LATEST HAPPENINGS IN VICTORIA
Geelong
Night Market
The Inaugural
Season of the Geelong Night Market was open from 5.30pm – 10pm on
Fridays 9, 16, 23 and 30 January 2009.
The second Season
of Geelong Night Market will run Fridays 8, 15, 22 and 29 January 2010.
Based on the
successful Suzuki Night Market, run by Queen Victoria Market Pty Ltd for
the past 10 years and now a favourite event for Melbourne during summer,
the Geelong Night Market located in Johnstone Park featured stalls
boasting everything from local wineries and artisans to live
entertainment and activities and food showcasing both regional delights
and cuisines from around the world.
Working closely
with Central Geelong Marketing, Queen Victoria Market Pty Ltd
successfully produced an event that brought people into Geelong and
became an attraction for locals and tourists alike.
The Geelong Night
Market celebrates Geelong’s rich and diverse culture and is comprised
of:
 | Take-away
food vendors providing a wide range of street foods, predominantly
focused on multi-cultural cuisines, all prepared and cooked fresh
on-site. |
| Bars &
wineries - a fully licensed site with bars and regional Victorian
wineries, selling by the glass, and by the bottle/case to take home
and enjoy later. |
| Young
designer fashion and artisan stalls promising an eclectic product
mix with emphasis on the innovative, unusual and bizarre.
|
| Health &
harmony - an area dedicated to mind, body and spirit with massage
therapists, reflexology, tarot and aura readers, as well as related
natural products. |
| Regional
food producers, offering tastings on-site of a delightful array of
pre-packaged food to take home and eat later. |
| Entertainers
- bands show-casing different musical styles, roving performers and
children’s activities. |
The Geelong Night
Market is a
Waste Wise Event.
Wining Around Australia
VisitVineyards.com is a new guide for wine and food explorers providing
up-to-date information, news and reviews of the best regional wine and
food travel experiences across Australia.
VisitVineyards.com brings together more than 30,000 wine, food and
travel experiences across every Australian wine and food region. There
are more than 7,000 Victorian businesses already listed on the site,
including wine, food and leisure products in key regions such as the
Mornington Peninsula, Yarra Valley and the Goldfields.
Users of
VisitVineyards.com can search the site free-of-charge and will soon be
able to craft an itinerary to suit their specific interests.
VisitVineyards.com also has a free monthly e-newsletter which includes
offers at featured wineries, restaurants, accommodations and other
travel experiences.
For more
information: www.visitvineyards.com
New
Melbourne hot spots
Cumulus
Inc,
45 Flinders Lane
Following outstanding success at exclusive restaurants Circa (St Kilda)
and Three, One, Two (Carlton), chef and restaurateur Andrew McConnell’s
latest venture, Cumulus Inc café/wine bar, is now open. Serving
breakfast, lunch, dinner and everything in-between, Cumulus Inc is a
grown-up bar with an emphasis on simple, great quality food prepared in
a modern European style. www.cumulusinc.com.au
MoVida
Next Door,
cnr Flinders St and Hosier Lane
Located
in Hosier Lane, home to some of the city’s most eye-catching street art,
MoVida has just welcomed a new neighbour - MoVida Next Door. Frank
Camorra’s delicious tapas menu is augmented by a large number of daily
specials. www.movida.com.au
The
Parlour at Madame Brussels,
Bourke St
When Madame Brussels first opened in 2006 it
caused quite a stir. With its English garden party décor, quaint outdoor
furniture, green astro-turf, jugs of Pimms and staff decked out in
cricket whites, this bar is definitely one of a kind. Now the venue has
added a new, more intimate, room - The Parlour. Hidden down a corridor
behind the main bar, entrance is through a white picket fence and the
bar resembles an old-world gentlemen’s club with antique-style
furnishings and a personal drinks waiter who uses genuine Art Deco
cocktail gear.
www.madamebrussels.com
In St
Kilda, music store Pure Pop Records has been busy
establishing its courtyard bar as Melbourne’s newest boutique live music
destination. With a relaxed, congenial atmosphere, tasty pizzas and St
Arnou beer on tap, the Pure Pop courtyard holds seven gigs every weekend
and has already played host to a range of international and local names.
Leading
walking tour operator bothfeet will open the first phase of its
new ‘walking-lodge’ on the Great Ocean Road in September 2008.
The
purpose-built lodge has been designed for the exclusive use of
bothfeet walkers and combines stylish and sustainable design in a
serene bush setting, with fine regional food and wine available.
The
perfect retreat for guests after a hard day of hiking, the new lodge is
set amongst 10 acres of rainforest and can accommodate up to 20 people
in 10 ensuite bedrooms. The lodge will also feature a natural rock
swimming pool, foot spa and massage room, and a restaurant serving
modern Australian dishes and Victorian wines.
The
first phase of the development will be completed in September 2008, when
five ensuite doubles, a dining hall, commercial kitchen and reception
office will open. Over the following 12 months the lodge will be
completed with five additional bedrooms, a swimming pool and an expanded
dining space.
bothfeet offers three-, four- and six-day walks along the Great
Ocean Road, taking in stunning coastal landscapes, secluded beaches and
striking rock formations. Shorter walks visit Cape Otway, Apollo Bay and
the Twelve Apostles – covering distances of 15 kilometres a day. The
six-day walk covers the entire 91km Great Ocean Walk trail with some
challenging sections.
More
information: www.bothfeet.com.au
Prahran
Market Food Demonstrations
Welcome winter in this season with weekly interactive food
demonstrations and tastings that are sure to get your ideas flowing for
some fab meals at home! Held every Thursday from 12-2pm in the Fruit
and Vegetable Hall at Prahran Market
Bio Bus Tours’
half-day Experience Melbourne Tour takes in all the city highlights,
including the café, restaurant and shopping strips of Lygon, Brunswick,
Acland and Chapel streets, as well as world-famous sporting venues, museums,
galleries and gardens.
The tour
commentary opens a window to Melbourne’s history as well as contemporary
culture to give visitors a real insight into life in the city and what makes
the locals tick. Tours cost AUD$38, or $33 for concession.
More info:
www.biobustours.com.au
A
Great Ocean drive
Self-drive
visitors to the spectacular Great Ocean Road can now take their own in-car
travel guide to point out important landmarks and local history as they
travel the beautiful coastline from Torquay to Warrnambool.
The first two
audio guides in the new ‘Drive’n’Hear’ series follow the Great Ocean Road –
the world’s largest war memorial and one of the world’ most renowned drives
– from the surfing capital of Torquay to the Shipwreck Coast.
The guides help
visitors make the most of their trip and can be purchased from specialty
retailers in the area, including Tourist Information Centres. Or simply
downloaded the guide onto your MP3 player via the Drive’n’Hear website.
More information:
www.drivenhear.com
Explore
Victoria on an exhilarating motorcycle tour
Powered by BMW, fuelled by
enthusiasm and driven by high standards, Vicmoto Motorcycle Tours is a new
tour company providing five-star motorcycle pillion tours throughout
Victoria.
With its diverse regions and
great road network, Victoria is a great place to tour by motorcycle.
Vicmoto Motorcycle Tours provide a range of structured half-day, one-day and
two-day tours through regions such as Great Ocean Road, Mornington
Peninsula, the Grampians, Macedon Ranges and Yarra Valley.
The half-day tours commence
at any time of the day that is suitable for passengers. Custom tours are
also available and can be tailored to suit customer requirements. There are
regular rest stops on every tour, however refreshments, meals and overnight
accommodation are not included in the tour rates. Overnight accommodation on
multiple day tours can either be booked by Vicmoto Motorcycle Tours or
passengers can book accommodation independently.
The new BMW motorcycles
powerfully and effortlessly cope with all road and loading conditions.
Cruise control, electrically adjusted windscreen height, heated handgrips
and heated seating for the rider and passenger all contribute to effortless
touring. Vicmoto Motorcycle Tours also provides fully fitted motorbike
clothing for passengers.
More info:
www.vicmoto.com.au
Learn about where food really
comes from and gain a new respect for the environment with three new cooking
schools in regional Victoria.
Bella Vedere
Bella Vedere is a renowned
restaurant in the Yarra Valley that has built its reputation on organic
seasonal produce sourced from the region and its own on-site kitchen
gardens. New cooking classes with charismatic head chef Gary Cooper run each
Wednesday and Thursday from 9.30am, with a lunch following at 12.30pm.
Rather than having themed
classes, Bella Vedere focuses on what is seasonal and provides an open,
friendly forum for questions. Topics explored could include cold larder,
sweet and savoury pies, harvesting from the garden and preserving.
For more information call +61
3 5962 6161; email:
cookingschool@bellavedere.com.au; or visit
www.bellavedere.com.au
Peaceful Gardens Organic
Cooking School
In the foodie town of
Koonwarra in Gippsland, another cooking school educates people about organic
and sustainable food principles in a relaxed farmhouse environment. Peaceful
Gardens Organic Cooking School began around 18 months ago and has been
developing and expanding its program ever since.
Produce used in the classes
is sourced from Peaceful Gardens’ 60 acre organic farm, including wagyu
beef, vegetables and fruit used for jam and preserving. Classes include
pasta making, bread making, food gathering and preserves. Kids’ classes
incorporate story telling and cooking songs to make food preparation fun.
Since June, teacher Maria
Stuart has been introducing concepts of carbon-neutral cooking into the
classes, with plans to run a dedicated carbon-neutral cooking class from
2008. This includes educating visitors about emissions from cooktops, the
lower emissions of good quality cookware, the benefits of composting, home
herb and vegetable gardens and avoiding the ‘embedded emissions’ found in
pre-packaged foods.
Tours of the farm can be
organised and delicious organic meals are available in the farmhouse café
adjoining the cooking school.
For more information visit
www.peacefulgardens.com.au
Spice Island
Romantic B&B Spice Island, on
Phillip Island, is launching its long-awaited cooking school this month with
the aim to showcase Gippsland’s fabulous local produce in a contemporary
environment.
Guests and students will be
able to work in a state-of-the-art kitchen with hands-on chef and Spice
Island owner Paul Stafford. ‘Themed evenings’ will give students the chance
to expand their repertoire, from cooking a Moroccan banquet one day to an
Asian dinner party the next. The classes will be geared to people of all
skill levels and will focus on fun and building confidence.
Courses will also include
Professional Masterclasses, Lifestyle Courses and Cooking for Kids.
Spice Island
will run most of the courses on-site, and will have access to some of
Melbourne's most exciting chefs who will be joining them for special
Masterclasses.
The full schedule will be
available on the Spice Island website later this month.
More info:
www.spiceisland.com.au
Award-winning wine writer Max
Allen and cartographer Martin von Wyss have pooled their talents to produce
The Wine Map of Victoria by Max Allen, a comprehensive overview of
Victoria’s wine regions, wineries and vineyards.
The full-colour,
finely-detailed, double-sided map costs AUD$14.95 and features an up-to-date
listing of Victoria’s 800-plus cellar doors, wineries and vineyards,
evocative descriptions of the state’s wine regions and subregions, and
informative maps of Victoria’s topography, climate, and most widely-planted
grape varieties.
Copies of the map are available at cellar doors,
selected bookshops, wine shops, and Visitor Information Centres in
Beechworth and Sunbury. The map can also be ordered online from
www.australianwinemaps.com
and
www.winesofvictoria.com.au
