Clunes Booktown: The Booklover's Festival

The one festival that needs to be on every bookworm’s to-do list.

There are few things more pleasurable than falling headfirst into a good book – except, perhaps, falling headfirst into a town full of them. It’s exactly what you’ll find in Clunes. The quaint hamlet in the heart of Victoria’s goldfields, which, since 2007, has been host to the Booktown Festival, an annual two-day event that brings together more than 60 booksellers across Victoria.

What’s a Booktown?

According to the International Organisation of Book Towns (and there are 17 official Book Towns across the world), a Book Town is “a small rural town or village in which second-hand and antiquarian bookshops are concentrated."

Mostly, the organisation says, they develop in villages “of historic interest or of scenic beauty". Clunes is both of those in spades.

Clunes Booktown Festival, Victoria — Festival-goers search through piles of books.

Arriving at the Festival

When you lay your eyes on the surrounding environs, it’s not hard to see why what started as a humble day-long event has turned into a two-day festival. Burnt orange leaves adorn the drooping trees that mark the town’s entrance, while many of the buildings lining its busiest street remain unchanged from the gold rush days of the 19th-century. Despite being relatively close to Melbourne (90 minutes north-west of the CBD), it retains the nostalgic feeling of a town where time stands fantastically still.

Festival-goers can discover the largest collection of rare, out-of-print and collectable books in Australia, whilst exploring heritage buildings, listening to live music, watching street performers, enjoying local wines and produce with fellow literature lovers.

Purchases

Barely 30 minutes pass before I make my first purchase. Run by the affectionately monikered ‘Bookie’, Melbourne institution The Book Grocer has been bringing its collection of new fiction, essays, art books and even military texts to the festival at its standard price of $10 a book for the past six years. Bookie tells me it’s one of his favourite times of the year (perhaps because it guarantees delicious nosh at the nearby Farmer’s Arms in Daylesford, where we spy him later that night).

And even though $10 a book might be on the steeper side of prices here (other stalls are selling second-hand books for what appears to be a handful of beans), I still lumber to the car with The Best Australian Essays 2010, Jamie Oliver’s America and Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nocturnes before returning for more.

The Experience

There’s something a little bit magical about the place, with wonderfully costumed characters strolling the streets as if they materialised just for this occasion. The theme was Alice in Wonderland, so it wasn’t uncommon to pass by the odd White Rabbit or Cheshire Cat browsing the stacks. In the background, sounds of a big brass band tinkle through the streets, melding with the distinct scent of a proper country sausage sizzle.

Squint your eyes hard enough and you could almost imagine yourself thrust into the middle of a picture book or a painting – as if you’d been spirited away by one of Roald Dahl’s witches, or transported through a colourful chalk drawing by the magical Mary Poppins.

Of course, half the fun of being in an open-air festival is the people watching. Under the crisp winter sky, I watch with delight as children run wild in a straw maze or gather for a tea party with the Mad Hatter. I eavesdrop surreptitiously as a passionate autodidact discusses Japanese military history at a stall devoted to such things.

There is a particular kind of joy that comes from observing hobbyists stumble upon obscure additions to their collection. I feel it myself when I later find an old pregnancy manual complete with illustrations and the retro advice of a pre-feminist era. It seems Booktown really has something for everyone.

According to Bookie, rumour has it Clunes established Booktown because it wanted to avoid being lumbered with the tag of ‘sewerage town’, after a 10-year battle to prevent a stand-alone system looked set to fail. The town decided it was better to be known for books than waste. And who can blame them? Outside of festival time, Clunes boasts eight bookstores and two online traders. The festival not only has a huge selection of books (new and used), but roving buskers, performances, and a series of talks with authors – all for the grand entry fee of $5.

Surrounds

Of course, one can’t mention Clunes without also acknowledging how close it is to Victorian spa country which, naturally, calls for one to make a weekend of it. We retreat that evening to our little rental on the lake at Daylesford and, by the warm light of our gas log fire, peruse our newfound purchases with all the enthusiasm that only good books can bring.

The Details

The annual Booktown festiva l happens at the beginning of May.

And if you’re around the area any other time of the year, Clunes has got you covered with Booktown on Sunday. Happening on the third Sunday of every month, writers come around and hold a series of talks, absolutely free. Whether you’re a budding author yourself or just a book-worm, this town is the hub of ideas and the arts.

Check out Dayget for great accommodation in Daylesford.

See photographer Jesse Booher’s ‘Fly on the wall in Booktown’ photo essay.

The charm of Mildura is hidden in plain sight along the Sturt Highway. The capital of Tropical North Victoria is in a league of its own.

From the moment you arrive in Mildura , the warm air and palm trees invite you to slow down. While most Australians might drive right past it, Mildura is full of surprises. Here you’ll spend one day witnessing over 50,000 years of First Nations history in a UNESCO-listed National Park, and the next dining in a hatted restaurant after wandering through 12,500 fireflies as the outback sunset bursts to life above. From roadside fruit stalls and family-run wineries to houseboats and galleries, it’s time to explore Mildura.

Feast Street, at the heart of Langtree Avenue in Mildura. — Taste, wander and be surprised in Mildura.

Taste Mildura’s produce

It makes sense to start your trip by addressing the most important question: where to eat. In the beating heart of Australia’s food bowl, sample the local produce directly from the source. And then, of course, experience it through the menu of a hatted chef. Or sandwiched between pillowy slices of Nonna’s ciabatta.

Rows of orchards and olive groves invite you to spend the day traipsing from farm to farm. Taste olives propagated from Calabrian trees brought over in the 40s, oranges picked right from the tree and squeezed into juice and spoons full of honey . Bring the holiday back to your kitchen by stocking your pantry at roadside produce stalls, or calling into the ‘silver shed ’ (Sunraysia’s gourmand Mecca).

Thanks to the warm, balmy air and fertile soils, the wineries dotted along these hills produce award-winning local wines. Like Chalmers , a family-run, innovative winery dedicated to making their wines as sustainable as possible. And picturesque Trentham Estate offers views of the snaking Murray River as you sample their vintages.

Venture beyond the gnarled shadows of olive groves and fragrant rows of blossoming fruit trees and you’ll find an otherworldly side to Mildura. With Discover Mildura as your guide, visit Murray River Salt’s Mars-like stacks. The naturally pink salt is formed from an ancient inland sea and evaporated entirely by the sun to create one of the region’s most iconic exports.

Start your day with just-squeezed sunshine.

Hatted dining & Italian history

Mildura is home to a proud community of Calabrians and Sicilians. This, paired with the exceptional local produce, means that you can find paninos on par with those in Italy. The Italian is a Paninoteca serving up made-to-order, hefty, authentic Sicilian paninos. Nonna Rosa’s pork meatballs, slowly cooked in tomato ragu and served in a crusty, fluffy roll topped with gratings of Grana Padano cheese and salsa verde, will call you back to Mildura for the rest of your days.

To find hatted dining in Mildura, simply follow the staircase down into the basement of the historic Mildura Grand Hotel to find Stefano’s . Following the muscle memory and instinct of his Italian roots, he delivers on the principle of ‘cucina povera’. That is, the Italian cooking ideology that turns simple, local ingredients into magic.

Things to do in Mildura include dining at the acclaimed Stefano’s, where simple local ingredients are transformed into Italian culinary magic beneath the historic Grand Hotel. — Bite into Mildura’s Italian heritage.

Discover a thriving culture scene

The city is alive with culture. Whether it’s painted on the town’s walls, told in ancient yarns, or waiting for you in a gallery.

The Mildura Arts Centre was Australia’s first regional art gallery. Behind the walls of Rio Vista Historic House, you’ll find a lineup of ever-changing exhibitions. The gallery’s wall space pays tribute to the art and songlines of local First Nations People, the region’s awe-inspiring landscapes and more. Outside, on the gallery’s lawn, find 12 contemporary sculptures in the Sculpture Park.

Mildura’s streetscapes are a punch of colour. Swirling strokes of paint blend the winding artery of the Murray River, red dirt and local characters into a story you can see with your own eyes, thanks to the Mildura City Heart’s Mural Art Project . Pick up a copy of the Murals of Mildura guide from the Visitor Information Centre.

Follow the border of NSW and Victoria on a map and you’ll see it hugs the curves of a tiny island on the Murray. That’s Lock Island, where, as the sun and moon trade places, the island comes alive as darkness falls. The island is dotted with 12,500 firefly lights that lead you on a meandering path through the outback sunset. The installation is known as Trail of Lights and was created by the same visionary who dreamt up Field of Light at Uluṟu, Bruce Munro.

Things to do in Mildura include exploring its rich cultural scene. From vibrant street art and ancient stories to exhibitions at the Mildura Arts Centre, Australia’s first regional gallery. — Find culture around every corner.

Wonder at ancient landscapes

The landscapes of Mildura feel almost transcendental. The skyline bursts to life with reds, pinks, and deep, sparkly night skies.

The nature will leave you in awe. See hues of pink water changing with the weather at Pink Lakes inside Victoria’s largest national park, Murray Sunset National Oark. Cast a line into Ouyen Lake. Watch the sunset against 70-metre tall red cliffs that reflect the setting sun. Or get the heart racing and sandboard down the Perry Sandhills dunes, formed 40,000 years ago at the end of an ice age.

Just don’t leave without following the twists and turns of the Murray. Stroll or ride along the Shared River Front Path, or jump onboard a boat for a scenic ride.

Your itinerary will be incomplete without a visit to UNESCO World Heritage-listed Mungo National Park . Head out with an Indigenous ranger to witness ancient campsites and footprints, before standing in awe of ancient civilisation near the discovery site of Mungo Man—Australia’s oldest human skeleton at 42,000 years old.

Mungo National Park at night is a vast, silent landscape where ancient dunes glow under moonlight and stars blanket the sky in breathtaking clarity. — Walk in the footsteps of ancient civilisation.

Meet your home away from home

On equal par with planning your meals and adventures, is finding the perfect place to relax at the end of each day.

Sleep inside a Palm Springs postcard at Kar-Rama . A sleek boutique hotel complete with a butterfly shaped, sun-soaked pool. Here you’re staying right in the heart of Mildura but you’ll feel worlds away. Or if you really wish to connect with nature, a night glamping under the stars at Outback Almonds will have you spellbound.

When in Mildura it’s only right to stay on one of the Murray River’s iconic houseboats . Wake up each day to the calm waters of the Murray lapping outside your window. Enjoy days full of river swims, fishing and exploring. All boats are solar-powered and can be self-skippered or moored along the river.

A solar-powered houseboat on the Murray River in Mildura. — Stay and play on the Murray in a solar houseboat.

Start planning the perfect getaway at mildura.com .

Clunes Booktown is the 2-day festival every bookworm needs to get to