiful sandy beaches and some of the best opportunities for whale watching between May and November. The Kiama area offers the opportunity to fill an entire week long itinerary with stunning waterfalls, rainforest walks, golden sand…

This region encompasses probably the easiest and, often, the most awkward food and wine journeys in Victoria. The Mornington Peninsula, colourful beach shacks lining its almost prim English-style seaside (with some muscular Burgundian Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays plus notable Pinot Gris alongside), is effortless fun, while Gippsland, an area which stretches from Phillip Island to the NSW border, involves some intrepid, longish-distance exploring. High-octane, penguin-parading Phillip Island is known internationally while wild Wilson’s Promontory and South Gippsland are visited mainly by clued-up Victorians. As Australian Country’s Kirsty McKenzie writes, and here’s a tip for grey-nomads and all those other travellers making traffic jams on Cape York: “Victorians like to keep a few secrets up their collective sleeve. While several million visitors head to Phillip Island every year, either to see…

While his partner, Wendy, serves Dutch-inspired dishes to an appreciative audience, Mike Webster, down from clambering over the vats that dominate their Scenic Rim Brewery at Mount Alford, hands out paddles of their distinctive beers. The landscape in this rugged area in Queensland’s volcanic caldera bordering NSW may be called Gondwanan, remnant of the geological supercontinent, but the temper of their Phar Que Abbey Ale is decidedly Australian, its pedigree undeniably Belgian. Fact is, the secret few Australians and not very many more Queenslanders have been keeping to themselves is out. The Sunshine State is not just the home of great produce — way more than golden mangoes and pineapples dangling from tropical trees — but also of innovative ways of using that produce. From the man who grows mushrooms…

Dotted with heritage buildings and surrounded by vineyards, farmland, gum trees, sandstone gorges and trickling creeks, it’s hard not to be charmed by the regional towns of the NSW Central West. Mudgee and Orange have become magnetic hubs for curious travellers, foodies and wine buffs. A two-hour drive apart, and both about four hours from Sydney, they are known for their cool-climate wines and, increasingly, for fresh, seasonal produce. Yet look a little closer and you will find whole regions teeming with interesting stories, people, fascinating shops, cafes, restaurants and other things to do as you meander through picture-perfect countryside. Until, as an icon, it was superseded by the outback, this was how the world saw rural Australia. Thanks to its cool climate and volcanic soils, Orange has become a…

It’s summer in Hobart. The Derwent shimmers, the yachts as they finish their race from Sydney are being moored in the docks. Just steps away are the colourful stalls of Tasmanian restaurants and producers selling seafood, berries, cheese, marbled meats, craft beer, wine and spirits, cider. Grab a table along the docks, or a bean bag near the bands and street performers, graze your way through the flavours of the state’s rich soils, pure air, clean waters. Now is the week, between Christmas and New Year, when the city that shines with its proximity to the sea is at its exuberant best. This is the Taste of Tasmania festival. Alongside is Salamanca Place where it is festival time all the time, especially on Saturdays when the famed Salamanca Market boasts…

If visitors, hype and tourism are what count, the areas at Melbourne’s doorstep constitute the food and wine capital of Australia. Nearly 200 years ago in the Yarra Valley, revolutionary winemakers were setting a pace that eventually earned them a reputation for producing the best wines in the country. It all went bottom-up when phylloxera arrived and the vines had to be uprooted for grazing. The revolution didn’t really resume until the 1960s but, bolstered by some heavy investment in the inspired excess of the 1980s, it hasn’t let up since. Now world-renowned cool-climate Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon wines, matched with foods — a miso-marinated kingfish, perhaps, or wild mushroom tortellini in a shiitake broth at Eleonore’s at Chateau Yering — are the norm, not the exception.…

Once, every second Sydney child on a first trip to the Southern Highlands was told, It’s just like Scotland. Or, just like England, as the other children were told. Then when the children grew into young world-travellers, they discovered that the Highlands, hard as some of their inhabitants worked to make them, were not much like either. Today the dominant impression of the Southern Highlands is of extensive green meadows and quaint countryside, perched between wild hills and gorges of native scrub. This appearance, however, is due to the clearing of what was often impenetrable forest and the farming practices of the early European settlers. Goodness, thinks the traveller returning once more, it is a bit like Scotland. And like England. And Austria. And Slovakia. And France. And Scandinavia. And…