Flying, sipping, shucking: Book these foodie experiences now
Flying, sipping, shucking: great culinary adventures are flowing from regional tourism rebound that’s driving domestic travel back to its heyday. Here’s our pick of some of the don’t-miss tours, tastings and long table feasts.
It has long been said that food is a national obsession in Australia, and who are we to disagree?
Across the nation restaurants, pubs, hospitality businesses, food festivals and tours are flourishing - and enticing culinary-minded visitors despite cost of living pressures and the lure of international travel.
It’s a trend piggybacking off a boom in domestic tourism which, according to Tourism forecasts for Australia prepared by Austrade’s Tourism Research Australia, has seen domestic travel spend return to, and then exceed, pre-pandemic levels.
December 2023 figures show we’re now spending $109.3 billion on domestic travel each year. From Darwin to Busselton, new ventures are opening to deliver the very best gourmet
experiences and to tap into our collective, well, hunger for dining, tasting, learning, cooking and understanding culinary excellence. Dip into this guide to experience a smorgasbord of tasty events, happenings, tastings, tours and plenty more so you too can have your fill of the nation’s great culinary experiences.
Note from the editor: These experiences have been independently selected and we do not receive a commission from the vendors. We have added links to menus and more information for your convenience.
Wide, Wild Tasmania tour with Roads & Kingdoms
Although this full-throttle food immersion tour of Tasmania doesn’t take place until March 2025, now is the time to secure one of the limited spots. Australian chef and farmer Palisa Anderson of Sydney’s Chat Thai restaurants will lead a small group of discerning food fanatics into the most delicious corners of the state, including several experiences that are entirely off-limits to the regular traveller. Highlights include private dinners from Tasmanian cooking luminaries such as chef Luke Burgess and cheesemaker Bruce Kemp, as well as farm tours, tastings and a rollicking fishing expedition around the tiny Satellite Island. You may get your hands dirty here and there shucking a fresh oyster or bending down to breathe in the aroma of the last of the summer tomatoes, but every day will end in the plush luxury of one of several boutique accommodations.
Hobart – Satellite Island – Beaupre Point – Hobart at
Tour: March 1- March 8, 2025
Cost: Contact for more information // Itinerary at roadsandkingdoms.com/trip/wide-wild-tasmania
Busselton Pavilion
The opening of the Busselton Margaret River Airport has had a transformative effect on this most scenic region of the West. Hospitality enterprises are springing up and the commencement in March of direct Jetstar flights from Sydney has added to the sense of renewal. Among the newcomers is Busselton Pavilion, a destination dining experience from WA hospitality stalwart John Parker (Royal Hotel, Dandelion, Willi’s Wine Bar) and chef Brendan Pratt (ex-Vasse Felix). What’s been created is this impressive pub, restaurant, providore, wine shop and (soon) a distillery in a glistening building that seats up to 500. Food-wise, seek out the pub for bistro dishes such as rotisserie chicken, marron sandwiches and WA squid with XO sauce. The emphasis is on WA produce; the all-WA beer and wine list is a highlight.
Busselton Central, 30 Kent St, Busselton WA 6280
Price range: from $12 – $58
Sun – Sat: Lunch and dinner available 11am – 2.30pm and 5pm – 9pm; afternoon menu available between 3pm – 5pm.
Menu // Book now at busseltonpavilion.com.au
Mindil Beach Sunset Market
On Thursday and Sunday evenings during the Dry Season from April to October, this market springs to life as the sun sets over the Timor Sea. A celebration of Darwin’s rich cultural diversity, Mindil houses 200-300 stalls with an emphasis on international eats, from laksa to souvlaki to chicken sate. It’s a delicious (and fun) northern rite of passage.
Mindil Beach, Darwin, Northern Territory
Thursdays and Sundays 4pm – 9pm
Beyond Distilling craft liquor tastings
If gin is your thing (or spirits in general, really), Beyond Distilling typifies the sort of new enterprise the tourist influx has created in Busselton and the WA southwest. This boutique distiller opened in late 2023, with some star power in former West Coast Eagles player Josh Kennedy, a co-owner, on deck. The spirits are created using sustainably grown botanicals from across WA and grains from the state’s midwest. The range includes three gins, a vodka and specialty small-batch spirits such as bourbon and absinthe, capitalising on the once ruinous tipple’s revival. It’s open every afternoon for tastings and tours.
6 Bradman Street, Busselton, Western Australia
Open daily 12pm – 5pm atbeyondspirits.com.au
Taste of the Barossa by NeverEnding Experiences
A long-table meal full of wine, good food and bonhomie is a culinary pleasure. It’s also the concept behind NeverEnding Experiences, the brainchild of founder Emily Mboya, who aims to bring together 50-60 guests for dinners at various dramatic locations around the country with celebrated chefs, winemakers, cheesemakers and others at the helm. There are six planned for the rest of 2024, starting with “Taste of the Barossa” in June, which combines Arkhé chef Jake Kellie and Kingsford The Barossa chef Joel Cugley for a four-course meal matched with Yalumba wines inside Kingsford’s atmospheric wine tunnel.
68 Kingsford Road, Kingsford, South Australia
Saturday, June 8
Cost: $289 Book now// Contact at neverendingexperiences.com.au
Rusty’s Markets
Cairns, known as the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef, often gets dismissed as little more than a backpacker basecamp. But there’s at least one very good reason every Australian should spend some time in this laid-back tropical city: the extraordinary Rusty’s Markets. Even if you’re not personally in need of a bitter melon, 16 types of chillies or a sackful of lipstick-pink Java apples, there’s something exhilarating about drinking in their vibrant colours and rich scents en masse. Don’t leave without snagging one or two samosas from Govinda’s Yummies.
57/89 Grafton St, Cairns City, Queensland
Friday – Saturday: 5am to 6pm; Sunday: 5am to 3pm: rustysmarkets.com.au
The Runholder
In a country dotted with spectacular vineyards and wineries, it’s not easy to stand out from the pack, but this North Island property is doing just that. Owned by American billionaire Bill Foley, who also has nearby Wharekauhau Lodge, The Runholder is part winery, part restaurant, part distillery. Newly reopened after a gloriously sleek renovation, guests will find a dining room with a view to the vines, plus the delicious food of Australian chef Tim Smith. Go for dishes like charcoal grilled octopus, gin and tomato consommé or wood-fired lamb ribs with harissa, farro tabouli and labneh). The cocktails are built around the Lighthouse Gin produced onsite, while benches are set up for tasting flights of Martinborough pinot noirs and chardonnays produced on the property. A day spent here is a very fine experience indeed.
89 Martins Road, Martinborough, New Zealand
Price range: new menu from May 1
Mon – Wed: 12pm – 4pm (Tasting Room only, Restaurant closed); Thurs: 12pm – 4pm; Fri – Sat: 12pm – 9pm; Sun: 12pm – 6pm (during winter, restaurant offers Sunday Roast set menu)Menu // Book now at therunholder.co.nz
Taste Port Douglas Food & Drink Festival
Australia has a seemingly limitless calendar of food festivals, which is perhaps an inevitable consequence of having such a rich variety of climates and ingredients. The Taste Port Douglas festival (August 8-11) focuses on the sweet-and-spice cuisine and outdoor lifestyle of the hot tropics. Standout events include the “Night of Fire at Flames of the Forest”, led by Nu Nu’s Nick Holloway and featuring Ben Williamson from Agnes and Louis Tikaram from Stanley in Brisbane, and Aaron Ward from Sydney’s Bathers’ Pavilion, cooking directly over fire. Other top chefs making an appearance include Melbourne’s Jerry Mai and Adelaide’s Laura and Max Sharrad, who will cook, present, collaborate and demonstrate alongside local culinary heroes.
Port Douglas, Tropical North Queensland
Heli-foraging experience, Darwin Distilling Co
There’s wildness and wonderment in equal measure on this new tour (from $2499) offered by Darwin Distilling Co. Guests board a helicopter in Darwin, and swoop over wetlands, flood plains and dramatic escarpments before landing at the remote Finniss River Lodge. There, experts help you gather native botanicals such as quinine, ti tree, paperbark and waterlily to provide the herbal notes of your own unique gin, which you’ll create back at the distillers’ home base. The experience culminates in lunch at Charlie’s of Darwin where you’ll try your own creation, before departing with a bottle of expert-blended gin as a souvenir.
56 Smith St, Darwin City
Cost: $2499
Ondeen
Kane Pollard is a busy man. As well as running his own restaurant, Topiary, in the Adelaide foothills, he designs bespoke private dining experiences with Place Dining, heads up the creative direction of South Australia’s premier food festival, Tasting Australia, and now leads the culinary program at Ondeen in the Adelaide Hills. Ondeen offers tasting flights of whisky, white spirits, liqueurs and non-alcoholic beverages from artisan distillers Full Circle Spirits alongside Pollard’s local-focused small plates, but there are big plans in the works to make it into a multifaceted visitor experience. “Ondeen” means “water nymph” or “waves” in various languages – a fitting link to the spring-fed dam on the property, which will eventually be used for on-site whisky distillation.
15 Onkaparinga Valley Road, Verdun, South Australia
Open 7 days, 10am-5pmBook now ondeen.com.au
Sunday Kitchen
It’s hard to say which is the more enjoyable part of a weekend cooking class at Sunday Kitchen in Sydney’s Rosebery – the food, or the company. The food is a strong contender: at a breakfast session you’re likely to make and eat lahm bi ajin, or Lebanese pastries filled with lamb and spices, and shanklish cheese; choose a fish class for samkeh harra, aka tahini fish, or a meat class for slow-cooked lamb. But the company is equally charming: mother and daughter duo Sivine Tabbouch and Karima Hazim laugh, lovingly squabble and share stories of food-filled Lebanese family life. You’ll go home with a ton of new recipes and techniques and the satisfaction of a day well spent.
Suite 312, Level 3, 30-40 Harcourt Parade, Rosebery, NSW Menus // Book nowsundaykitchen.com.au
