Nine must-do highlights of Victoria’s underrated peninsula

There’s gold to be found on the Bellarine Peninsula, from gold-leaf facials to gold-medalled wines plus wild beaches, wild pinot, wild seals and wild convicts: all just 90 minutes from Melbourne.

The cellar door

What do the Ocean Grove Catholic church, the old Barwon Heads Bridge and the Toorak home of Australia’s first billionaire, Robert Holmes a Court, have in common? Parts of them all are built into Oneday Estate winery in Curlewis, a 20-minute drive east of Geelong (Holmes a Court’s front door is now the winery’s toilet door). The winery is open to the public on Sundays only, and you can expect live music, wood-fired pizzas and enormous pans of paella. Owner Sam Murray is expanding the site to include a new tasting room lined with bluestone salvaged from Melbourne’s old Pentridge Prison. The must-take-home wine is its Wild pinot noir featuring wild yeast – a gold medal winner from the Victorian Wine Show. See onedayestate.com.au

The facial

Soaking in Lon Retreat.

Tucked away in Port Lonsdale, The Lon spa and health retreat has seven serene suites and taps into healing geothermal waters from an aquifer beneath the property. Soak in the mineral pool before succumbing to a new Advanced Vegan Collagen facial using Sydney company Subtle Energies’ creams infused with 24-carat gold leaf and sublime mogra jasmine – a first in Australia. Continue the dreamy journey with a walk through the moonah forests and over the sand dunes for sunset, best watched on the wild ocean beach. See lonretreat.com.au

Healthy appetites … Ket Baker.

The bakery

It takes five days for the bakers at Ket Baker to create these good-for-you croissants. Belgian engineer-turned-baker Meik Paulus eschews yeast in all her small-batch products, preferring pastries that are good for gut health.

“And they’re made with so much love,” she says over a St Ali coffee at Ket’s unassuming bakery and cafe in a Wallington barn. For a classically Belgian treat, try their creme koek – a thick slab of custard wedged between sheets of sourdough pastry coated in Belgian milk chocolate or, at the other end of the scale, her sourdough rye loaves. See ketbaker.com.au

The restaurant

Michael Demagistris made waves on MasterChef: The Professionals in 2013, and he’s making waves again as the executive chef of Tarra Queenscliff, a restaurant situated in the dramatic new ferry terminal. If you’ve already been touring the Bellarine with an Esky, you’ll recognise Ket Baker’s breads and Lard Ass butter from Ocean Grove on the menu. The charcuterie plate, all cured inhouse, is a thing of beauty, as is the smoked salmon tartlet served on a bed of seashells, while the baked scallops arrive garnished with pearls of tangy finger lime. Accessorise with a glass of local hero Oakdene Vineyard’s sparkling brut, and watch incoming ferries from Sorrento for an afternoon well spent. See tarra.com.au

FarmDog … all in the family.

The drink

For an instant throwback to Asian travels, take a sip of FarmDog Brewing’s hand-bottled pandan. Like most Bellarine cellar doors, FarmDog keeps it in the family, as distiller Maddy McGlashan of McGlashan Estate joins her vigneron father, Russell, in the estate in Wallington to create a range of infused gins including a Christmassy pumpkin-pie gin. The property includes four eco villas overlooking the vineyards, which produce its cool-climate chardonnays, pinot noirs and sparkling whites. See farmdogbrewing.com.au

The bar

Tram at Terindah Estate,

Parked beside the cellar door of Terindah Estate, a W-class tram is resplendent in its signature green and gold livery. Tram 911 was retired from life in Melbourne, and in 2020 was snapped up by Terindah’s late owner, Peter Slattery, to be restored by Bendigo Tramways. The tram, named Peter’s Odyssey, is now a bar open on weekends from 12 to 5pm serving lobster rolls and local mussels, cheese platters and charcuterie with the estate’s wines and views of Corio Bay and the rocky ridges of the You Yangs (walk-ins only). See terindahestate.com

The wildlife experience

Swimming with dolphins.

Port Phillip is home to three types of dolphins, including the critically endangered Burranan. Officially, there are just three pods in Victoria, who are happy to play when they’re not hunting, say Sea All Dolphin Swims’ crew. In that case, the bay’s resident seals are always ready to step in. An all-boy gang of Australian fur seals, some weighing up to 350 kilograms, have made their home on Chinaman’s Hat, a shipping channel marker nicknamed “the Taj Mahal for seals”. Without any ladies present to fuel aggression among the group, they happily roll and flip around with wetsuit-clad swimmers. See dolphinswims.com.au

The lake

Bird haven: Lake Connewarre.Credit: Justin McManus

There are 10,000 ducks, pelicans and swans on Lake Connewarre, and, at the other end of the scale, possible sightings of the near-extinct orange-bellied parrot. Paddler and environmentalist Jay Martin takes kayaking tours out on the lake, including night tours, with special sessions on the solstices and even a fancy-dress Halloween paddle. See outsideadventures.com.au

The Esky filler

The Bellarine bristles with farm gates; one of the best is the Bellarine Smokehouse on the grounds of the Bellarine Estate winery. Sarah (fish boss) Fenton and Jason (chief smoker) Smith use salt, smoke and time to create a range of smoked fish, salt and local olive oil. The must-buy product is their smoked salmon pate, a little tub of fabulousness that you can taste in their unassuming shed store. Local, coastal ti-tree ensures a taste of the Bellarine in all their products. Shop also for Teddy & the Fox gin from the next-door neighbours at Bellarine Distillery. Open seven days. See bellarinesmokehouse.com

One more thing

Follow the Barwon Bluff trail from Barwon Heads for eye-stretching views over Zeally Bay and Bass Strait. Apart from the wooden staircases leading up to the bluff, most of it is easy-going on boardwalks. Take a seat for reflection and that coffee you bought from the blue, weatherboard Jetty Road Kiosk which, in another life, was Diver Dan’s boat shed in SeaChange, which was filmed here in the late ’90s.

The writer was a guest of Visit Geelong & The Bellarine. See visitgeelongbellarine.com.au