Historic ... Stillwater restaurant.
Quietly, Launceston and its surrounds have emerged as premier foodie destinations, writes Anthony Dennis.
It is, frankly, the worst room in the house. Dark and dank and located in the basement, there's a crude three-tier, timber-framed bunk occupying one corner and a fireplace that possums have a habit of choosing as their final resting place in the other. Really, it's criminal that anyone could have been expected to stay in such conditions.
Fortunately, all of the other guest rooms at Quamby Estate are tip-top, chic and luxurious, even, with oversized timber-floored bathrooms, lavish pod-style white bathtubs and king-size beds. They're the kind of creature comforts denied the 19th-century convict labour once shackled and quartered in the aforementioned confines of this historic Tasmanian homestead.
Those wretched souls, let alone their masters, could not have imagined that distant descendants such as, well, me, would one day be luxuriating guests here at what has become a boutique hotel-cum-lodge; not to mention quaffers of a locally produced bubbly, accompanied by fine regional cooking, at wineries little more than an overseer's lash away.
Quamby, which grandly overlooks the kind of convincing lush English-style pastures rarely encountered on the parched mainland, is just 20 minutes north of Launceston.
Opened more than a year ago, it's one of the latest enticements for a journey to north-east Tasmania, a corner of Australia that - against the backdrop of the $1.4 billion Gunns pulp mill furore - has quietly emerged as one of the foremost food and wine destinations in the country.
Grant Hunt, who heads the growing Australian luxury accommodation group Anthology acquired Quamby - designed in the 1830s in an unusual Anglo-Indian style recalling the era of the Raj - when he was searching for a new starting and finishing point for two of Tasmania's most iconic walks, Cradle Huts and Bay of Fires.
He had bought the rights and infrastructure for the walks from legendary owner, architect and developer Ken Latona.
"Quamby had a beautiful setting, ancient trees, romantic gravel laneways and a beautiful old house just crying out to be renovated," Hunt says.
"My vision was, over time, to create a uniquely Tasmanian luxury heritage lodge to rival some of the great lodges of New Zealand."
I've checked in for five nights with the intention of using Quamby as the perfect, central base to explore Tasmania's premium sparkling-wine region, the Tamar Valley - home to renowned labels such as Jansz, Pipers Brook and Arras - as well as other varied parts of the surrounding region.
Jansz was the label that cheekily coined the term "Methode Tasmanoise", an Australian nod to the famed French methode champenoise, devised to describe its own antipodean style of bubbly-making.
Of course, the north-east is not just about the sparkling wine style - a local sauvignon blanc was recently honoured at the London Wine Show, beating the Kiwis, who are better known for this style. The presence of so many premium wine producers is complemented by some excellent restaurants, though the esteemed Fee and Me, once the only international-standard restaurant in these parts, has closed.
As culinary rivalries go, it's not quite in the Sydney-Melbourne league but Launceston, Tasmania's second-biggest city, has been giving Hobart a nudge in recent years with restaurants such as Daniel Alps, Stillwater and Black Cow.
"It is all at our fingertips here, from wine to walnuts, apples to abalone and salmon to sauvignon blanc," says Kim Seagram, co-owner of Stillwater and Black Cow. "We have delicatessens chock-full of local goodies and restaurants and cafes proud to put our local produce on a plate and share with our locals and visitors alike."
Stillwater, with its kitchen headed by long-standing chef Don Cameron, is located at the granary of the landmark Ritchies Mill (built in 1832) and not far from Cataract Gorge, a spectacular natural formation near the city centre. Stillwater ranks as one of Australia's best regional restaurants, situated within a unique and historic building.
Cameron describes his cooking as "freestyle Australian cuisine". His skilful menu is infused with Asian influences, as evidenced by dishes such as Japanese-style seared Angus beef with ginger, mint and radish salad and Huon salmon loin with wasabi leaf, peanut and ruby grapefruit.
Seagram last year opened Black Cow, a designer steakhouse in the centre of town with a menu that focuses on "dry-aged, free-range, grass-fed" Tasmanian beef. In contrast to Stillwater, Black Cow is located in an art deco butcher's shop on what's still known as Luck's Corner.
But the centrepiece of any visit to the north-east remains the Tamar Valley Wine Route, which meanders around the Tamar River for nearly 60 kilometres, home to other familiar labels such as Clover Hill, Krelinger and Bay of Fires.
The best restaurant in the Tamar Valley is Daniel Alps at Strathlynn, located in the same modest building as the Ninth Island wine-tasting centre at Rosevears. When we arrive for lunch, it's raining and the view across vines to the Tamar River is largely obscured, though it doesn't affect the exquisite food on the plate. The modern Australian (or should it be contemporary Tasmanian?) menu is limited to just a handful of selections, based on the availability of the finest local produce on the day of your visit, accompanied by wine choices.
During my Quamby stay, I make forays to towns such as Deloraine, where you can visit a salmon farm run by an immigrant German. Both Deloraine and Perth, easily reached from Quamby, are home to antique shops and an array of colonial architecture.
In Launceston, which qualifies as the "big smoke" around here, Pierre's Brasserie and Cafe is a Tasmanian institution that opened in 1956. It claims to have introduced Australia's second espresso machine, installed just "a few hours after Pelligrini's in Melbourne". The restaurant, whose dishes range from croque monseur to confit of duck, underwent an award-winning refurbishment in recent years and sports a fetching Parisian-style burgundy interior with black and white tiled flooring.
Elsewhere, I make a note to stay at TwoFourTwo on any future visit. It is stylish, contemporary apartment-style accommodation at the rear of a wine and design shop on Charles Street, which is known as the Paris end of Launceston.
A few doors down is the excellent Tant pour tant, an authentic, much-loved French-style patisserie selling artisan breads, baguettes, pastries and cakes, with a small cafe for good measure.
Indigenous art aside, Tasmania is the only state with its own identifiable design style. Tasmanian Design Centre features a unique collection of the state's distinctive timber furniture, housed in a purpose-built gallery next to Launceston's City Park.
Back in the compact city centre, there are a couple of nifty homewares shops, Cocoon and Homebody, which would sit well on any Sydney or Melbourne high street.
Back at Quamby one afternoon at dusk, a couple of guests announce excitedly that they have seen platypus beside the river down the road, inspiring a wander down the quintessential English-style country laneway to the bridge in question to see if we can spy the elusive creatures. Alas, they characteristically remain just that.
Hunt has resisted stuffing the property full of 19th-century antiques in an effort to re-create Quamby's past. Instead, he enlisted Pike Withers, a Sydney design firm with whom he regularly works, to inject a more contemporary style into the 10, sometimes quirkily proportioned rooms (with plans for 11 more), and the various public spaces.
Enough of the past remains intact to gain a sense of what it must have been like to live here in the homestead's heyday. Embellishment is superfluous. The interior features soaring ceilings, eight-panelled french doors and striking, original black and white Italian marble fireplaces, chequerboard tiling and even secure timber shutters designed as 19th-century protection from marauding bushrangers.
One of the most interesting features is the flooring leading to the kitchen. In an early example of recycling, it consists of sandstone blocks that were originally used as ballast for colonial-era ships.
On the way to the kitchen, in which guests are free to wander in and out, you pass a system of bells that have been rigged up, each with a sign indicating which part of the house they've been connected to so that the servants could be summoned.
As for that worst room in the house, Hunt says he would love to restore it, with the "appropriate interpretation", so it can be better enjoyed by visitors to Quamby.
The original owner of Quamby was Richard Dry, an exiled Irish political prisoner who was transported by the British to Tasmania and eventually pardoned.
Judging by the convict quarters he installed, he didn't have quite as much regard for the comfort of at least some of his guests as Grant Hunt does today.
TRIP NOTES
GETTING THERE
Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin Blue have regular flights to Launceston from the mainland. There are only a limited number of daily direct connections — most flights travel via Melbourne.
WHERE TO STAY
Quamby Estate, 1145 Westwood Road, Hagley, doubles from $374. Phone (03) 6392 2211, see quambyestate.com.au.
TwoFourTwo, 242 Charles Street, Launceston, doubles from $205. Phone (03) 6331 9242, see twofourtwo.com.au.
WHERE TO EAT
Stillwater, 2 Bridge Road, Launceston. Phone (03) 6331 4153, see stillwater.net.au.
Daniel Alps at Strathlynn, 95 Rosevears Drive, Rosevears. Phone (03) 6330 2388.
Black Cow, George and Paterson streets, Launceston. Phone (03) 6331 9333, see blackcowbistro.com.au.
Pierre's, 88 George Street, Launceston. Phone (03) 6331 6835, see pierres.net.au.
Tantpourtant, 226 Charles Street, Launceston. Phone (03) 6334 9884, see tantpourtant.com.au.
WHERE TO QUAFF
Jansz Wine Room and Interpretive Centre, 1216B Pipers Brook Road, Pipers Brook. Phone (03) 6382 7066, see jansztas.com.
Bay of Fires Winery, 40 Baxters Road, Pipers River. Phone (03) 6382 7622, see bayoffireswines.com.au.
Pipers Brook Vineyard, 1216 Pipers Brook Road, Pipers Brook. Phone 03 6382 7527, see kreglingerwineestates.com.
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