This was published 7 years ago
On the arts trail in Tathra
By Sally Pryor
Tathra Beach House.Credit: Jeff Brislane
Leave it to a Canberran to enjoy a weekend on the coast while barely setting foot on the sand. Give me a cafe and an art gallery any day when it comes to weekends away.
My non-committal attitude when it comes to the beach has been well documented, but my defence on this particular weekend (not that I need one) is that the weather is inclement. Just two weeks after the monster storm that lashed the south coast and damaged the town's famous wharf, another "weather event" is threatening to come through sometime over the weekend, and while it's nothing like the winter we've just left behind in Canberra, the sky is grey and spitty.
But it's still time to get into the holiday spirit, and a non-love of the beach doesn't preclude a penchant for things that have a beachy feel. Tathra Beach House ticks every box and then some. Built into a hillside with ocean-view apartments, the place is painted blue and yellow. There's tropical vegetation, and a pool with a spa. Like everything in these parts, the place is practically empty, but I must admit it's a relief to just get on with the weekend without negotiating holiday crowds. Turns out this feeling is widespread: picking up wine at the bottle shop up the hill later that evening, the two dudes at the counter admit it's their favourite time of year. "Finally time to chill," they say, as though their life is otherwise super stressful.
Narek Gallery.
I'm in town ostensibly for a work-related event – an exhibition launch and prize announcement at the Bega Regional Gallery 20 minutes' drive away. Having set the family up in our amazing beach-view apartment, I head into town to see what Bega has to offer on a Friday night.
As far as the arts crowd goes, Bega is pumping! The Shirley Hannan National Portrait Award is a biennial event and one of the country's richest portrait prizes, and it seems the town's entire population of art lovers has fronted up to see the finalists and hear who the winner is (it's Sally Robinson). And who wouldn't? It's a top-notch show with big names both on the wall and behind the canvas. And the mayor is there! Coming from a town with no mayor, this is a novelty.
Come morning, where to find a decent coffee in the winter shutdown? Luckily, I had been introduced the night before to artist Matt Chun, a finalist in the Shirley Hannan prize and owner of Bermagui's – and possibly the world's – best espresso bar, which doubles as his studio. With his casual invite to "drop by for a coffee" ringing in my ears, we pile into the car and head to the famous fishing town of Bermagui, where we just kind of walk around until we spot some hipsters milling on the pavement. This has to be – and is – Mister Jones Espresso.
Sally Robinson, Ella Rubeli.
Chun's large-scale canvases are amazing – his portrait of the late Andrew Sayers (the former director of the National Portrait Gallery) was one of two highly commended works in the show. And he takes his coffee just as just as seriously. While it began as a side project to his open studio in a shopfront, soon enough he was providing all kinds of passers-by with his impeccable brew (is that word too louche for espresso?) in funky cups made of coloured glass, and has spilled into the shop next door.
Actually imbibing the coffee is, inevitably, a transcendental experience, but having a coffee this good does have the unfortunate side-effect of rendering all subsequent coffees, for the next few days at least, sub-par. But I'm hardly complaining.
Caffeinated and feeling amazing about the world, we headed off for our lunchtime date on Cobargo Farm. The things you discover when you take the kids on holidays! At the edge of the small inland village – Cobargo is midway between Bermagui and Tilba – there's a 16-acre market garden filled with produce and animals. So many animals! Owner Janet Doolin meets us at the gate and takes us on the best tour ever, spitty drizzle notwithstanding. We get a crash course in both the vagaries of farming – the time it takes to grow avocados, grubs in the lettuce, too much longed-for rain washing away kilos of topsoil – and animal husbandry. I had no idea that pigs could produce so many litters in a lifetime. Or that lambs run in real life exactly how they do in Disney cartoons. Or that my four-year-old would be so nonchalant about nudging a chook out of the way and plucking a still-warm egg out of her nest, not once but four times.
After our tour, Janet gives us delicious sandwiches (with locally grown produce) and homemade lemonade on the lawns while a puppy gambols about our feet, like we're in a movie. This place is heaven! And you can tour it for just $5 a head! We leave with bags full of lettuce, lemongrass and coriander (and the eggs), and head to the Tathra-Bermagui Road which, I'm told, becomes a kind of art trail in the summer months.
It's also a stunning drive, with the road practically hugging the beaches - beautiful, secluded - in some sections. We stop by Ivy Hill Gallery, a place I've longed to visit for some time. It's closed for winter, but is open by appointment, and owner Carolyn Kileen is waiting to take me through. It's a gracious country house with high ceilings and beautiful light, the perfect place to show art and, I imagine, for the parties that accompany exhibitions. Kileen tends to show paintings and works on paper by emerging and established contemporary artists, many of whom live in the region. At this time of year, she holds a mixed exhibition of works by artists who have shown there the previous season. It's an eclectic display, and gives a sense of the breadth of the art scene. We leave with a bag of limes. What can I say – it's a fertile region!
Our next stop is another dream destination, south coast-wise, Narek Galleries in Tanja, about 7km down the road. The place would be easy to miss were it not for the signs. The gallery is housed in a gorgeous, tiny old church set back from the road. Dusk is falling, and Karen O'Clery, the owner, has the church doors open, light spilling out in the most picturesque manner. Movies again!
The church, with its vaulted ceilings and high windows, is a perfect venue to worship at the altar of contemporary Australian ceramics, glass, textiles, wood and metal. In the late afternoon light, O'Clery is also displaying a house artist show, on for the rest of winter. The church is nestled in a native garden, complete with bell birds and wallabies. O'Clery lives in a house alongside the church, and invites us in for tea. We leave with a bag of freshly baked chocolate and oatmeal slice. What can I say – the people here just aim to please.
Finally, back to Tathra for an early dinner at Fat Tony's Bar and Grill, which is absolutely nothing like it sounds. I don't know how it sounds! Somewhere brash and smoky? Something out of The Simpsons? But it's actually a really nice restaurant with a very friendly owner named Anthony (who isn't at all fat) who busts out the coloured pencils and paper without us even asking, and recommended wine to go with our oysters (not from the poor busted wharf, unfortunately) and what turns out to be a pretty show-stopping steak and mash.
The next morning, we check out and head down the road to a pair of cafes side-by-side – Blend and How We Roll. We can't decide where to eat, so we order coffee at one and food at the other. I get all embarrassed trying to hide my Toby's Estate coffee cup from next door as I order food, but it turns out no one minds! The breakfast fare at How We Roll is just dandy, and Blend is also a shop selling fancy kitchenware, so really, we could be in Braddon. But look outside – there's the beach in the spitting rain! Time to go home.
Sally Pryor was travelling as a guest of Sapphire Coast Tourism.
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