Australia’s best country pubs revealed for 2020

This quaint hotel, in a tiny town off the beaten track, is one of the country’s best kept secrets. Plan a road trip there, immediately.

Nothing gives me greater joy than discovering a true, off-the-beaten-track gem on my travels.

And when I do find one of these diamonds, I simply will not shut up about it. I must tell everybody, immediately. I’ll tell the cashier at Aldi if she’ll take a hot second from scanning barcodes. I’ll tell the poor soul who happened to get in a lift with me. And in this instance, I’ll tell you, dear reader, who has stumbled upon this post.

I’d heard about the Radio Springs Hotel a few year’s ago from a friend who spoke about it in mythical tones. She’d been taken there for a Sunday session in summer and said the afternoon of live music and good food and general conviviality was one of the best she’d had in ages. There was a cinema there. And rambling gardens. Said pub was out in the middle of nowhere, in a tiny town named Lyonville just over an hour’s drive north west of Melbourne. You found it just past a signpost that read “Centre of the Universe”.

Follow the sign to the Centre of the Universe.

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I finally got there about a year ago and can attest, it doesn’t disappoint. I’ve dragged people there three times since, and every time I fall a little bit more in love.

There are numerous ingredients that combine to make this the ultimate country pub.

If your companion bores you, there is plenty of reading material to choose from.

First, there is the space itself. It’s eccentric, eclectic, shambolic and utterly charming. A visitor described the decor on TripAdvisor as “art deco meets the Theatre” and this is perfect. The pub is a rabbit warren of interconnected rooms that are cosy and filled with antiques and curios. There’s a spoon nailed to a door in place of a door handle. The foyer has more candelabras than you can poke a stick at. One room has at least 70 vases in it. All you have to do is find the space that speaks to you (for mine it’s the Red Room, filled with retro books for you to paw through) and settle in by the open fire.

Not short of a candelstick.

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Out in the charming BackBeach Bar (the pick for warmer days) is where you’ll find the entry to the grandly named Henri Langlois Screening Room – a 34-seat tiered cinema, complete with candy bar. One of the owners, Ken Parfrey, is an absolute film buff and for the regular Tuesday evening “date night” (on hold because of COVID, but returning soon) he chooses a mystery film to screen on 35mm or 16mm. Wood fired pizzas and drinks are served beforehand in the BackBeach Bar, and Hawaiian shirts are encouraged.

Date night at the Radio Springs Hotel.

Live music often flows through the pub, and you can wander around two acres of gardens in the warmer months. Winding paths meander through mature trees, lush lawns, perennial beds and roses. There are plenty of places to plonk yourself down with a cold bottle of rose.

Get outside and enjoy the fresh Lyonville air (and a bottle of cold vino).

The food at the Radio Springs has always been top notch, but now it’s out of this world. After lockdown in Melbourne, Yvan Meunier (a very bloody good chef from the city), was lured to the Radio Springs for a tree change. I can say, hand on heart, the meal I had there recently was the best pub meal I’ve had.

Fresh flowers from the gardens adorn the tables.

The pub classics are executed beautifully, but you can also get some dishes that wouldn’t be out of place in a fine dining establishment (but at pub prices). I had grilled porchetta with roasted apple and cabbage, salsa verde, balsamic syrup. My companion had the roasted barramundi fillet with fennel and asparagus, spinach and basil velvet, coriander salt. We finished with “Valerie’s bread and butter pudding with nutmeg custard” and we still talk about it in reverential tones.

The food is worth the trip alone.

Thursday night is usually a special Thai food night – chef Bancha Rienkham should be back on the wok before Christmas. His authentic Bangkok street food is legendary around the district.

For out-of-towners there are four guest rooms, resplendent in vintage decor, and there’s also a regular courtesy bus if you want to find an Airbnb in a nearby town (get a bunch of friends together and do this, I implore you).

One of the four guest rooms at the pub.

As with any pub, it’s great because of the people behind it. Closed over a 15 year period, the hotel was resurrected by Ken and Jackie Airey and opened again in 2009. They are the most hospitable hosts you’ll ever meet. They love their pub and get a kick out of entertaining people in it.

This was truly evident on the first night the pub opened after lockdown in regional Victoria. On that evening, as we sat in the candlelit dining room our eyes rolling back with joy at being out of the house, Ken, dressed in a suit, came around to each table to personally thank everyone for coming back and supporting their pub.

I’m not going to lie, I got a bit teary.

If that’s not old school country hospitality at its finest, I don’t know what is.