The best travel, food and festive fun for the holiday season
Festivals, exhibitions, live shows and hotels and restaurants. Here are this summer’s hottest cultural offerings.
Maybe you haven’t been out much in recent years. We get it. The past few holiday seasons have been tough. But we’re not here to talk about the calamities of recent times. Rather, the collective sense of how ready we all are. Deeply, truly ready for a glorious festive break. Now’s the moment for travelling, dining, theatre and trotting off to see some marvellous cinema on the big screen.
We’re ready to book concerts, visit galleries (you can’t have missed the buzz about the new Sydney Modern) and in case you hadn’t heard, music festivals are back, whether it’s Elvis impersonators or the rapper Lil Nas strutting into town.
Some of the places in this list were born during the pandemic, others emerged – chrysalis-like – after lockdowns finally ended. And now here’s the best of what you may have missed, and a guide to everything good that’s coming just in time for summer.
VICTORIA
Aru, Melbourne
Chef Khanh Nguyen is a cross-cultural phenomenon. Raised in a Vietnamese household in Sydney’s Marrickville, he has found success blending elements of his culinary heritage with native Australian ingredients in a Melbourne CBD space that’s decidedly mod-Oz in look and feel.
Pick through a menu of deliciousness that may see warmed oyster offered with perilla, soy, finger lime, chives and paperbark, or mushroom with tofu curd, finger lime and Chinese fried doughnuts. It’s inventive, exciting dining across dishes with big flavours, bold touches and subtle moments.
Gimlet, Melbourne
Gimlet feels like the pandemic baby we’ve all been meaning to visit but haven’t been able to. Well, if time hasn’t been on your side to make it to this glorious restaurant since it launched in late 2020, correct that error as quickly as possible.
Named after the sexy gin and lime cordial cocktail (here given added oomph via moscato and Geraldton wax) the restaurant lights up the Chicago-inspired Cavendish House on Russell St. It’s glamorous, fun, bustling, serious – everything a great Melbourne restaurant should be. And chef-restaurateur Andrew McConnell’s produce-forward menu, with dishes like duck salad with foie gras parfait and blackberries and John Dory with scallop, zucchini flower and sauce fumée, is perfectly pitched and executed.
Victor Churchill, Melbourne
Anthony Puharich has never played safe or to the rules. When he created his extraordinary meat emporium – more like an art gallery than a butcher shop – in Sydney’s Woollahra in 2009, people were amazed by its lavishness.
Now Puharich has taken the concept one step further with a Melbourne outlet. Go for a “multi-sensory experience” that involves looking at cuts of meat illuminated under mood lights and sitting at a glorious marble countertop to feast on oysters, house-made charcuterie, Victor Churchill steaks and rotisserie chickens. Has a food store ever been more glamorous than this?
Di Stasio Carlton, Melbourne
Rinaldo Di Stasio and Mallory Wall describe Di Stasio Carlton as a “lockdown obsession”, a project that sustained them through the long, dark months of Melbourne’s bleakest period. The result is the third venue for the restaurateur couple: a restaurant of surprising lightness and verve, with an attention to detail that comes with people at the top of their game pouring unbridled passion into a project.
Essentially, Di Stasio Carlton is a pizza restaurant, but to describe it thus is to undersell the concept, for the venue is truly a realisation of Italian spirit. Go for simple but simply perfect pizza – nine different pizzas are baked daily – and 13 mains ranging from brasato di cinghiale (wild boar braised with white wine, chestnuts and radicchio) to anitra arresta con gnocchetti di farina (roast duckling with spatzli). The faintly retro room is perfection.
Serai, Melbourne
Modern Filipino food in a Melbourne laneway location that adds natural wines and a sexy cocktail list to the mix? Sure, why not? If Serai sounds a bit improbable, rest assured few places have fired the imagination of Melbourne diners over recent years quite like this one.
Chef Ross Magnaye (ex-Rice Paper Sister) has found a willing audience for dishes such as Skull Island prawns with spiced buro butter and pandesal, Gippsland lamb ribs, sticky adobo sauce, Lechon western plains free-range pork belly and smoky pineapple palapa. It’s satisfying, memorable eating.
Next Hotel, Melbourne
Melbourne does a good line in grand. But equally it luxuriates in small, boutique and sleek, which is where Next Hotel has found its niche. This property, neatly compressed into a sleek high-rise on Little Collins St, opened under the radar in 2022. Don’t let its low-profile entry into Melbourne deter you, for there is much to love here in rooms that have a big-city feel edged with luxury.
Find rainwater showers, Dyson hairdryers, Hunter Lab toiletries, a mini bar stocked with house-made, barrel-aged negronis and a Level 2 reception space that looks like it’s plucked from an episode of Million Dollar Listing: New York. Next Hotel is the perfect place for a sneaky city escape.
McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse
National Gallery of Victoria until April 16
Haute couture hooligan Lee Alexander McQueen upended the fashion scene in the 1990s with spellbinding creations that were often polarising but never, ever dull. The late British designer left few controversies untouched, from an early collection dedicated to Jack the Ripper to mental health and ecological collapse.
The NGV’s blockbuster exhibition includes works from more than 25 of his 36 collections, pairing his gorgeously theatrical designs with artworks and objects that provided inspirational touchpoints.
Mornington Peninsula
You know you’re in fashion when the InterContinental Hotel group saunters into town, and that’s what’s happened on this beautiful peninsula, with the InterCon Sorrento opening this year. The property has moved into the grand, 1875-built Hotel Continental, bringing with it 108 luxury rooms and Melbourne chef Scott Pickett, who has introduced a range of “dining experiences” to the hotel including Audrey’s and The Atrium. But it’s not just the InterCon; the Alba Thermal Springs and Spa and Cassis Red Hill – a group of luxe villas – have also opened in these parts. Seems like the perfect time to explore this lush region on Melbourne’s doorstep.
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NEW SOUTH WALES
Gildas, Surry Hills, Sydney
The Gilda, the Grillda and the Matilda hit the table one after the other like jewels presented to a maharaja. A series of petite skewers, one featuring olives and anchovies, another swordfish, cherry tomatoes and tiny rings of pickled onion, the third slices of rare kangaroo, each is a morsel of umami perfection.
Everybody already loves Lennox Hastie’s Firedoor, but this, his exquisite Basque bar just up the road, is equally dazzling. From the brass top tables to the cut-glass plates to the gorgeous cocktails, Gildas is next on every level.
Viand, Sydney
Annita Potter learnt her craft at the apron strings of Australia’s greatest Thai chef, David Thompson, and has returned home to Australia to open her first restaurant in Sydney’s Woolloomooloo. And what craft she brings.
Find spirit and ingenuity in dishes like a salad of crispy river prawns with green mango, mint and dried chillies or a clear soup of monkfish dumplings with green onions and young ginger. Her cooking offers unusual takes on clean Thai flavours. What a joy to find someone bringing something new to Thai food in a city awash with pad Thai gone bad.
Icebergs Dining Room + Bar Bondi, Sydney
Oh phew, the beautiful people have their spiritual home back. Closed throughout 2022 for renovations, the doors were due to open again this week, 20 years to the day after this restaurant-to-the-stars first launched, to reveal restaurant maestro Maurice Terzini’s reinterpretation of this seminal Bondi space. And if you can’t make it here any time soon, there’s always the newly released Icebergs Dining Room and Bar 2002-2022 (Simon & Schuster, $100), a coffee table masterpiece of design and photography.
Pipit, Pottsville
Born and raised in Byron Bay, chef Ben Devlin made his name close to home at Cabarita’s Paper Daisy restaurant. This year he set out on his own with a plan to turn a small space in tiny Pottsville into a nationally significant restaurant with a focus on local and native ingredients. However improbable the ambition, the reality has eclipsed it, with Devlin mastering a menu that plunders the rich Northern Rivers food basket for ingredients such as Brunswick River oysters freshened with salted yuzu, and local squid, smoked and draped with celtuce, sake and coastal parsley.
Ace Hotel, Sydney
If you can figure out how to use the record player in your room, you’re doing better than us. Let’s face it, it’s been a while since we used one of these things. “Oh, we do this all the time,” says the guy from reception, cheerfully connecting the cords and putting the needle on the LP. What’s playing is some kind of ’70s jazz and we slip into the vibe over a couple of Affinity gins from the mini-bar that are a step up from the Beefeaters of yore.
Ace’s Surry Hills/CBD fringe property is the hot American brand’s first hit out in Australia and it rffs on the ’60s and ’70s: think orange carpets, mohair blankets, terracotta-tiled bathrooms and acoustic guitars. The theme is good times, and we’re happy to let them (rock and) roll.
Kimpton Margot, Sydney
Heritage hotels are having a moment in Sydney. From the ludicrously grand (the Intercontinental Hotel Sydney, in the 1851 Treasury building on Macquarie St) to the deeply boutique (The Strand Hotel, with its 17 Parisian-themed rooms), it’s suddenly very easy to sample old Sydney made new again. The Kimpton Margot is a case in point.
This former Sydney Water Board head office, built in 1939, remains one of the city’s finest examples of Art Deco architecture. Step inside to find a grand lobby of pink marble colonnades, a gilt-edged bar and Luke’s Kitchen, a sparkling restaurant by chef Luke Mangan. It all feels rather Great Gatsby – a vibe we’re definitely here for.
Sydney Modern
It’s here! Ten years and $344 million later, the new wing of the Art Gallery of NSW has opened, almost doubling its exhibition space. Filled with big-ticket artworks, and with a heightened focus on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, the new harbourside building is arrayed as a cascade of linked pavilions.
Designed by Japanese firm SANAA, it’s a work of art in itself. NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has called it “the most significant cultural build since the Opera House”. Was he overreaching in crowning it the best art gallery in the world? Your call.
Parkes Elvis Festival
January 4-8
Is Elvis ever not having a moment? This year has gifted us Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis starring Austin Butler as our hip-swivelling hero and Rose Byrne channelling The King in the comedy Seriously Red. Sofia Coppola has a Presley-adjacent project in production with Priscilla, starring Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi as Elvis. Meanwhile, more than 25,000 diehards are expected to head to the annual Parkes Elvis Festival, celebrating 30 years with a Blue Hawaii theme, skydiving Elvis, and some of the world’s best Elvis tribute artists.
Sydney Festival
Various venues, January 5 – 29
What looks like a leisurely day at the beach evolves into a commentary on environmental ennui in the Lithuanian opera installation Sun & Sea. This English-language work became the toast of the Venice Biennale in 2019 and will be performed at Sydney Town Hall (Jan 6-8), with the audience viewing the beachscape from a balcony above.
This year’s festival features hundreds of events across 54 venues, including a Frida Kahlo exhibition, a work by Wiradjuri choreographer Daniel Riley called Tracker, and Justine Clarke in the one-woman play Girls & Boys.
Amadeus
Sydney Opera House, December 27 – January 21
“Like a rabid raccoon in satin breeches,” was how Variety described Michael Sheen’s portrayal of Amadeus Mozart in Peter Shaffer’s masterpiece about a classical music rivalry. That 1999 role made him a star. Now the Welsh actor (The Queen, Frost/Nixon) is back in the rival role as the bitter and vengeful Antonio Salieri, with Sydneysider Rahel Romahn playing Mozart. Kicking off the SOH’s year-long 50th anniversary celebrations, this ambitious production features sumptuous costuming by Australian designers Romance Was Born.
Byron Bay
The baes may have given Byron a bad name lately but that hasn’t stopped this picturesque coastal town from undergoing a tourism-inspired boom in the past two years. The restaurant scene is leaping forward – try the freshly reopened Light Years, Raes on Wategos, firing on all cylinders under chef Jason Saxby, Bar Heather, Pixie Food & Wine, Maurice Terzini’s Belongil Beach Italian Food and even The Farm, the cafe juggernaut owned and run by the team behind the Three Blue Ducks. There’ll be no stopping the Bae now.
Paddington
It’s remarkable what the arrival of a few top chefs can do to a neighbourhood. A few years ago, this pretty heritage area was awash with For Lease signs. Then Josh Niland opened Saint Peter on Oxford St, and Merivale CEO Justin Hemmes bought a disused pub a few doors up and turned it into The Paddington under the steerage of chef Ben Greeno. He followed that by activating an old shop front once owned by his father, which became Fred’s restaurant. These days, a full-blown Paddington revival is underway, with hotels, restaurants, shops and cafes springing open. Saint Peter is moving in 2023 to larger premises nearby inside the heritage-listed Grand National Hotel, now under renovation. Another heritage pub, the Rose, Shamrock and Thistle, will reopen as a cocktail bar, El Primo Sanchez, operated by the team behind Maybe Sammy, widely considered Australia’s best bar. Add to that new restaurants including Phil Wood’s Ursula’s Paddington, Civico 47, and Paski Vineria Popol are nearby, and you have a neighbourhood on the rise.
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QUEENSLAND
Essa Fortitude Valley, Brisbane
For a small restaurant, Essa has made a big splash. Chef Phil Marchant’s tiny but dedicated team take an obsessive approach to dishes that are so thoughtfully constructed they are like works of art. Like a dish of slow-cooked lamb rump that’s finished over fire and offered with white onion cooked in kelp stock then charred until bittersweet, plus with a sauce of stout and mustard, and served with salt baked kohlrabi with a kale and pepita pesto. No wonder the awards are rolling in.
Exhibition, Brisbane
Exhibition is a restaurant that does everything against the book. Just when you thought degustation dining was over, Exhibition revived it. When you believed chefs had moved back to the kitchen from the dining room, it brought them out again. When you figured fussy dining had died and been replaced by smart casual, Exhibition’s chefs picked up the tweezers. And guess what? Under the steerage of chef/host Tim Scott, it works. It’s hot, smart and clever, and the food – think king prawns with yuzu and sugar snap peas or roasted duck crown with beetroot and juniper – is delicious.
The Langham Gold Coast, Queensland
Spanning three individual buildings, with 339 rooms, seven restaurants and absolute beachfront access, the huge new Langham Gold Coast is a leap forward in accommodation in Surfers Paradise. Indeed, it’s the first high-rise opened on this stretch of the coast in 30 years; a night at the Pink Poodle Motel this ain’t. Rather, the Langham offers big-city slick on Queensland’s coastal playground. The big-sky views out over the Pacific, and the beachfront pool that’s so close to the ocean you can hear the waves crashing, are the big winners here.
Intercontinental Hayman Island beachfront pavilions, Hayman Island
It’s hard to comprehend the dazzling beauty of the Whitsundays until you get there. Islands look like floating leaves scattered atop a sparkling aquamarine sea so splendid you occasionally have to blink to take it in. Hayman Island is the jewel in the crown and a 2019 renovation brought back the lustre after the devastation wrought by 2017’s Cyclone Debbie. The resort is now a high-end getaway with 168 rooms; the 12 beachside pavilions opened in September add another dimension to the property, particularly for couples.
haymanisland.intercontinental.com
Lizard Island
Keen to experience Far North Queensland in the lap of luxury? If money really is no object, Lizard Island Resort ticks all the boxes. After a one-hour flight (in a 12-seater propeller plane) from Cairns you’ll touch down on this gorgeous mountainous island in the heart of the Great Barrier Reef. Accommodation ranges from Beachfront Suites (from $3349pn) to ultra-luxe The House (from $16,000pn); dining options range from fancy (Salt Water) to cheapish and cheerful (Marlin Bar). Activities? There’s brilliant diving and snorkelling on the surrounding reefs; gamefishing charters on the resort’s 17m yacht; a hike to the top of the island’s 359m mountain where Cook stood in 1770; and spa treatments. The resort will also drop you off with a picnic at one of the island’s 24 beaches, then pick you up again. Top tip for cheapskates: the island is a National Park, and there’s camping in the next bay around.
Noosa Junction
A funny thing has happened lately to this chic little coastal town with arguably Queensland’s prettiest beaches. It seems the fancy main drag, Hastings St – long the main stay of wealthy visitors who love its beachside resorts, chain boutiques and expensive restaurants – has been eclipsed by its downbeat little sister, Noosa Junction. The Junction has traditionally been merely a service centre for the main show, but the pandemic changed all that. Along Sunshine Beach Road an emerging food scene offers everything from pan-Asian eats (Light Years) to high-quality pizza (Some Days), crepes (Flo’s), booze (Theo’s Social Club), coffee (Larder & Baked) and plenty more.
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SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Restaurant Botanic, Adelaide
Located in Adelaide’s glorious Botanic Gardens, chef Justin James’ plant-forward menu unfolds over a journey of four hours and 20 courses. Dishes – morsels, perhaps – are intriguingly presented on the menu and on the plate.
We won’t spoil the surprise of what’s involved in items like “garden flower and ants” or “kangaroo, camel hump lardo, Geraldton wax” or “shiitake fudge”. Suffice to say, there’s inventiveness, playfulness, flavour and wonder on a list that’s all about taste, texture and making the most of the natural world, including our own native ingredients.
Arkhé, Adelaide
Jake Kellie tends his wood-fired oven like it’s a newborn baby. Requiring almost 24-hour attention, this 2.5 tonne monster comprises two sides – a “hot” side that rages to about 900C, and a “cold” side that stays constantly warmed with an ambient heat around 150C – each working in unison to create the perfect environment for grilling, roasting and smoking meat (and more delicate ingredients, too: South Australian seafood and lush local veg).
Kellie learnt his trade under Dave Pynt at Singapore’s Burnt Ends, and brings that expertise to this Norwood hot spot that’s wowing everyone with its Mayura Station wagyu and Venus Rock flathead cooked exclusively over flame. Wood-fired and chargrilled restaurants are nothing new, but Kellie’s dedication, well-executed menu and the loveliness of this heritage sandstone building brings something fresh and exciting to Adelaide.
Sofitel Adelaide
Opened November 2021, Sofitel Adelaide brings a generous splash of five-star Gallic flair to the South Australian capital’s city centre. Its modern “reimagined” French restaurant Garçon Bleu, under head chef Gianni Delogu, blends traditional flavours with local produce and pairs it with an impressive wine list and wide skyline views, while the street-level Champagne bar Déjà Vu draws in the show crowds. The artworks and interior design imbue the 24-level, 251-room hotel with a joie de vivre – right down to the pool adorned with four bespoke chandeliers.
Wander Kangaroo Island
Kangaroo Island was devastated in the 2019-20 bushfires but things are slowly returning to full-strength on this island off the South Australian coast. A new venture to open here is Wander, a tourism business that has built four “eco-pods” near Snelling Beach. The pods are all “off-grid, featuring solar and water harvesting and storage, a high-tech water-saving toilet, and greywater recycling … with a zero-waste system by restricting the use of single-use packaging, recycling and composting”. It’s a different way to stay and play, placing the traveller in the natural world with a zero-footprint philosophy.
wander.com.au
Pago Middleton
Pago Middleton is a luxury retreat located on the Fleurieu Peninsula, about a one-hour drive south from Adelaide. Residing in the gardens of the historic Middleton Mill, guests will stay in the building’s original stables that have been transformed into four beautifully restored rooms. With the option of booking just one room or reserving the entire retreat for a more secluded getaway, Pago Middleton is the optimum location for a relaxing holiday.
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TASMANIA
The Tasman, Hobart
Opened last Christmas, The Tasman has been dubbed the “choose your own adventure” hotel. Spanning three buildings constructed in a variety of eras and knitted together to form one property, the hotel (part of the Marriott Luxury Collection) offers different stays depending on which part of the hotel you land in.
The 19th-century former St Mary’s hospital wing has a deep sense of heritage, another part of the hotel offers Art Deco grandeur, and a third is inside a contemporary structure. Wherever you end up across the 152 rooms, you’ll be right in the midst of this historic southern city. The central location on Murray St is perfect, especially on Saturdays when the Salamanca Markets come to life just out front. Chef Massimo Mele’s new onsite restaurant Peppina is a bonus.
Kittawa Lodge, King Island
Sea-changers Aaron Suine and Nick Stead were looking for an opportunity to get off the grid and create an eco-tourism resort of note when the perfect place came up – on King Island in Bass Strait, off Tasmania’s north coast. Remoteness defines this extraordinary property nestled into a rugged part of the windswept coastline. There are two beautifully appointed lodges, and the emphasis here is on unplugging, decompressing and spending time breathing in the pristine air. Eat only King Island produce while living for a few days like, well, a king.
Mona Foma, Launceston
February 17-19; Hobart February 24-26
Everything ’90s is new again so make way for Bikini Kill, the original riot grrrls out of Olympia, Washington. They’re headlining Mona’s always-intriguing summer festival over two weekends in Launceston and Hobart, with a stand-alone Bon Iver show in Hobart on Feb 21. Also on the Mona Sessions bill: reformed indie rock band Pavement and pop provocateur Peaches.
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WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Kalbarri Skywalk, Kalbarri National Park
This extraordinary attraction opened in 2020 but with WA’s strict border closures over the past two years, there’s a reason so few of us have discovered it. Located about two hours’ north of Geraldton, the Skywalk’s pair of cantilevered viewing platforms hang 100m over the Murchison River Gorge, offering astounding views over a landscape traditionally owned by the Nanda Aboriginal people.
Perth Festival
February 10 – March 5
The city’s biggest art event celebrates its 70th anniversary with a coup: Icelandic art-pop musician Björk’s Cornucopia, a genre-defying live show combining live theatre, immersive media and musical ensemble. The show promises a feast for the senses, reimagining her 2017 album Utopia and a number of back-catalogue hits as a plea for the environment. The avant-garde icon has taken Cornucopia to only a select number of cities around the world and Perth will exclusively host her four Australian shows on March 3, 6, 9 and 12. Virginia Gay will stage her hit play Cyrano, Sydney Theatre Company brings Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and the West Australian Opera will perform Carmen.
Busselton
Remember the great family holidays of your youth? You can recreate them at Busselton, two and a half hours’ drive south of Perth. Development money has poured into this charming town in recent years, revamping the foreshore, especially the area around Busso’s famous 1.84km jetty (fun fact: it’s the longest timber-piled jetty in the Southern Hemisphere). Cycle along kilometres of foreshore paths, taking in views over the calm waters of Geographe Bay, then settle in for lunch at one of the town’s breweries or lovely restaurants. A 25-minute drive takes you to the stunning beaches around Dunsborough (insider’s tip: Meelup Beach is a beauty) and a little further on is Yallingup, which has famous surf and beautiful caves to explore. The wineries and restaurants of Margaret River are only 40 minutes’ drive away.
Moonlight Cinema
Capital cities until March 26
Now in its 27th year, the ever-popular, BYO-friendly cinema-under-the-stars will show advance screenings and summer blockbusters, including murder mystery Where the Crawdads Sing, Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans, and haute cuisine horror The Menu. Christmassy cult classics include Die Hard and that old chestnut, Love Actually.
Harry Styles
Capital cities, February 20 to March 3
He starred in two of the year’s most talked-about films (Don’t Worry Darling and My Policeman) and the year’s single most talked-about romance (with Olivia Wilde) but here’s Harry Styles back to his day job. The former One Directioner brings his Love on Tour show to Australia this summer, kicking off at Perth’s HBF Park on Feb 20, before heading to Marvel Stadium in Melbourne on Feb 24, Gold Coast’s Metricon Stadium on Feb 28 and Accor Stadium in Sydney on March 3.
Lil Nas X
Falls Festival, Melbourne, Byron Bay and Fremantle, December 29 – January 8
The Atlanta rapper came to fame via TikTok, after his country-rap hit Old Town Road went viral on the app before landing at No. 1 on the music charts in 2019. He’s been challenging stereotypes and courting controversy ever since: a sure-fire route to the top. The Grammy Award winner (real name: Montero Lamar Hill) tours Australia for the first time this summer, appearing on a packed Falls Festival bill along with Arctic Monkeys and Chvrches. He’ll also play a one-off sideshow at Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion on Jan 4.
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NORTHERN TERRITORY
Ayers Rock Resort and the Gallery of Central Australia, Uluru
The visceral hum of the didgeridoo strikes the ear the moment you step off the plane at Uluru, just as the scent of the red desert dust hits the nostrils. If you’re arriving any time other than early in the morning or late at night, the next thing you’ll notice is the heat that beats down upon you like a drum on your shoulders, head and back. And then you see it. The giant rock that casts such a spell over this country.
To visit Uluru is to journey to the spiritual heart of the nation, a place where traditional owners, tourists and the curious come together in awe of this incredible natural wonder and the equally amazing landscape around it. Ayers Rock Resort this year added to the cultural experience with the opening of its onsite Gallery of Central Australia, a space dedicated to the work of Central Desert artists.
Find pieces by artists including Mervyn Rubuntja, Imitjala Curley, Nellie Patterson, Fiona Young and Elsie and Athena Granites. There are plenty of affordable pieces to take home, as well as high-end exhibition pieces to admire. The gallery ensures all artists are remunerated properly and that funds are funnelled to community as well.
Finniss River Lodge
This posh new lodge in the top end is about 90 minutes’ drive southwest from Darwin. Housed in a long-shed-like structure, each suite is spacious and air conditioned sanctuary to start and end the day. To dine, drink and socialise guests can meander down to the communal zone on the rear deck where lounges, a dining hall and bar are located. A pool offers relief to the Territory’s scorching weather and resident chef Travis Crane, formerly of City Winery Restaurant, takes care of the meals. The lodge’s Cows and Canapes experience is also a must-try.
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SUMMER’S BIGGEST BLOCKBUSTERS
Tar
In cinemas, January 26
Cate Blanchett is lining up for another Oscar with a blistering performance as lesbian conductor and composer Lydia Tar, a fictional character so meticulously constructed that cinemagoers have been googling her upon leaving the theatre. Director Todd Field presents his thorny film as the biopic of a maestro accused of sexual misconduct but it’s much more. It’s a conversation starter. An intellectual challenge. It may even be a masterpiece.
Blueback
In cinemas, January 1
They got the fish right. Robert Connolly’s family-friendly fable about a young girl who befriends a giant blue groper is being praised for the realism of the animatronic creature at its heart, and for its stunning underwater cinematography. Filmed on the windswept south coast of Western Australia, Robert Connolly’s follow-up to his smash-hit The Dry is based on Tim Winton’s best-selling novel. It stars Mia Wasikowska and Radha Mitchell as women devoted to protecting the world’s oceans, with Eric Bana as a fisherman named Mad Macka.
Babylon
In cinemas, January 12
Margot Robbie gives a manic performance as the wild-child starlet at the centre of Damien Chazelle’s high-octane comedy of early-days Hollywood excess and debauchery. She’s joined by fellow Aussies Samara Weaving and Phoebe Tonkin, along with Brad Pitt, Jean Smart and Tobey Maguire. Early critical reactions are all over the shop: Babylon is either “a daring Hollywood epic” or a “flaming hot mess”.
The Whale
In cinemas, February 2
Brendan Fraser turned to prosthetics and makeup to portray a reclusive, morbidly obese English teacher attempting to reconnect with his teenage daughter (Stranger Things star Sadie Sink) in Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale. The film has been blitzing the festival circuit, earning standing ovations and reducing the star of The Mummy franchise to tears. Fraser’s Hollywood comeback continues with a role opposite Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s upcoming crime drama Killers of the Flower Moon.
Want the ideal book to read on your lounger? How about TV streaming and podcast recommendations for rainy summer days. Look no further…
Poker Face
Stan, January 27
Swerve right past Russell Crowe’s movie of the same name and have some genuine fun with Knives Out director Rian Johnson’s new whodunnit, a 10-part, mystery-of-the-week series starring Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll) as an amateur sleuth with an uncanny ability to tell when someone’s lying. The addition of a star-studded ensemble cast, including Adrien Brody, Chloë Sevigny, Jameela Jamil, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Ron Perlman, mark this as must-see TV.
The White Lotus
Binge, Seasons 1 and 2
The best description yet of the wildly original tone that elevates streaming smash The White Lotus comes from The New Yorker, which refers to the “sneering yet humane” sensibility of the show’s creator Mike White. The show’s first season swept the 2022 Emmy Awards and made a star of Australian actor Murray Bartlett. The second season, which moves the action from Hawaii to Sicily, is arguably even sharper.
Every Loser, Iggy Pop
Atlantic Records, January 6
He’s Iggy Pop so he can do as he likes – including being the first artist to directly address the Covid-19 pandemic with the 2020 song, Dirty Little Virus (sample lyric: “Can’t have no fun, can’t touch no one”). The man who invented the stage dive goes back to his punk roots on his 19th studio album, which he vowed to Rolling Stone would “beat the s*** out of you”.
The Candle and the Flame – Robert Forster
EMI, February 3
The new album from the Go-Betweens co-founder was recorded after his wife Karin Baumler was diagnosed with cancer last year, and features the whole family: Karin, daughter Loretta and son Louis. Forster boasts of “out-Ramoning the Ramones” on She’s a Fighter, which has just two chords and two lines of lyrics.
Trustfall – Pink
RCA Records, February 17
The honorary Australian endeared herself further by singing Hopelessly Devoted to You in tribute to Olivia Newton-John at the recent American Music Awards. Her ninth studio album, written during the pandemic, has an ultra-positive vibe: in the video for the first single, Never Gonna Not Dance Again, a roller-skating Pink turns a grocery store into a dance party.
Spare – Harry Windsor
Random House UK, January 10
What must it be like to be labelled a “spare” – surplus to requirements – before one’s even born? The stark title of Prince Harry’s memoir promises much: by publicly acknowledging that label, he’s already out on a limb. Bring on the “raw, unflinching honesty” spruiked by the publishers. At least it will be well-written: Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist J.R. Moehringer is the ghostwriter.
Nothing Special – Nicole Flattery
Bloomsbury, March 2
What makes a literary sensation? Ask Irish writer Sally Rooney, who’s formed a one-woman cheer squad for her compatriot Nicole Flattery. Not that the thirtysomething author needs a lot of boosting. Her 2019 short story collection, Show Them a Good Time, introduced a darkly funny, postmodern wit and gathered critical hosannas from around the globe. Making the leap to 1960s New York with her debut novel, Flattery promises a whip-smart coming-of-age story set against the backdrop of Andy Warhol’s famed Factory studio.
Additional reporting: Ley Butterworth and Ross Bilton
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