Our 4 nights in Daylesford had been busy and our travel day today to Dunkeld in the Grampians was sunny and warm.
The once wealthy gold town of Clunes made a perfect coffee stop. It’s not hard to imagine what it must have looked like in 1850 with its wide streets, many pubs, huge churches and still today many cute cottages. Clunes is a favourite town used in movies and I can see why.
I had to take my group to ‘Lambley’ – A garden nursery made famous by David Glenn and his dedication for dry loving plants. The vegetable garden was impressive as were many of the garden rooms.
Once on the open road we were surrounded by the biggest wheat farms I have ever seen – many were having the residue stubble burnt off ready for the new seasons planting. Sitting on a tractor would take days to complete each crop field. As we neared Dunkeld the land turned into sheep grazing and the money made from the wool trade was evident. Although we were all pretty horrified to find out many of these farms were started by squatters with no regard for the indigenous Aboriginal’s. Today they cover the vast flat landscape as far as the eye can see.
We all had our eyes peeled to spot kangaroos. But, to our complete surprise a group sat over the road from the hotel when we arrived. There is not much in Dunkeld and the Royal Mail Hotel provides a uniquel experience for hotel guests or cottage accommodation on the station at Mt Sturgeon also owned by the Dunkeld Pastoral Company headed by Allan Myers.
But there is more. As hotel guests we enjoyed a wine tasting on the day of arrival in a 28,000 bottle wine cellar – wines from all over the world but specialising in Australian, Bordeaux and Burgundy wines. Followed by an excellent dinner at the ‘ Parker Project ‘ restaurant.
All the food for the hotel kitchens – which is overseen by 2 hat chef Robin Wickens is produced from the most extensive hotel kitchen garden, orchard, farm and walled gardens. The following day we started with a personalised tour of the sustainable organic kitchen garden with Robin himself. The detail into seed collection, crop rotation, seasonal produce and variety was extraordinary. The chefs come each morning and choose their produce and from here the daily menu is dictated by the produce harvested . The local arboretum provided a lovely afternoon walk – complete with groups of kangaroos and some took advantage of the conservation tour later in the afternoon to meet Australian marsupials like: Brush-tailed Rock Wallabies, Eastern Barred Bandicoots, Fat-tailed Dunnarts, Potoroo, Squirrel Gliders and the carnivorous Eastern Quolls
But dinner tonight was at the 2 hat Wickens restaurant. It was full theatre in a stunning restaurant with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the visiting kangaroos and Mt Sturgeon. Complete with wine matching, we were wowed by the eight courses for the evening. It was a lesson in precise service, each dish served in its own beautiful bowl or plate and described as to its origin from the garden or farm. It was great to hear the clinking of glasses, friendly chatter, bursts of laughter and amazement from my group as course was put in front of them. The evening was a lesson in perfection and I will savour the experience forever.
