The first thing most guests notice isn’t the view, although the view is the first thing they mention later. It’s the hamper on the kitchen bench — a arrangement of things that takes a moment to take in because each item turns out to be from somewhere specific. What’s in the Hamper The sourdough is […]

Halls Gap has a wine shop worth knowing about. Not a tourist bottle shop — a proper cellar, run by someone who knows what he’s talking about and genuinely enjoys the conversation. Simon Freeman Simon has been curating Grampians wine longer than most people have known the region makes it. He can tell you which […]

Pomonal is the kind of place people drive through on the way to somewhere else and spend the next few years planning how to get back to. A handful of businesses, a general store, some extraordinary views, and ten minutes from the Nook. Worth doing properly. Lake Fyans An easy loop with water views and […]

Dunkeld sits at the southern end of the Grampians, about forty minutes from the Nook. It’s the kind of town that rewards slowing down — small enough to be genuinely quiet, specific enough in its pleasures that you leave having done something rather than just having driven somewhere. Make a day of it. Walk Mt […]

Pomonal is about ten minutes from the Nook. It’s easy to miss if you don’t know to look for it — a quiet village in the shadow of the ranges, unhurried in every season. Pomonal Estate sits right in the middle of it, producing wine and craft beer and cider with the kind of care […]