DAYLESFORD & HEPBURN SPRINGS – THE AUSTRALIAN TRAVELLER GUIDE

One-half of the duo behind the new Daylesford edition of the Produce to Platter books ($34.99, Smudge Publishing), Jonette George has a few firm favourites from the region: 1. The Convent Gallery “This mansion was first built as a private pad for the gold commissioner during the 1860s Gold Rush, then transformed into a convent before becoming a gallery – it’s absolutely beautiful. Come for the art, stay for a café-style lunch or some afternoon tea.” 7 Daly St, Daylesford 2. Ellender Estate “This cellar door is in the middle of bushland – it’s gorgeous. Buy some of owners Jenny...

Where is it? 115km north-west of Melbourne, in the Macedon Ranges, Victoria. Quite possibly the most relaxing holiday destination in Australia, Daylesford and Hepburn Springs are quaint food-lover’s villages with a special twist – they tap straight into the area’s rejuvenating natural spring water. The historic Hepburn Bathhouse and Spa is the best way to experience the full effect of the health-enhancing waters – you won’t find anything like it anywhere else in Australia....

No-one takes the production of organic yet tasty and interesting foodstuffs more seriously than the folk at Daylesford Organics. Heirloom vegetables, fruits, nuts and free range eggs are all grown on this family farm owned by Brendon Eisner and Kate Ulman an hour and a half northwest of Melbourne. “An amazing little farm punching well above its weight and winning national awards and accolades. Lots of passion, innovation and gumption.” – Alla Wolf-Tasker Apples from the farm’s organic orchard are best sellers at local food markets and Matt Wilkinson from Melbourne’s Circa The Prince has chosen Daylesford Organics’ heirloom radishes...

Experience No.039 in Australian Traveller's 100 Greatest Australian Gourmet Experiences   In the future, when food historians attempt to trace the rise of Australia’s great regional restaurants to a point in time, they will arrive at 1984. This is when the daughter of Russian immigrants opened a restaurant next to Victoria’s manmade Lake Daylesford that would launch a thousand more. The Lake House menu will always be driven by Alla Wolf-Tasker’s gregarious and immigrant personality, rousing The Good Food Guide to declare that “it’s her playful spirit you can sense in the food”. Alla Wolf-Tasker is somewhat singlehandedly responsible for...

Experience No.012 in Australian Traveller Magazine's 100 Greatest Australian Gourmet Experiences. It’s the Porsche of prosciutto, the Prada of pancetta, all the way from the small Victorian town of Musk, just south of Daylesford. Istra Smallgoods is run by brothers Bernie and Sebastian Jurcan, having taken over the business from their parents Livio and Lidia, who hailed from the Northern Croatian peninsula of Istra.  “Great products in old European style. Wonderful Istran salami and pancetta and much more. They make the prosciutto from black pigs for Victor Churchill, which takes two years of hanging.” – Alla Wolf-Tasker Each week they...

Australian Traveller Magazine’s 100 Great Australian Holiday Homes This ritzy, red-carpeted and gold-mirrored affair in Victoria’s Spa Country has more than a touch of the regal about it. In fact, when you wake up in your towering four-poster bed on 100-year-old timber bed boards and throw back your richly embroidered blankets and tasselled cushions to the floor, you’ll probably feel more like Henry VIII waking in his Tudor palace than an Aussie waking in his or her holiday home in 21st Century Daylesford. Forget the stainless steel and minimalist selling points of most modern holiday homes. Stately Stoneleigh is all...

It must have felt like coming home to the early Swiss-Italian settlers when they decided to stay in the Macedon Ranges’ mountainous terrain amid mineral springs. One of Australia’s first holiday destinations in the 1870s, Daylesford continued to grow with an influx of gold rush settlers, and the shire’s lively heritage is visible to this day in its many historical buildings. AT Reader Carol Woods says of the welcoming town, “Everyone’s happy and relaxed and always says hello to you. You feel like part of the family.” And the 3000-strong town is an absolute evergreen with spa goers, artists and...

Life by the Lake Life by the Lake  Convinced there’s more to the rejuvenation of Victoria’s Spa Country than the now-famous Lake House, Peter Robinson returns to Daylesford for a dose of remedial indulgence therapy. Like so many Victorian goldfield towns during the 1850s, Daylesford grew on the prospectors’ fortunes as thousands of tonnes of glistering metal were mined from the foothills of the Great Dividing Range. As the gold ran out, the very existence of Daylesford and its twin Hepburn Springs became reliant upon another resource – mineral water. A tourist industry developed on the renowned health-giving qualities of...