Hotel Review: Campbell Point House, Bellarine Peninsula

Fiona Buckley Fiona Buckley
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At the end of a majestic driveway, lined with some 10,000 hand planted trees, there is a gentle dip. A proud private estate stands tall in that dip, and it may just take your breath away.  This is Campbell Point House.

Details:

Campbell Point House
199 Matthews Road, Leopold, Vic

Campbell Point House in all it’s glory

The property:

For those who have long dreamt of staying in an elegant, multi-million dollar luxury accommodation, Campbell Point House on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula is the only way to do it.

 

Surrounded by lush lawns and with a distant view of water, it’s hard to find the words to truly encompass the lavish beauty that is this place.

Pictures barely do this facade justice

Originally built as a family home, the now-boutique hotel feels reminiscent of the Palace Of Versailles. Perhaps that’s why it’s been chosen several times as the backdrop to many TV shows, including Masterchef, Getaway and Unreal Estate.

 

Owner and visionary Aaron Parkhill assures building costs were shy of $20 million, but that doesn’t stop the quarter of a million dollar bill from appearing every year for maintenance. That’s on top of the five full-time gardeners, and a few robot mowers.

 

Upon arrival I make a note to spend hours roaming the magical gardens, but the real magic happens once I step inside.

 

The enormous entry and staircase (actually nothing is small here) makes my neck spin as I take it all in. I look down to see a myriad of checked tiles under my feet, as well as marble accents as far as the eye can see.

First impressions of the staircase

To the left there’s a light-filled conservatory, featuring a hidden chef’s kitchen and a quaint table set-up.

 

The rest of the ground floor is just as you’d expect. There’s a games room, complete with a full-scale pool table for a healthy post-dinner scrimmage, plus plenty of rooms for sitting, chatting and marvelling at your surrounds.

Go for a scrimmage in the Games Room

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The rooms:

Up to my quarters.

 

Campbell Point House offers eight luxurious suites; the emphasis here is definitely on quality over quantity.

 

I was assigned the greatest and grandest of them all, the Master Suite.

 

An unassuming door on the top floor of the property opened to a set of stairs. Once atop, I am greeted with a light-filled room that I can confidently say is more than double the size of my Bondi Beach apartment.

The Master Suite is waiting

As my bare feet stepped on luxurious jute flooring, a king bed reveals itself as the centerpiece. Behind it, a backdrop of his and hers walk-in wardrobes, inviting me to unpack and make myself at home.

 

The beds are as comfortable as they are grand, complete with butter-soft linens that almost demand a good night’s sleep. It’s clear that no expense is spared to ensure the Nirvana-esque fantasy is kept alive.

Marble accents adorn the bathrooms

Each room comes fitted with its own private en suite, featuring a toilet, walk-in shower and vanity. The marble accents continue from the ground floor, with each benchtop handcrafted and imported using the finest finishes possible.

The food:

Guests at Campbell Point House are treated to a culinary experience that delivers the very best of the Bellarine Peninsula.

A kitchen is worth a thousand words

All produce is either grown at the estate’s potager garden, caught from the ocean, sourced from local producers or made onsite. Fresh doesn’t even begin to cover it.

 

Southern calamari with sage and soaked plum; dry aged snapper with mustard and potato; Crayfish and zucchini ravioli; dry aged duck with cumquats and bitter chocolate – although seasonal and subject to change, I can personally attest to the deliciousness of every bite taken.

All produce is either grown at the estate’s potager garden, caught from the ocean, sourced from local producers or made onsite

And while I expected nothing less based on my experience so far, an in-hotel degustation of this calibre is seriously something to pay attention to.

 

Head chef Tobin Kent is understandably proud of what they produce at Campbell Point, and his team are thrilled to chat about how they have achieved an interesting, diverse, delicious and well-paired menu. As we quickly realised, all you have to do in this place, is ask…

Head chef Tobin Kent is understandably proud of every meal he presents

Morning brings homemade croissants and jams, sourdough bread, beautiful coffee, and eggs to your liking.

 

After breakfast, I take a winery tour before heading home feeling refreshed, spoiled and knowing this is how the other half wished they lived!

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Getting there:

If you’re a Melbourne local, type Campbell Point House straight into the GPS and you’ll do the trip to the Bellarine Peninsula in 1.5 hours.

Light-filled hallways

For those coming from interstate, your best bet is to fly into Avalon airport and hire a car. We chose a Toyota and boy, am I glad we did. The Kluger’s inbuilt navigation was pretty much the only reason that my backseat driving Mum and I got there in one piece…

The AT verdict:

If you’re in the mood to be treated like a VIP, this French chateau and English manor house hybrid is the hotel for you.

The room: 9/10

Whichever room you’re assigned is guaranteed to excite. No noise, privacy in all. And while the linen and finishes are all superb, perhaps a power board next to the bed for devices may be a good touch?

The food: 10/10

Extremely hard to fault. From the unexpectedly brilliant eight-course degustation (duck paired with bitter chocolate – who’d have known!?), to the conservatory breakfast, and the paired sparkling and cheese on arrival; the food here is worth the journey alone.

We rated:

Regional properties can sometimes feel a little lonely, and you can often have trouble passing the time between excursions. But with such detailed execution, and an incredible story to boot, hours can pass simply marvelling at the interior decor, let alone when you go out on foot to explore…

We’d change:

It’s a shame that the region doesn’t get to enjoy the spoils of the garden and head chef Tobin Kent, because the restaurant is not open to the public. Perhaps a special occasion chef’s table would work well?

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Fiona Buckley

Fiona Buckley

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This luxe trawler tour is redefining Victoria’s seafood experience

    Chloe Cann Chloe Cann
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    Victoria’s ‘mussel capital’ is the source of exceptional shellfish used by top chefs far and wide. Step aboard a beautifully refurbished trawler to see how these plump and juicy bivalves are sustainably cultivated.

    A curtain is slowly winched from the placid, teal waters just off Portarlington, like a floating garland beside our boat. The ropes heave with blue mussels, the star attraction of our tour. But as we reach to pluck our own, it’s quickly clear they’re not alone; a mass of weird and wonderful creatures has colonised the ropes, turning them into a living tapestry. ‘Fairy’ oysters, jelly-like sea squirts, and tiny, wriggling skeleton shrimp all inhabit this underwater ecosystem.

    We prize our bivalve bounty from the ropes, and minutes later the mussels arrive split on a platter. The plump orange morsels are served raw, ready to be spritzed with wedges of lemon and a lick of chilli as we gaze out over the bay. They’re briny, tender and faintly sweet. “This wasn’t originally part of the tour,” explains Connie Trathen, who doubles as the boat’s cook, deckhand and guide. “But a chef [who came onboard] wanted to taste the mussels raw first, and it’s now become one of the key features.”

    A humble trawler turned Hamptons-style dreamboat

    inspecting bivalve bounty from the ropes
    Inspecting the bounty. (Image: Visit Victoria/Hannyn Shiggins)

    It’s a crisp, calm winter’s day, and the sun is pouring down upon Valerie, a restored Huon pine workhorse that was first launched in January 1980. In a previous life she trawled the turbulent Bass Strait. These days she takes jaunts into Port Phillip Bay under the helm of Lance Wiffen, a fourth-generation Bellarine farmer, and the owner of Portarlington Mussel Tours. While Lance has been involved in the fishing industry for 30-plus years, the company’s tour boat only debuted in 2023.

    holding Portarlington mussels
    See how these plump and juicy bivalves are sustainably cultivated.

    It took more than three years to transform the former shark trawler into a dreamy, Hamptons-esque vessel, with little expense spared. Think muted green suede banquettes, white-washed walls, Breton-striped bench cushions, hardwood tables, bouquets of homegrown dahlias, and woollen blankets sourced from Waverley Mills, Australia’s oldest working textile mill. It’s intimate, too, welcoming 12 guests at most. And yet there’s nothing pretentious about the experience – just warm, down-to-earth Aussie hospitality.

    As we cruise out, we crack open a bottle of local bubbles and nibble on the most beautifully curated cheese platter, adorned with seashells and grey saltbush picked from the water’s edge that very morning. Australasian gannets soar overhead, and I’m told it’s not uncommon for guests to spot the odd seal, pod of dolphins, or even the occasional little penguin.

    The sustainable secret behind Victoria’s best mussels

    blue mussels off Portarlington
    Blue mussels sourced just off Portarlington.

    Connie and Lance both extol the virtues of mussels. They’re delicious. A lean source of protein and packed with omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B12, iron, selenium, and zinc. They’re cooked in a flash (Connie steams our fresh harvest with cider and onion jam). And they’re also widely regarded as one of the most sustainable foods in the world.

    Portarlington mussels with lemon and chilli
    Mussels served with lemon and chilli.

    “Aquaculture is [often] seen as destructive, so a lot of our guests are really surprised about how environmentally friendly and sustainable our industry is,” Lance says. “[Our mussels] would filter 1.4 billion litres of water a day,” he adds, explaining how mussels remove excess nitrogen and phosphorus from the water. “And through biomineralisation, we lock carbon into mussel shells.”

    a hand holding a Portarlington mussel
    Mussels are a sustainable food.

    Despite their glowing list of accolades, these molluscs have long been seen as the oysters’ poorer cousins. “It was a really slow start,” explains Lance, who says that in the early days of his career, “you could not sell mussels in Victoria”.

    But word has slowly caught on. Chefs as globally acclaimed as Attica’s Ben Shewry and even René Redzepi of Noma, Denmark, have travelled to these very waters just to try the shellfish at the source, sharing only the highest praise, and using Lance’s mussels in their restaurants.

    guests sampling Portarlington mussels onboard
    Sampling the goods onboard. (Image: Visit Victoria/Hannyn Shiggins)

    According to Lance there’s one obvious reason why the cool depths of Portarlington outshine other locations for mussel farming. “The water quality is second to none,” he says, noting how other regions are frequently rocked by harvest closures due to poor water quality. “We grow, without a doubt, some of the best shellfish in the world.” And with Lance’s bold claims backed up by some of the industry’s greatest names, perhaps it won’t be much longer until more Aussies uncover the appeal of Portarlington’s mussels.