Your ultimate guide to Victoria's quaint town, Mount Beauty

Whether you crave an energetic adventure or want to enjoy the Alpine region’s stunning nature spots at a slower pace, Mount Beauty is a perfect holiday base.

If you love skiing, biking and hiking, chances are you know Mount Beauty. In fact, it’s likely you’ve stopped in this country town in Victoria’s Bright and surrounds to grab a coffee on your way up to Falls Creek, or perhaps you’ve overnighted here after a High Country biking adventure.

Whatever it is that’s drawn you to this picturesque region, in whichever season, it’s time you stayed a little longer and really got to know Mount Beauty.

Mount Beauty cafes — Refuel at Mount beauty’s tasty cafes after a day of exploring.

When to visit Mount Beauty

Mount Beauty blooms in all seasons, but it undoubtedly shines the most in winter and summer.

From June to October, a steady stream of skiers and snowboarders descend on the shire, keen for days at nearby Falls Creek and Mt Hotham (30 and 75 kilometres away respectively). Mount Beauty makes a great winter vacation base, especially for families who are eager to experience snow without the high price tag. You’ll find a handful of stores that hire ski gear and tyre chains.

Mt Hotham skiing — Pop over to Mount Hotham for some winter skiing. (Image: Visit Victoria)

Once the weather warms up, Mount Beauty becomes a mountain biking mecca, drawing people from across Victoria and New South Wales. The trail network was built by passionate locals (read: people who know how to ride), while there are also plenty of gravel roads and fire trails for traditional cyclists.

The MTB de femme is a two-day mountain biking festival that supports women in the sport, and although it’s usually held in Falls Creek, Mount Beauty played host in March 2023. Autumn is also when you’ll experience the Mount Beauty Music Festival (22–23 April) and the Mount Beauty Running Festival (20 May).

Meanwhile, spring is the perfect time to shake off winter with community markets and pilates among the Alpine wildflowers.

Ride, walk or drive to the spectacular Sullivans Lookout.

Where to stay in Mount Beauty

There’s a range of accommodation options in Mount Beauty, from luxury eco stays to mid-range hotels and campsites.

For a taste of country living, book a stay at the tranquil Eagles Nest Hideaway Guest Suite, a short drive out of town. With two bedrooms, a kitchenette, outdoor barbecue area and plenty of wildlife to say hello to each morning, it’s a great option for families or groups.

Eco Villa Mount Beauty — Treat yourself toa stay at Eco Villa.

Another peaceful location is Kiewa Country Cottages, where there are six two-bedroom cottages and a one-bedroom deluxe apartment on 1.2 hectares of gardens. Guests will love the heated outdoor swimming pool, playground and fire pit.

If you’d like to treat yourself, Eco Villa Mt Beauty is a gorgeous two-storey luxury home with three bedrooms, a swimming pool, spa, an outdoor entertainment area, and plenty of stylish Alpine furnishings.

Myee Alpine Retreat, Mount Beauty — Summer or winter, enjoy stunning views at Myee Alpine Retreat. (Image: Carol Binder)

Other options include Myee Alpine Retreat, with a communal kitchen and lounge, ski drying room and secure bike storage, or The Park Mount Beauty, with cabins, yurts, and powered and unpowered sites, as well as Tawonga Tourist Park.

Need tips, more detail or itinerary ideas tailored to you? Ask AT.

Where to eat in Mount Beauty

There’s a lot more than pubs and bakeries in Mount Beauty, with cafes, restaurants and breweries aplenty.

For an after-bike or apres-ski beverage, head to Crank Handle Brewery, where you’ll find hand-crafted creations such as an Alpine ale, an American pale ale, and a rich chocolate and coffee porter. Sample them while enjoying stuffed jalapeno peppers, cauliflower tacos and a platter of more-ish Milawa cheese.

It’s also worth booking a table at Grass Valley Refreshments, where the main attraction is the gourmet pizza; think poached chicken and bocconcini, pancetta and pear, and butter bean and asparagus.

Easy bites can be found at the likes of Treats (in Bogong Ski Centre) and Rocky Valley Cafe (your coffee stop), while for pub grub and homemade goodness, check out Settlers Tavern.

Things to do in Mount Beauty

A visit to Mount Beauty is all about getting back to nature, whether that means carving down snowy slopes at Victoria’s best ski resorts or slowing down with a sunrise paddleboard.

Aside from the skiing at Falls Creek and Mt Hotham there’s also plenty of hiking, with Mount Beauty at the base of Mt Bogong (Warkwoolowler), Victoria’s highest mountain, 1986 metres above sea level.

Bogong Horseback Adventures — Hike, bike or horse ride around Mt Bogong. (Image: Tourism Australia)

You can hike Mt Bogong and Bogong High Plains in Alpine National Park during spring, summer and autumn, enjoying meadows of wildflowers and visiting historic huts.

If you love history, set aside a day to head up to Falls Creek to follow Wallace’s Heritage Trail, a six-and-a-half-kilometre walk (approximately two and a half hours) that takes you to Wallace’s Hut, the oldest surviving cattlemen’s hut in the High Country. If you have young children you can still show them the hut, as it’s about 750 metres from a car park. It’s also wheelchair accessible.

Mount Beauty Gorge Walk is also worth checking out. It’s a stunning trail that starts on the edge of town, takes you across a swing bridge and then along the west branch of the Kiewa River. There’s a lovely swimming hole to discover, and, in summer, you can rock scramble to an impressive canyon (beware: it can get slippery). Call into Mount Beauty Visitor Information Centre to find out more.

You can also walk along the banks of the Kiewa River, which snakes through Mount Beauty. Starting in town, Kiewa River Trail is four kilometres (return) along a sealed path that leads you past farms and campsites.

Fly fishers also love throwing a line in from the river bank, hoping to catch the region’s famous trout. Be sure to purchase a recreational fishing licence (from $10) online from Victorian Fisheries Authority first.

Mount Beauty fishing — Pick up a license to catch the region’s famous trout.

If you’re chasing a shot of adrenaline, schedule a morning at Big Hill Mountain Bike Park, where you’ll have a choice of more than 50 kilometres of cross-country and downhill trails that cater to all levels of riders. Advanced bikers will want to hit up The Yellow Loop, a 10-kilometre cross-country track with challenging climbs, technical features and flowy vibes.

Australia’s High Country is synonymous with horse riding, and there are one-day and multi-day rides available through Alpine National Park.

If you’re travelling with your own horse, they’re allowed in the national park between December and April; reserve a campground with a horse yard via Parks Victoria. For a tour, Bogong Horseback Adventures offers trail rides for all abilities, as well as pack-horse journeys across some of the highest terrain in Australia.

A mindful way to start or end the day is with a BYO kayak or paddleboard on the peaceful Mount Beauty Pondage. Nearby you’ll find Mount Beauty Skate Park, a top spot to take the kids to burn some energy on the rails and ramps.

However you plan to spend your days, you’ll want to bookend them with a visit to Mount Beauty’s great lookouts. Snap a sunrise selfie with Mt Bogong in the background from Sullivans Lookout, only 10 kilometres from the town centre along Tawonga Gap Road; at sunset, stop off the Kiewa Valley Highway at Mt Bogong Lookout, with its great views of Bogong, Kiewa Valley and Mountain Creek.

kayak Mount Beauty Pondage — Pack a kayak or paddleboard to get out on Mount Beauty Pondage.

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Getting around

Mount Beauty is a hub for nature-based adventure, so it makes sense to have a car (a 4WD is best). However, if you’re visiting in winter and would rather not deal with snowy roads – and, potentially, snow chains – there are shuttle bus options up to the ski resorts, as well as private transfers and pick-ups from Albury Airport.

Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated.

Just 15 years ago, Federal Mills was a very different place. Once among the most significant industrial sites in Victoria, the historic woollen mill was one of a dozen that operated in Geelong at the industry’s peak in the mid-20th century, helping the city earn its title as ‘wool centre of the world’. But by the 1960s global competition and the rise of synthetic fabrics led to the slow decline of the industry, and Federal Mills finally shuttered its doors in 2001. Within a few years, the abandoned North Geelong grounds had become makeshift pastoral land, with cows and goats grazing among the overgrown grass between the empty red-brick warehouses. It was a forgotten pocket of the city, all but two klicks from the bustle of the CBD.

Geelong cellar door wine bar — Geelong has shed its industrial identity to become an innovative urban hub with reimagined heritage spaces. (Image: Ash Hughes)

Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct

Today, the century-old complex stands reborn. The distinctive sawtooth-roof buildings have been sensitively restored. An old silo is splashed with a bright floral mural, landscapers have transformed the grounds, and the precinct is once again alive with activity. More than 1000 people work across 50-plus businesses here. It’s so busy, in fact, that on a sunny Thursday morning in the thick of winter, it’s hard to find a car park. The high ceilings, open-plan design, and large multi-paned windows – revolutionary features for factories of their time – have again become a drawcard.

Paddock Bakery andPatisserie — Paddock Bakery and Patisserie is housed within the historic wool factory. (Image: Gallant Lee)

At Paddock, one of the precinct’s newer tenants, weaving looms and dye vats have been replaced by a wood-fired brick oven and heavy-duty mixers. Open since April 2024, the bakery looks right at home here; the building’s industrial shell is softened by ivy climbing its steel frames, and sunlight streams through the tall windows. Outside, among the white cedar trees, families at picnic benches linger over dippy eggs and bagels, while white-collar workers pass in and out, single-origin coffee and crème brûlée doughnuts in hand.

Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design

Paddock Bakery can be found at Federal Mills. (Image: Gallant Lee)

“A lot of people are now seeing the merit of investing in Geelong,” says Paul Traynor, the head of Hamilton Hospitality Group, which redeveloped Federal Mills. A city once shunned as Sleepy Hollow, and spurned for its industrial, working-class roots and ‘rust belt’ image, Geelong has long since reclaimed its ‘Pivot City’ title, having reinvented itself as an affordable, lifestyle-driven satellite city, and a post-COVID migration hotspot.

And the numbers stand testament to the change. In March 2025, and for the first time in its history, Greater Geelong became Australia’s most popular regional town for internal migration, overtaking Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. Current forecasts suggest Geelong will continue to outpace many other Australian cities and towns, with jobs growing at double the rate of the population.

Tourism is booming, too. The 2023-24 financial year was Geelong and The Bellarine region’s busiest on record, with 6.4 million visitors making it one of the fastest-growing destinations in the country. It’s not hard to see why: beyond the city’s prime positioning at the doorstep of the Great Ocean Road, Geelong’s tenacity and cultural ambition stands out.

As Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design, Geelong is swiftly shaking off its industrial past to become a model for urban renewal, innovation, sustainability and creative communities. The signs are everywhere, from the revitalisation of the city’s waterfront, and the landmark design of the Geelong Library and Heritage Centre and Geelong Arts Centre, to the growing network of local designers, architects and artists, and the burgeoning roster of festivals and events. That’s not even mentioning the adaptive reuse of storied old industrial buildings – from Federal Mills, to Little Creatures’ brewery ‘village’ housed within a 1920s textile mill – or the city’s flourishing food and wine scene.

The rise of a food and wine destination

Restaurant 1915 is housed within a restored former boiler house. (Image: Harry Pope/Two Palms)

Traynor credits now-closed local restaurant Igni, which opened in 2016, as the turning point for Geelong’s hospo industry. “[Aaron Turner, Igni’s chef-patron] was probably the first guy, with all due respect, to raise the bar food-wise for Geelong,” he says. “People now treat it really seriously, and there’s clearly a market for it.” While Igni is gone, Turner now helms a string of other notable Geelong venues, including The Hot Chicken Project and Tacos y Liquor, all within the buzzy, street art-speckled laneways of the CBD’s Little Malop Street Precinct. Many others have also popped up in Igni’s wake, including Federal Mills’ own restaurant, 1915. Housed within the cavernous boiler house, 1915’s interior is dramatic: soaring, vaulted ceilings with timber beams, exposed brick, a huge arched window. The share plates echo the space’s bold character, playing with contrast and texture, with dishes such as a compressed watermelon tataki, the sweet, juicy squares tempered by salty strands of fried leeks, and charred, smoky snow peas dusted with saganaki on a nutty bed of romesco.

The Woolstore, one of The Hamilton Group’s most recent hospo projects, opened in February. It occupies a century-old riverside warehouse and exudes a more sultry, fine dining ambience. Much like Federal Mills, the blueprint was to preserve the original brickwork, tallowwood flooring and nods to the building’s former life. That same careful consideration extends to the well-versed, affable waitstaff as well as the kitchen. Head chef Eli Grubb is turning out an eclectic mix of ambitious and indulgent mod Oz dishes that deliver: strikingly tender skewers of chicken tsukune, infused with hints of smoke from the parrilla grill, and glazed with a moreish, sweet gochujang ‘jam’; nduja arancini fragrant with hints of aniseed and the earthy lick of sunny saffron aioli; and golden squares of potato pavé, adorned with tiny turrets of crème fraîche, crisp-fried saltbush leaves, and Avruga caviar, to name but a few stand-out dishes.

Woolstore menu — Woolstore’s menu is designed for sharing.

Breathing new life into historic spaces

On the city’s fringe, hidden down a winding side road with little fanfare, lies a long-dormant site that’s being gently revived. Built from locally quarried bluestone and brick, and dating back to the 1870s, the complex of original tin-roofed mill buildings is lush with greenery and backs onto the Barwon River and Buckley Falls; the audible rush of water provides a soothing soundtrack. Fyansford Paper Mill is one of few complexes of its time to survive intact. It feels steeped in history and spellbindingly rustic.

“We were looking for an old industrial place that had some charm and romance to it,” explains Sam Vogel, the owner, director and winemaker at Provenance Wines which moved here in 2018. When he first viewed the building with his former co-owner, it was in such a state of disrepair that the tradie tenant occupying the space had built a shed within it to escape the leaking roof and freezing winter temperatures. “To say it was run down would be an understatement,” he notes. “There was ivy growing through the place; the windows were all smashed. It was a classic Grand Designs project.”

Provenance Wines moved to Fyansford Paper Mill in 2018. (Image: Cameron Murray Photography)

The team has since invested more than a million dollars into their new home. Where paper processing machinery once sat, wine barrels are now stacked. Vaulted cathedral ceilings are strung with festoon lights, and hidden in plain sight lies a shadowy mural by local street artist de rigueur Rone – one of only three permanent works by the artist.

While the award-winning, cool-climate pinot noir, riesling and chardonnay naturally remain a key draw at Provenance, the winery’s restaurant is a destination in itself. Impressed already by whipsmart service, I devour one of the most cleverly curated and faultlessly executed degustations I’ve had in some time. It’s all prepared in a kitchen that is proudly zero-waste, and committed to providing seasonal, ethical and locally sourced meat and produce under head chef Nate McIver. Think free-range venison served rare with a syrupy red wine jus and a half-moon of neon-orange kosho, shokupan with a deeply savoury duck fat jus (a modern Japanese take on bread and drippings), and a golden potato cake adorned with a colourful confetti of dehydrated nasturtiums and tomato powder, and planted atop a sea urchin emulsion.

handcrafted pieces — Bell’s handcrafted functional pieces on display.

The complex is home to a coterie of independent businesses, including a gallery, a jeweller, and its latest tenant, ceramicist Elizabeth Bell, drawn here by the building’s “soul”. “There’s so much potential for these buildings to have new life breathed into them,” says Bell, whose studio is housed within the old pump room. “Even people in Geelong don’t know we’re here,” she says. “It’s definitely a destination, but I like that. It has a really calming atmosphere.”

A Melbourne transplant, Bell now feels at home in Geelong, which offers something Melbourne didn’t. “If this business was in Melbourne I don’t think it would’ve been as successful,” she notes. “It’s very collaborative in Geelong, and I don’t think you get that as much in Melbourne; you’re a bit more in it for yourself. Here it’s about community over competition.”

Your ultimate guide to Victoria’s quaint town, Mount Beauty

Whether you crave an energetic adventure or want to enjoy the Alpine region’s stunning nature spots at a slower pace, Mount Beauty is a perfect holiday base.

When to visit Mount Beauty

Where to stay in Mount Beauty

Where to eat in Mount Beauty

Things to do in Mount Beauty

Getting around

Falls Creek’s $750K-plus glam up for ski season opener

This newly upgraded rail trail in Victoria promises 137km of High Country magic

A floating sauna has just opened in Victoria’s High Country

This new multi-day alpine hike turns into a festival each night

Inside Geelong’s glow-up from factory town to creative capital

Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated.

Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct

Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design

The rise of a food and wine destination

Breathing new life into historic spaces

Whether you crave an energetic adventure or want to enjoy the Alpine region’s stunning nature spots at a slower pace, Mount Beauty is a perfect holiday base.

When to visit Mount Beauty

Where to stay in Mount Beauty

AI Prompt

Where to eat in Mount Beauty

Things to do in Mount Beauty

Getting around

Falls Creek’s $750K-plus glam up for ski season opener

This newly upgraded rail trail in Victoria promises 137km of High Country magic

A floating sauna has just opened in Victoria’s High Country

This new multi-day alpine hike turns into a festival each night

Abandoned mills and forgotten paper plants are finding second lives – and helping redefine a city long underestimated.

Federal Mills: from forgotten factory to creative precinct

Geelong: Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design

The rise of a food and wine destination

Breathing new life into historic spaces