Road-trip revivers for the summer holidays
As Australians hit the highway in record numbers, here’s a selection of perfect pit stops along well-travelled routes.
Australians are expected to take to the roads in record numbers over the summer holidays as they conscientiously holiday here. Take a break from the bitumen at these refreshment stops along the way.
Melshell Oyster Shack, Nine Mile Beach, Tasmania
There’s no pretence in the down-home name of this oyster joint and its address, on Dolphin Sands Road, has an equally evocative ring. If you’re headed up the east coast from Hobart or across from Launceston to the Freycinet Peninsula, the shack, which is actually a van, is almost at your destination, but a lunch stop here is the most pleasant of entrees to one of the state’s prettiest realms. Grab a tray of (at least) a dozen and settle at a picnic table overlooking the water. Three generations of ‘oyster folk’ have presided here since 1984; juvenile stock is moved after spawning from the Swan River into Great Oyster Bay to fatten, “creating a creamy, saltier flavour”. The process takes about two years and “eight handlings”. The shack reopens in January and hopes to also offer Pacific oysters with an orange shell, dubbed Melshell Golds.
Drive: Between Hobart or Launceston and Coles Bay.
Stay: Saffire Freycinet lodge; saffire-freycinet.com.au
SUSAN KUROSAWA
Mocha & Lime Cafe, Healesville, Victoria
With Yarra Valley wineries behind and the mountain ash forests of Victoria’s Central Highlands ahead, Healesville pops up at just the right time. The vegan and gluten-aware Mocha & Lime Cafe is in an old warehouse down a side street, and while COVID has temporarily mothballed the communal tables, couches and second-hand book sales, the all-day breakfast-lunch fare is the drawcard, with ingredients sourced mostly from local producers. A spring stack of zucchini, peas and chickpeas is augmented by pork sausage infused with Healesville’s Four Pillars gin, the piquant smoked trout pate comes from over the Black Spur at Buxton, and relishes are made in-house. Wines are Yarra Valley selections, the beer’s from down the highway at Coldstream and coffee is by Five Senses, a speciality Melbourne roaster.
Drive: Between Melbourne and Marysville.
Stay: Chum Creek Huts; chumcreek.net.au
JEREMY BOURKE
Over the Edge, Melrose, SA
In the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park over winter, the flies are asleep and temperatures cooler, which makes the blazing log fire in this little cafe a welcome beacon. There are comfy sofas, delicious cakes and croissants stuffed with local ham. The coffee is excellent and the last decent cup for goodness knows how many thousands of kilometres. Tucked away in a historic stone building on the main street of tiny Melrose, beneath Mount Remarkable in the Southern Flinders, Over the Edge serves as the hub of a popular mountain bike rental outfit. Most days it’s crammed with outdoorsy sorts who’ve earned their chocolate brownie points following an early morning uphill assault. But long drives engender their own form of exhaustion, making this pit-stop heaven sent.
Drive: Between Adelaide and the Flinders Ranges and Arkaraoola.
Stay: Rawnsley Park Station; rawnsleypark.com.au
CHRISTINE McCABE
Old Produce Store Binalong, Yass Valley, NSW
Ten minutes off the Hume Highway, an hour north of Canberra, tiny Binalong’s bygone era lives on in its Victorian and Federation architecture. Today’s reviving attractions include a pub with counter lunches and The Old Produce Store Binalong, opened by Cathy Kerslake in 2019 to showcase regional growers and makers. She sells unique arts and crafts, dozens of chutneys and sauces and other local goodies, and has produced a 45-minute walking map to make leg-stretching more interesting. The village’s colonial history is writ large in an impressive mural on the side of Kerslake’s store, depicting the shooting of bushranger Johnny Gilbert. The Two Little Pigs coffee cart in the park next to the store opens when the duties of its operators (the local police) permit.
Drive: Between Sydney and Beechworth.
Stay: The Graces in Beechworth; thegracesbeechworth.com.au
theoldproducestorebinalong.com.au
JANE NICHOLLS
Harcourt Produce and General Store, Harcourt, Vic
Danish-born Annette Larsen Rae opened her store in September, 2019. From this character-filled old milk bar on the town’s main strip she serves a cornucopia of produce, much of which she grows or makes on her farm. Besides pickles and preserves (“they’re in my heritage”), she makes wine, beer and olive oil. Extensive kitchen gardens on site and at her home supply everything from greens to pomegranates. What she doesn’t grow (saffron, free-range meats) she sources from a 50km radius, mostly within the Harcourt Valley. All are sold as either raw produce, prepared takeaway foods (including pies) or meals at the wine bar and bistro. Larsen Rae says, “I want to get more people aware of our produce … Harcourt is a little hidden gem.”
Drive: Between Melbourne and Bendigo.
Stay: Empyre Hotel in Castlemaine; empyre.com.au
KENDALL HILL
Le Sorelle the Sisters, Bowen, Queensland
The 10m-tall Big Mango rising above the Bruce Highway heralds the Bowen Visitor Information Centre, where there’s a park, sculptures and views out to the Whitsundays. Pick up a mango sorbet, but save your appetite for Le Sorelle The Sisters, a few minutes away in Bowen. In 2013, three siblings – Alexandra, Bianca and Viginnia – realised their dream of opening a chic coffee house in their little town. The whopping all-day menu includes burgers, acai breakfast bowls and a range of smoothies and fresh juices worthy of the locale. There’s shaded garden seating (where cheeky blue-faced honeyeaters are as adept as any city gull at swiping chips), a bespoke app enables swift takeaway pickup, and there’s a growing range of The Sisters products, including teas, soaps, scrubs, jewellery and gifts.
Drive: Between Townsville and Mackay.
Stay: Cape Hillsborough Nature Tourist Park, 48km north of Mackay; capehillsboroughresort.com.au
JANE NICHOLLS
Kynefin Cafe, Hall, ACT
Kynefin (or cynefin) is Welsh for “where you feel at home”. Order one of Kynefin Cafe’s rainbow of baked goods, such as a cream-stuffed bombolini donut, or a cheesy slab of Welsh rarebit topped with a fried egg, and it’s entirely feasible you’ll want to do as the name says, unload the car and move in. This charming coffee shop is one of many attractions that makes a stop worthwhile in tiny Hall, even though Canberra proper is just around the corner. There are picnic tables under shady oak trees, flower boxes overflowing with poppies and petunias and a boutique bottle shop named Hops and Vines to pick up something delicious. You’ll be sorry to keep motoring, but consider a souvenir ceramic from local artists Whistle and Page (sold at Kynefin Cafe) to keep alive that sweet sense of Welsh homeliness.
Drive: Between Canberra and Melbourne.
Stay: Vineyard cottages at Tallagandra Hill Winery; tallagandrahill.com.au
ALEXANDRA CARLTON
Sutton’s Juice Factory, Cidery and Cafe, Stanthorpe, QLD
The Granite Belt, nestled on the NSW-Queensland border, is a perfect place to potter with its spectacular Girraween National Park and almost 50 cellar doors offering delectable cool-climate wines. The region’s grape-growing and orchard heritage goes back to the early 20th century when land was farmed by World War I soldier settlers and Italian migrants. Their early core product, so to speak, was the apple, and Sutton’s Juice Factory, Cidery and Cafe, just north of Stanthorpe and opposite the Big Apple, is as sweet as it gets. Proprietors Ros and David Sutton’s farm shed is a wonderland of juices, cider, jams and delicacies. The unmissable treat is the homemade pie made from about 25 apples; all yours in about three hours from Brisbane on the New England Highway.
Drive: Inland route between Brisbane and Sydney.
Stay: Ridgemill Estate’s Cabins in the Vineyard; ridgemillestate.com
GRAHAM ERBACHER
Cafe Patisserie, Armidale, NSW
Road-trippers on the New England Highway who need a Parisian-style sugar fix should turn off the main drag through this university town. Located in a quiet suburban street, little Cafe Patisserie turns out an astonishing array of cakes and pastries. Glossy chocolate eclairs, miniature towers of strawberry mousse and many more delicate creations sparkle like jewels in the display cabinet. On weekends, diners-in-the-know flock here for sweet crepes and savoury galettes, while during the week they might order a slice of terrine or a chicken casserole pie. Armidale-born chef Nathan Walker (Aria and Fish Face in Sydney; Old Parliament House, Canberra) and his French wife Enora relocated to the city in 2017; the fans waiting for a table on Sunday mornings would attest to the wisdom of this move. Coffee? Naturellement. From Sydney roasters Numero Uno.
Drive: Inland route between Sydney and Brisbane.
Stay: Tattersalls Hotel, Armidale; tattsersallsarmidale.com.au
PENNY HUNTER
Ceduna Oyster Bar, Ceduna, SA
At first glance it’s not the most glamorous of spots for an alfresco lunch. Ceduna Oyster Bar is a nondescript steel shed opposite the BP servo on the Eyre Highway on the northern edge of town where road trains fill up before (and after) hitting the Nullarbor. But this pit stop is worth the drive because Ceduna is at the top of the Eyre Peninsula and these are among Australia’s best oysters. Order a dozen freshly shucked, sushi or fish and chips, or even a curry or dumplings for those who don’t like seafood, grab a piccolo of wine or a can of cold beer and head up to the rooftop or back veranda. Flash it’s not, but who cares when you’re dining on the Eyre Peninsula’s finest.
Drive: Between Adelaide and Perth.
Stay: Ceduna Foreshore Hotel; cedunahotel.com.au
LEE ATKINSON
Hillbilly Cider, Bilpin, NSW
Pulling into the carpark of Hillbilly Cider, we’ve escaped the hectic summer traffic of Sydney and entered the slow lane as we step out into Bilpin’s cool mountain air. It’s our much-favoured pit stop on the winding Bells Line of Road out of Sydney, a route once traipsed by fortune-seekers heading to goldfields, but now a bucolic weekend drive through the canyons and cliffs of the Blue Mountains. Hillbilly’s rough-looking warehouse appears like a ramshackle barn. Step inside and it’s a funky rustic cider house, with plenty of sheet iron, exposed timber and high beams. We take the dog and enjoy a lazy lunch of wood-fired pizza and acclaimed local cider (try the Scrumpy), lingering by the open fire or kicking back at one of the tables scattered around the back paddock next to an orchard.
Drive: Between Sydney and Bathurst.
Stay: Spicers Sangoma Retreat, Bowen Mountain; spicersretreats.com
DAMIAN HAARSMA
Shelter Brewery Co, Busselton, WA
Here’s a new perch to sip, snack and relax amid the pines on the Busselton foreshore. With open-plan design and lofty windows, Shelter Brewery Co has a similar aesthetic to another waterside brewery, Little Creatures in Fremantle. On parade are giant stainless-steel vats brewing delicious drafts. Metres away, visitors sip from-the-source sampling paddles of beer. There’s also a selection of wine, spirits and coffee on offer, all from WA. Pizza made in a Marana Forni oven is a menu highlight as are reminders of Aussie childhood seaside escapes including chip butties and choc-top ice-creams. The best seats are outdoors looking across Geographe Bay with a vista to the longest timber pylon jetty in the southern hemisphere. Ponder, perhaps, if the driving timetable allows for the 1.8km walk to the jetty’s end. Book ahead for a table.
Drive: between Perth and Margaret River.
Stay: Cape Lodge, Yallingup; capelodge.com.au
ANDREA BLACK
