Beyond the Victorian Goldfields’ best-known destinations, a collection of small towns is carving out their own identity through food, wine, nature, books and beautifully preserved heritage.
I’ve called the Victorian Goldfields home for the past 17 years, but some of my favourite places in the region lie just beyond the towns that typically steal the spotlight. Whether you’re seeking exceptional food, fascinating history, forest adventures, great wine or a literary weekend, these are six of the best lesser-known towns that deserve a visit on your next country escape.
1. Trentham: The food-led getaway
Tuck into an intimate, French farmhouse-style dinner at Du Fermier.
The historic Cosmo pub serves as a central community hub for generations.
Stop for some sourdough at Red Beard Bakery.
If Trentham were a person, I’d say it was always thinking about its next meal. Lucky then that dotted throughout the tiny town are enough cafes, restaurants and pubs to sate even the hungriest traveller. Set on the edge of Wombat State Forest, 20 minutes from Daylesford, the small hamlet traditionally known for growing potatoes has become a foodie destination well beyond the humble spud.
Start your day at Red Beard Bakery, where wild-ferment sourdough bread is baked in a rare 19th-century Scotch oven. Then move on to Trentham General for brunch (try the spicy chilli scrambled eggs) in the old Bank of Australasia building. Make sure you leave room for a long, languid lunch at Du Fermier, Annie Smithers’ much-loved restaurant, where fresh, seasonal produce shapes the ever-changing French-inspired menu.Finish the day with a local pinot noir or craft beer at the restored Cosmopolitan Hotel, safe in the knowledge that you’ve found one of regional Victoria’s best-kept dining secrets.
2. Maldon: The heritage escape
Maldon retains its 19th-century gold mining streetscape aesthetic.
The Beehive Mine chimney once formed part of a lucrative quartz mine in the 1860s.
With its broad main street, ornate shopfronts and beautifully maintained Victorian buildings, Australia’s first official “notable town", just 15 minutes from Castlemaine, feels like stepping back in time to its gold-rush heyday. Begin your visit at the Beehive Mine chimney, a towering structure that once formed part of a lucrative quartz mine in the 1860s. From there, wander Maldon’s historic streets before climbing Mount Tarrengower (less of a mountain and more of a gradual incline) for sweeping views across Maldon and the surrounding box-ironbark forest.
Back in town, antique stores, galleries and old-fashioned lolly shops invite leisurely browsing, while the Maldon Bakery – established in 1854 and believed to be Australia’s oldest continuously operating bakery – draws a steady stream of locals and visitors for pies and vanilla slices. For a final dose of nostalgia, board the Victorian Goldfields Railway for a languid steam-train journey along the restored 1880s line between Maldon and Castlemaine, or head beyond the township to the Maldon Historic Reserve, where walking trails weave past old stone ruins and abandoned mine workings.
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3. Clunes: The literary weekend
Wander the charming streets of Clunes.
This handsome town, about 35 minutes north of Ballarat, became internationally recognised in 2012 when it was named Australia’s first International Booktown. Today, second-hand and antiquarian bookstores occupy many of the beautifully preserved 19th-century buildings lining the wide main street, making Clunes perfect for slow weekends spent browsing shelves and lingering over coffee.
Begin at one of the town’s many bookstores, where you’ll find everything from vintage Australiana and gardening tomes to contemporary fiction and rare collectables. It’s worth planning ahead to coincide with the village’s much-loved Booktown Festival in March, when the streets fill with authors, readers and more than 100 booksellers.
The town is home to the world-class Djuwang Baring (Creswick Trails) mountain bike network, where riders can explore kilometres of flowing singletrack through eucalypt forest. If you prefer a slower pace, St George’s Lake is a picturesque spot where you can explore the surrounding bushland on foot (a loop of the lake takes about 30 minutes). Set within Creswick Regional Park, it’s also worth keeping an eye out for koalas, wallabies and native birdlife among the trees. The town’s close proximity to sections of the Goldfields Track makes it the ideal spot for an active weekend escape immersed in nature.
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5. Heathcote: The wine country detour
Sample Munari Wines in a spacious courtyard.
Sip on small-batch spirits at Envy Distilling.
While wine lovers flock to Victoria’s Yarra Valley and Mornington Peninsula, Heathcote produces some of Australia’s most celebrated (and delicious) drops. Located around 40 minutes south-east of Bendigo, Heathcote is best known for its rich red soils and exceptional shiraz.
It’s easy to spend a weekend sampling and dining at places such as the family-run Munari Wines (where the tastings and home-made pizza feel more like visiting a friend’s home) or enjoying vineyard views at the off-grid Silver Spoon Estate, before branching out to Envy Distilling, where Nathan Wheat and Vanessa Curtis craft small-batch spirits at their off-grid distillery. For a hands-on experience, Shiraz Republic’s popular rent-a-row program allows visitors to follow the winemaking process from harvest to bottle. A little gem in central Victoria, Heathcote offers all the ingredients for a sparkling wine-country weekend without the crowds of the state’s better-known wine regions.
6. Talbot: The market town
Tiny Talbot, between Clunes and Maryborough, comes alive on the third Sunday of every month when its acclaimed farmers’ market transforms the historic streetscape into a bustling hub of regional produce, artisan food and local makers.
Held among the beautifully preserved buildings of Scandinavian Crescent and Camp Street, the market draws thousands of visitors and more than 80 stallholders gather, offering everything from organic cheeses, small-batch wines and locally grown saffron to artisan sourdough, handmade fudge and freshly picked seasonal produce.
Arrive hungry and munch your way through Turkish gozleme, hot jam doughnuts, bagels, Indian curries and gourmet pies before filling your basket with olive oil, honey, preserves and baked treats to take home. Beyond market day, Talbot has beautifully preserved heritage buildings and a slower pace, but it’s the market’s celebration of regional food and makers that’s worth the drive.
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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 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.
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 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.
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.”
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.
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.
