NSW wine hub Mudgee named Australia’s top tourism town
This buzzing hub in NSW’s central tablelands is punching above its weight in Australia’s tourism stakes.
How exciting that last week Mudgee in NSW’s central tablelands was named Australia’s “top tourism town” (population 5000+) in inaugural national awards run by the Australian Industry Tourism Council. In the supplementary category of “top small tourism town” (-5000), Berrima in the NSW southern highlands scooped the pool of finalists.
I’d like to think it was a pretty close call when you look at the calibre of the field. Mudgee pipped Queensland’s popular Noosa for silver and New Norfolk in Tasmania for bronze, while the “small” runners-up were delightful Port Fairy at the end of Victoria’s Great Ocean Road and Stanley, Tasmania.
I have written about Mudgee twice in T+L this year and enjoyed my winter’s stay there enormously. Friends and various family members were rather shocked when they discovered it was my first visit, despite relatives on my father’s side having history there and the town’s solid reputation for wine and food.
“How long has this been going on?” I wondered aloud to my husband, a chap who grew up in Melbourne and who leaves me to do the driving when we go “bush”, which could mean city-fringe destinations such as the Blue Mountains or Daylesford or even the gates to the national park 2km from our home. Like me, he’s been astounded by our NSW discoveries in the past 18 months, including the bounty of Orange, the mid-north NSW coast and the Hunter Valley. We have turned that term country bumpkin on its head. We’ve been the city bumpkins let loose and very happily so.
In all of this is the realisation that sometimes you don’t have to roam far to discover places of beauty and friendliness and, if nothing else, the horror of Covid has given us all a new appreciation of our tourism treasures. Here’s to you, Mudgee. I’ve booked to go by train next visit and to stay a few nights in a converted heritage railway carriage. I’m sure I’ll feel right at home.