Suite dreams at Drift House in Victoria’s Port Fairy

This hip-heritage Port Fairy hotel has two new accommodation options in an Edwardian villa.

Colleen Guiney and John Watkinson’s Victorian based Port Fairy hotel, Drift House.

Quiet Monday nights in the quaint Victorian coastal town of Port Fairy are the perfect excuse to stay in and order room service.

Thankfully, supper is now part of the offerings at Drift House, Colleen Guiney and John Watkinson’s acclaimed hip-heritage hotel. It’s one of several new enhancements to the town’s top address, including two more strikingly designed suites inside an Edwardian villa, and a luminous guest salon of recycled timber and salvaged sandstone with fire-warmed conversation pit, honesty bar and wonderful breakfasts (and coffee) prepared by Watkinson. There’s a heated plunge pool, too, and lovely landscaping.

But first, supper. Watkinson arrives with a large blond-wood box, like a giant bento, packed with premium regional produce and some of his own creations. The lemony hummus, melting Parmesan biscuits and pickled cherries are his, as is the thermos of hearty vegetable soup served with sourdough breadcrumbs he’s pan-fried with rosemary and Parmesan.

There are also Mount Zero olives, cheeses from Pyengana and Meredith dairies, dried Mildura muscatels and, from Ballarat’s Salt Kitchen, a slab of jambon persille and glossy slices of Mr Cannubi noix de jambon ham. To finish me off, a dauntingly large serve of their own Persian love cake, a rosewater-moistened slice of semolina and almond meal with a nutmeg hit upfront, then rose petals, pistachio, cardamom. Double cream on the side.

The communal salon at Port Fairy’s Drift House.

Nothing is done by halves at Drift House. When it opened in 2013, its four cutting-edge suites inside a colonial two-storey bluestone dwelling garnered various architecture and tourism awards for the boldness of their execution. In charming Port Fairy, a one-time whaling station and thriving fishing port better known today for its 50-plus National Trust-listed buildings, the audacity of the Drift House restoration put the town, almost four hours’ drive from Melbourne, on the radar of style-hunters nationwide.

The two new suites are equally eye-catching. Mine, No 5, has been reimagined with a touch of Escher. The front door has been fused with the decorative glass side and lintel panels so it feels as if the whole front of the house opens up, rather than just a door frame. Spanish houndstooth tiles rock the bathroom; the rainshower is tucked beneath the fretwork of the original hallway arch. The entire space brims with novel and appealing ideas, from the swivel-post flat-screen TV concealed behind sliding timber panels, to the pull-cord light controls beside the bed.

The elegant Suite Five at Drift House.

The Edwardian renovation and salon addition won Drift House best Australian hotel (jointly, with Brisbane’s The Calile), in last year’s Eat Drink Design Awards, and strengthen the argument for it being one of our most exhilarating country inns.

Port Fairy itself is a treat, its sober heritage streetscapes and towering Norfolk pines juxtaposed against wild coastal scenery. One of Victoria’s oldest settlements, it’s long been a popular holiday spot for the landed gentry of the Western Districts.

In the 21st century it’s also a blossoming cultural hotspot renowned for its annual folk festival, when tens of thousands of music lovers descend over the Labour Day weekend in March, and the newer Adventure Film Festival in November that attracts hundreds of international entries. “It’s about the simple pleasures,” Watkinson says of Port Fairy’s appeal.

A word about breakfast: don’t skip it. Served in the concrete-floored salon, most produce is sourced from small local producers, including organic Irrewarra breads and Schulz dairy products, pickles by Watkinson, freshly boiled eggs “from Gloria’s pampered free-range chooks” and rhubarb relish from Lana, who grew up on a dairy farm near Warrnambool. The coffee is from Cartel roasters in Geelong, made on the Drift House Marzocco machine. Typical of this charming bolthole, it’s an impressive showcase of southwest Victorian style.

Kendall Hill was a guest of Drift House.

-

CHECKLIST

Drift House

98 Gipps Street, Port Fairy, Victoria; [phone], drifthouse.com.au

Tariff From $425 a night, with breakfast.

Getting there Port Fairy is almost a four-hour drive from Melbourne on the inland highway, or 5 ½ hours via the Great Ocean Road.

Bedtime reading Historian Marten Syme’s Port Fairy: The Town That Kept Its Character chronicles everything you need to know about the town from 1835 to 2018.

Stepping out Port Fairy’s picturesque port, where pleasure and fishing boats crowd the Moyne River, is a sight to behold and just a short stroll from Drift House. Wander its length to the mouth of the river and Griffiths Island, home to black wallabies, echidnas, myriad mutton-birds and the circa 1859 lighthouse striped like a boiled lolly.

Brickbats Suites have virtually the same amenities but each is boldly individual — such as No 4’s projector screen for cinema-style entertainment, and No 3’s outdoor fireplace — so some degree of suite envy is unavoidable.

Bouquets The strikingly clever interior design sometimes borders on the eccentric but everything works beautifully, unlike many hotels I’ve stayed in that look the goods but fail to deliver seamless comfort.

Also try Circa 1936, Corowa, NSW; Red Feather Inn, Hadspen, Tasmania.

Drift House offers breakfast featuring an array regional produce.