Central Beechworth.Credit: Juliet Morris
Good food
One of the highlights of November's The Age Good Food Month takes place this Friday night at Provenance in Beechworth. Chef Michael Ryan is a self-proclaimed Nipponophile, and his a la carte menu displays his mastery of Japanese technique and finesse blended with north-east Victorian produce that goes way beyond fusion. His event, Memories of Izakaya, is a reflection of the many hours he has spent in the taverns of Japan, learning the ways chefs turn basic ingredients into delicious dishes. Ryan also comes to the city to cook at Izakaya Den in Russell Street on November 18. goodfoodmonth.com
Wine
Tanswell's Commercial Hotel.
You can't call sherry ''sherry'' any more - unless it comes from a small triangle in the Spanish province of Cadiz - so the Australian wine industry invented the word ''apera'' to describe our wines made in the traditional Spanish solera system. The Morrison family at Pennyweight Winery on the outskirts of town makes some of the best apera in the world, taking wine from each vintage and topping up barrels containing old apera, which in turn is racked to the barrels below. The results are complex fino, amontillado and oloroso aperas that contain wine from every vintage from the past 30-plus years. At Pennyweight you'll also find very good table wines made using winemaking techniques that pre-date modern methods, all in a bucolic bush setting.
13 Pennyweight Lane, Beechworth, 5728 1747, open daily, 10am-5pm, pennyweight.com.au
Retail therapy
People drive from Canberra to visit Kathryn Hammerton Beechworth, a clothing store specialising in women's wear offering great service and stocking 30 brands, including Australian designers daronne, Breathless and Lisa Barron (59 Ford Street, 5728 1981). Several doors up is Dalcheri (47 Ford Street, 5728 2711), a clothing store selling ethical clothing made from natural fibres such as wool, cotton, possum fur, hemp and bamboo.
The former asylum.
Asylum
There is a haunting beauty about the former Mayday Hills Lunatic Asylum, a collection of historic and period buildings sprawling over a hillside overlooking town and set in impressive botanic gardens. The buildings range from dilapidated Victorian prison-like cells to art deco dormitories surrounded by California redwoods, bunya pines, Douglas fir trees and pre-European eucalypts. A self-guided walking tour map can be found at the Beechworth Visitor Information Centre (103 Ford Street, 1300 366 321).
The former La Trobe Resort onsite has reopened, offering good-quality, affordable accommodation and excellent meals in the restaurant headed by local chef Tim Witherow, with well-known French-born chef Michel Renoux leading the events kitchen.
George Kerferd Hotel, Mayday Hills, Albert Road, 5728 2618, georgekerferdhotel.com.au
Old pubs
Tanswell's Commercial Hotel has a great carved wooden beast that sits on a chequered tiled floor in a snug room with an ornate steel column supporting the ceiling. The pub was built in 1873, a double-storey brick affair with iron lacework decorating the verandahs that replaced the 1853 original wooden version, at a time when there were 61 pubs in town. On tap you'll find beer from Bridge Road, whose brewery and cellar door is in the old stables out the back (50 Ford Street, Beechworth, 5728 1480). Also try the nearby Plough Inn at Tarrawingee for really good pub grub (2322 Beechworth-Wangaratta Rd, Tarrawingee, 5725 1609).
Walk in the park
Large tracts of land around town are protected by the Beechworth Historic Park, with walks on well-made tracks extending from the heart of town into the bush that has reclaimed the once-thriving goldfields. One great walk starts at Lake Sambell, with its Japanese gardens and picnic grounds, follows Silver Creek until its confluence with Hurdle Creek, and heads past mine shafts capped with metal grilles and tunnels bored into the hillside to arrive at Lake Kerferd, perched in the hills and surrounded by forest, 5km away. Beechworth sits on the edge of a dramatic gorge that can be explored via a 12km network of paths, with one starting point being the Powder Magazine, a reinforced stone building where the town's gunpowder was kept well away from homes and shops. parkweb.vic.gov.au
Sign up for the Traveller Deals newsletter
Get exclusive travel deals delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up now.