Head for the hills to experience another side of Byron Bay
Think Byron Bay and you think sand and surf, but the hinterland of this coastal town is also rich in things to do.
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Thinking of a trip to Byron Bay but want to do more than lie on the beach contemplating a lazy stroll to the Cape Byron lighthouse? Best Weekend has found plenty to keep you busy — but still in holiday mode — beyond the north coast town’s famous surf and sand.
COOL COFFEE
The Northern Rivers is the southernmost coffee-growing district in the world. And because the weather doesn’t get as hot as in other coffee-growing regions, roaster Rebecca Zentfeld likens its beans to cool-climate wines.
“Think about wine,” she says. “The cooler-climate varieties have a slower ripening season, so the fruit has more depth. It’s the same with coffee — the climate brings out the chocolatey flavour of the beans, so the coffee is rich and sweet.”
At Zentfeld’s Coffee in Newrybar, about 20 minutes from Byron, there are 30,000 trees on the property and the team roasts 20 tonnes of beans a year.
Buy a bag and pop it in the freezer when you get home.
“It needs to be in an airtight container, not an open bag, and it will last longer,” Zentfeld says.
●Zentfeld’s Coffee, 193 Broken Head Rd, Newrybar, zentvelds.com.au
EAT LOCAL
The Harvest Cafe, also in Newrybar, is a local institution and its ethos is all about paddock-to-plate.
Head chef Bret Cameron says the garden out the back grows leafy vegetables and garnishes for the kitchen, while a nearby 2ha garden supplies them with everything else they need.
The deli, where visitors can buy goods, makes its own pickles and charcuterie, and the cool room is used to dry-age whole carcasses, which are used nose-to-tail on the plate.
“Sustainability is really important to us,” Cameron says. “We use the juggler milk dispensing system (for cooking and coffees); it comes in 10-litre bladders so we save on 14,000 plastic bottles a year and the vestal water system saves on 16,000 glass bottles a year, plus the miles to get here.”
If you can’t make it for lunch or dinner, it’s worth popping by on Sourdough Saturdays and Sundays. The 105-year-old baker’s oven at the back of the building is the backdrop for fresh bread, baked goods
and coffee.
“It used to be a community oven — everyone hung out and cooked and then they would take the food home — so we are trying to bring that community feeling back,” Cameron says.
● Harvest Cafe, 18-22 Old Pacific Hwy, Newrybar Village, harvestcafe.com.au
DRINK LOCAL
It’s the beer that could be found in only a few small, independent pubs and bottle shops — now, suddenly, it’s everywhere.
Stone & Wood’s tasting room manager Mitch Ell says the company’s Pacific Ale was brewed for
the local climate — a beer to drink on the sand after a dip in the ocean.
“It’s refreshing, with lasting flavours and a bit of tropical fruit. It’s also a little cloudy so the yeast gives it a better mouth feel,” he says.
In its first two years, Stone & Wood was brewing only 15 kegs a week. Sales quadrupled the next year and have tripled every year since, so the owners opened a new brewery in Murwillumbah nine months ago to keep up with demand.
“The new brewery wasn’t meant to happen for another three years, but we were brewing seven days a week and only filling 40 per cent of orders,” Ell says.
Despite its growing popularity and profile, Stone & Wood is still classified as a small brewery.
“Last year, we did over four million litres of beer, but one of Carlton United’s breweries can do that in a week,” he says.
Community and sustainability are a big part of the business.
“There are no adjuncts, colourings or flavourings in our beer and we don’t pasteurise,” he says. “Being sustainable is important to us. We use three litres of water to make a litre of beer, while others can use up to 17 litres.”
Tours of the brewery are held at 11am and 3pm on Tuesdays-Fridays and 11am and 1pm on Saturdays. The $10 fee covers a tour and four tastings: 330ml of the Garden Ale, plus smaller glasses of the Pacific Ale, Jasper Ale and limited-release Cloudcatcher.
The third weekend of each month plays host to an arvo sesh, with $5 beers, live music and a food truck with the bar profits donated to charity.
● Stone & Wood Brewing Company, 4 Boronia Pl, Byron Bay, stoneandwood.com.au
COUNTRY COMFORT
The Farm is not simply the location for the north-coast outpost of Three Blue Ducks, the popular Bronte restaurant.
The brainchild of Emma and Tom Lane is much more than that. “It’s all about growing a community and small businesses,” Tom says. “We develop the portal and allow them to come and start their business.”
The Farm has been an instant hit and Tom Lane estimates it attracts 5000-7000 visitors a week.
As well as the Ducks, there’s a florist, yoga studio and bakery, plus classes in beekeeping and garden design.
Grab a takeaway coffee and wander the 1.2km walking track or join the free farm tour at 10am on weekends.
The property is home to 35 Scottish Highland cattle, 20 Black Angus and Murray Greys, and more than 100 heritage-breed black pigs, who end up in the Ducks’ kitchen and on your plate.
“We have 300 chooks, who lay 250 eggs a day and that’s not enough to supply breakfast,” Lane says.
“The restaurant went out to tender, Jamie Oliver and Pete Evans were interested but the Ducks had the vision, the passion and all five moved up here.”
Chef Mark LaBrooy, one of the Ducks, says it wasn’t a hard decision.
“We live where people holiday,” he says.
“I feel like we’re more free here than in Bronte; we have the space and the time to do what we want to do.
“For a cafe, it’s really interesting — farmers ask us what we want, we tell them and they plant it. Logistically it means that a lot of planning and forethought needs to go into that, so we’re doing the springtime menu now.
“A lot of farmers and growers stop off at the back door with produce and the fishermen will call and tell me what’s coming in.
“It gives us the ability to showcase what’s happening in the region.”
● The Farm Byron Bay, 11 Ewingsdale Rd, Ewingsdale, thefarmbyronbay.com.au
LIFE IS SWEET
You will taste the best banana of your life at Tropical Fruit World, which makes the 40-minute drive from Byron worth it.
As part of the plantation safari tour, there’s a pit stop at the banana orchard where you pick a perfect yellow specimen that has been ripened on a tree instead of a supermarket shelf. You’ll never look at bananas the same way again.
This farm was originally built in the 1960s as a research centre for avocados, with 1000 trees and 18 varieties. In 1983 it opened to the public and in 1990 changed its name to Tropical Fruit World, home to 500 varieties of fruit and 3500 trees over 73ha.
Stop off at the animal farm and spend $1 on feed so you can handfeed donkeys, sheep and horses, who slobber greedily all over your open palm. The wallabies, in contrast, take dainty, thoughtful nibbles that tickle.
If you’re lucky, a baby calf will also be hungry. For a nine-week-old, there’s a lot of suction, so take a firm grip.
Then it’s on to the boat, where you throw white bread to the ducks and geese, who know it’s feeding time. Save some feed — as the boat chugs along, the lazy geese who bully the ducks will drop back while the ducks will follow the
boat, rewarding you with dramatic skids along the surface of the lake and disrupting the lotus flowers as they dive to retrieve the last crumbs. They’re showing off, but it’s a good show.
Get off the boat at Treasure Island, where you can play quoits, basketball and putt-putt golf as well as ride on the flying fox and mini train before heading home.
● Tropical Fruit World, 29 Duranbah Rd, Duranbah, tropicalfruitworld.com.au
RAINFOREST RETREAT
There aren’t many hotels where you cross paths with wallabies and bush turkeys on the way to your room. Set among 18ha of subtropical rainforest, the boardwalks that wind through The Byron at Byron Resort are shared by guests and local fauna alike.
A five-minute drive from the centre of Byron, it’s a secluded hideaway with a pool, day spa, yoga classes and restaurant. You could easily keep yourself entertained without ever leaving the grounds. But it’s worthwhile getting up while it’s still dark one morning and walking 15 minutes to Tallow Beach. You’ll wander the boardwalk in the dark, then leave the resort and walk across a path to a cacophonous soundtrack of birds just waking up.
The reward is not only sunrise at the beach, but looking up at the Cape Byron lighthouse and seeing 6.5 kilometres of unbroken sand in front of you.
How often do you get the chance to be the first person to leave footsteps on a beach? Take it while you can.
● The Byron At Byron Resort And Spa, 77-97 Broken Head Rd, Byron Bay, thebyronatbyron.com.au
The writer travelled as a guest of Destination NSW
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