Where to eat, stay, and play in Beechworth

After growing at breakneck speed during the Victorian goldrush, Beechworth is booming again, finds Jo Stewart. Discover what made Beechworth into your Top 50 Aussie towns list.

Find the complete list of the Top 50 Aussie Towns here.

As a historic goldmining town that was once the stamping ground of infamous bushrangers, Beechworth could stray into contrived tourist-trap territory. Instead, the north-east Victorian town is experiencing a renaissance thanks to an entrepreneurial community of new and veteran business owners whose exceptional food, beer and wine offerings are giving out-of-towners fresh reasons to visit.

The 1892 Beechworth fire station is still intact up to this day.

Eating there

Start the day with a latte made on a baby-pink La Marzocco coffee machine at Tiny of Beechworth, a cute coffee haunt that also serves cocktails after 4pm. Around the corner, Project 49 stocks panini, salads and soups, plus a top range of local wines, olives and pantry essentials sourced from small-scale, local producers.

If you think all honey tastes the same, the Beechworth Honey Shop will certainly set you straight. With more than 40 single varietal honeys to try, this is Australia’s largest collection of liquid gold. Here, you’ll learn that scented ash honey has hints of violet while spotted-gum honey has a strong caramel flavour. You’ll never view a jar of honey in the same way.

Pastry fans shouldn’t miss a local heavyweight of the old-school bakery scene. From humble origins, the Beechworth Bakery brand has grown to include outposts in Bright, Bendigo and beyond, but the Camp Street original remains as busy as ever.

Inside, you’ll find classic country bakery standards such as meringues, iced doughnuts and lamingtons overflowing with cream. The Ned Kelly meat pie topped with bacon, cheese and egg is hard to go past – well over 1000 are sold each month at this bakery alone.

outdoor view of the Beechworth Bakery — Don’t miss a trip to the Beechworth Bakery.

Wet your whistle with an afternoon beer on the breezy balcony of the grand, old Empire Hotel or visit Bridge Road Brewers for woodfired pizza and award-winning ales in an 1800s coach-house.

cold beer at Bridge Road Brewers — Visit Bridge Road Brewers for beer. (Image: Phoebe Powell)

A behind-the-scenes brewery tour runs daily at 11am, so book in to see how the malty magic happens.

Savour woodfired pizza at the Bridge Street Brewers. (Image: Phoebe Powell)

A giant of the national drinks scene, Billson’s Brewery has flown the flag for Australian beverages since 1865. Its striking, historic home on Last Street has a taproom, bar, tasting room, pooch-friendly beer garden and cellar-door shop to explore. Make your way to the factory-viewing platform to see the inner workings of this enterprise that has been tied to the town for more than 150 years.

On Camp Street, Billson’s Soda Bar proves you don’t need alcohol to have a good time. Behind the ornate gold lettering on the front window, you’ll likely be greeted by a dapper gent dressed in a vest and tie. Cordials, mocktails and ice-cream spiders are all on the menu here, providing a cool spot for a hangover-free night out.

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Staying there

A stay at The Hive Apartment at Beechworth Honey puts you in a sweet spot. Right in the centre of town, the historic building was once a bank manager’s residence and gold office. Now it’s a lovely, light-filled three-bedroom short-stay hotel with a subtle bee theme.

cosy bedroom at the Hive Hotel — The Hive Hotel is a sweet spot in town. (Image: Richard Iskov)

One kilometre out of town, The Benev is a welcome addition to Beechworth. What was once an asylum is now an upscale spa hotel that’s a destination in its own right. Described as a ‘child and screen-free haven’, a stay in a signature wellness suite (complete with freestanding stone bath) is just the ticket if you’re looking to unwind in peace, sans kids.

Playing there

Spend two hours completing the Beechworth Gorge Walk circuit around the town’s fringes for a dose of nature and local history. The Kelly Gang took cover in these tracts of bushland that are littered with goldrush remnants, including the Powder Magazine, which was built to store the explosives used to blast the landscapes in search of gold.

Beechworth Cemetery is where many other notable locals have been laid to rest. From a victim of a bushranger shootout to an American Civil War veteran who died of alcoholism, a wander around the cemetery reveals much about the social fabric of the town in the 1800s. Many Chinese miners were also buried here, with the cemetery’s distinctive burning towers once used for burning prayers and gifts for the afterlife.

In 2016, a community buyback of the imposing Old Beechworth Gaol led to the historic property serving Beechworth in a brand-new way. Book ahead to learn about the gaol’s grim past and see the cell that once housed the one and only Ned Kelly – a pre-booked tour is the only way you can see inside for yourself.

cafe at the Old Beechworth Gaol — The Old Beechworth Gaol is now a buzzing spot, too.

What was once a house of pain (eight men were executed here in the 1800s) now houses a co-working space, cafe, event spaces and a hub for rural entrepreneurship. Despite its transformation from a place of detention to a space for innovation, the gaol’s heritage has been retained and honoured. Just like the town itself, Old Beechworth Gaol straddles the past and the present with aplomb.

Explore more of Beechworth in our travel guide or find out which other towns made it into your Top 50.

Located just an hour north-west of Melbourne, the largely undiscovered Macedon Ranges quietly pours some of Australia’s finest cool-climate wines and serves up some of Victoria’s best food.

Mention the Macedon Ranges and most people will think of day spas and mineral springs around Daylesford, cosy weekends away in the countryside or the famous Hanging Rock (of enigmatic picnic fame). Or they won’t have heard of the Macedon Ranges at all.

But this cool-climate destination has been inconspicuously building a profile as a high-quality food and wine region and is beginning to draw serious attention from oenophiles and epicureans alike.

The rise of Macedon Ranges wine

liquid gold barrels at Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery — Barrels of liquid gold at Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

With elevations ranging from 300 to 800 metres, Macedon Ranges vineyards are among the highest in the country. This altitude, combined with significant day/night temperature swings, makes for a slow ripening season, in turn nurturing wines that embody elegance and structure. Think crisp chardonnays, subtle yet complex pinot noirs and delicate sparkling wines, along with niche varietals, such as gamay and nebbiolo.

Despite the region’s natural advantages – which vary from estate to estate, as each site embodies unique terroir depending on its position in relation to the Great Dividing Range, soil make-up and altitude – the Macedon Ranges has remained something of an insider’s secret. Unlike Victoria’s Yarra Valley or Mornington Peninsula, you won’t find large tour buses here and there’s no mass marketing drawing crowds.

Many of the 40-odd wineries are family-run operations with modest yields, meaning the wineries maintain a personal touch (if you visit a cellar door, you’ll likely chat to the owner or winemaker themselves) and a tight sales circle that often doesn’t go far beyond said cellar door. And that’s part of the charm.

Though wines from the Macedon Ranges are just starting to gain more widespread recognition in Australia, the first vines were planted in the 1860s, with a handful of operators then setting up business in the 1970s and ’80s. The industry surged again in the 1990s and early 2000s with the entry of wineries, such as Mount Towrong, which has an Italian slant in both its wine and food offering, and Curly Flat, now one of the largest estates.

Meet the new generation of local winemakers

the Clydesdale barn at Paramoor. — The Clydesdale barn at Paramoor. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Then, within the last 15 years, a new crop of vignerons like Andrew Wood at Kyneton Ridge Estate, whose vineyard in 2024 was the first in the Macedon Ranges to be certified by Sustainable Winegrowing Australia; Geoff Plahn and Samantha Reid at Paramoor, who have an impressive cellar door with a roaring fire and studded leather couches in an old Clydesdale barn; and Ollie Rapson and Renata Morello at Lyons Will, who rapidly expanded a small vineyard to focus on top-shelf riesling, gamay, pinot noir and chardonnay, have taken ownership of local estates.

Going back to the early days, Llew Knight’s family was one of the pioneers of the 1970s, replacing sheep with vines at Granite Hills when the wool industry dwindled. Knight is proud of the fact that all their wines are made with grapes from their estate, including a light, peppery shiraz (some Macedon wineries purchase fruit from nearby warmer areas, such as Heathcote, particularly to make shiraz) and a European-style grüner veltliner. And, as many other wineries in the region do, he relies on natural acid for balance, rather than an additive, which is often required in warmer regions. “It’s all about understanding and respecting your climate to get the best out of your wines,” he says.

farm animals atKyneton Ridge Estate — Curious residents at Kyneton Ridge Estate. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Throughout the Macedon Ranges, there’s a growing focus on sustainability and natural and low-intervention wines, with producers, such as Brian Martin at Hunter Gatherer making waves in regenerative viticulture. Martin previously worked in senior roles at Australia’s largest sparkling winemaking facility, and now applies that expertise and his own nous to natural, hands‑off, wild-fermented wines, including pét‑nat, riesling and pinot noir. “Wild fermentation brings more complexity,” he says. “Instead of introducing one species of yeast, you can have thousands and they add different characteristics to the wine.”

the vineyard at Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery — The estate’s vineyard, where cool-climate grapes are grown. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Most producers also focus on nurturing their grapes in-field and prune and pick by hand, thus avoiding the introduction of impurities and the need to meddle too much in the winery. “The better the quality of the fruit, the less you have to interfere with the natural winemaking process,” says Wood.

Given the small yields, there’s also little room for error, meaning producers place immense focus on quality. “You’re never going to compete in the middle [in a small region] – you’ve got to aim for the top,” says Curly Flat owner Jeni Kolkka. “Big wineries try to do things as fast as possible, but we’re in no rush,” adds Troy Walsh, owner and winemaker at Attwoods. “We don’t use commercial yeasts; everything is hand-harvested and everything is bottled here, so we bottle only when we’re ready, not when a big truck arrives.” That’s why, when you do see a Macedon Ranges product on a restaurant wine list, it’s usually towards the pointy end.

Come for the wine, stay for the food

pouring sauce onto a dish at Lake HouseDaylesford — Dining at Lake House Daylesford is a treat. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

If wine is the quiet achiever of the Macedon Ranges, then food is its not-so-secret weapon. In fact, the area has more hatted restaurants than any other region in Victoria. A pioneer of the area’s gourmet food movement is region cheerleader Alla Wolf-Tasker, culinary icon and founder of Daylesford’s Lake House.

For more than three decades, Wolf-Tasker has championed local producers and helped define what regional fine dining can look like in Australia. Her influence is palpable, not just in the two-hatted Lake House kitchen, but in the broader ethos of the region’s dining scene, as a wave of high-quality restaurants have followed her lead to become true destination diners.

the Midnight Starling restaurant in Kyneton Ridge Estate Winery — The hatted Midnight Starling restaurant is located in Kyneton. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

It’s easy to eat well, whether at other hatted restaurants, such as Midnight Starling in the quaint town of Kyneton, or at the wineries themselves, like Le Bouchon at Attwoods, where Walsh is inspired by his time working in France in both his food offering and winemaking.

The beauty of dining and wine touring in the Macedon Ranges is that it feels intimate and unhurried. You’re likely to meet the winemaker, hear about the trials of the latest vintage firsthand, and taste wines that never make it to city shelves. And that’s worth getting out of the city for – even if it is just an hour down the road.

Delicate dishes on the menu at Midnight Starling. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

A traveller’s checklist

Staying there

the accommodation at Cleveland Estate, Macedon Ranges — Stay at the Cleveland Estate. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Soak up vineyard views from Cleveland Estate near Lancefield, embrace retro charm at Kyneton Springs Motel or indulge in lakeside luxury at the Lake House.

Eating there

Enjoy a four-course menu at the one-hatted Surly Goat in Hepburn Springs, Japanese-inspired fare at Kuzu in Woodend or unpretentious fine dining at Mount Monument, which also has a sculpture park.

Drinking there

wine tasting at PassingClouds Winery, Macedon Ranges — A tasting at Passing Clouds Winery. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Settle in for a tasting at Boomtown in Castlemaine, sample local drops at the cosy Woodend Cellar & Bar or wine-hop around the many cellar doors, such as Passing Clouds.

the Boomtown Winery and Cellar Bar signage — Boomtown Winery and Cellar Bar. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Playing there

a scenic river in Castlemaine — Idyllic scenes at Castlemaine. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Wander through the seasonal splendour of Forest Glade Gardens, hike to the summit of Hanging Rock, or stroll around the tranquil Sanatorium Lake.

purple flowers hanging from a tree — Purple flowers hanging from a tree. (Image: Chloe Smith Photography)

Top Towns for 2022: Behold the beguiling town of Beechworth

After growing at breakneck speed during the Victorian goldrush, Beechworth is booming again, finds Jo Stewart. Discover what made Beechworth into your Top 50 Aussie towns list.

Eating there

Staying there

Playing there

Explore more of Beechworth in our travel guide or find out which other towns made it into your Top 50.

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The Macedon Ranges is Victoria’s best-kept food and wine secret

Located just an hour north-west of Melbourne, the largely undiscovered Macedon Ranges quietly pours some of Australia’s finest cool-climate wines and serves up some of Victoria’s best food.

The rise of Macedon Ranges wine

Meet the new generation of local winemakers

Come for the wine, stay for the food