Regional Australia's Indie Food and Drink Scene

When people think of Australia, they picture the usual worn out tropes. A pointy Opera House, Bondi Beach sunbathers, red dirt roads stretching to the horizon and kangaroos or seagulls casually ruining your picnic. But venture past the Instagram clichés and you’ll find something much juicier simmering away in the regions. There is a grassroots food and drink culture quietly, gloriously redefining what it means to eat and drink well. Forget the cities. The real culinary revolution is happening in the bush, and it’s packing more flavour than your favourite wine bar in Fitzroy with half the ego.

Ballarat Farmers Market

First stop is the local Farmers or Community Market. These glorious kaleidoscopes of smell, chatter, curly potatoes on sticks and excellent bread are where food nerds, home cooks and people who say things like “I just really care about where my cheese comes from” collide. You’ll find local producers slinging everything from goat’s milk feta to sun dried tomato relish made by a woman named Carol who once foraged with René Redzepi (or so she’ll tell you). Coffee beans roasted four paddocks away, honey from bees that probably know your Airbnb host by name. This is where food gets its soul back. And let’s not ignore the vibe. Part farmers’ market, part therapy session, chatting to a producer about their heirloom carrots will give you more serotonin than three hours of TikTok scrolling. Trust us.

Check out Bendigo Community Farmers' Market, Barossa Farmers Market in SA, Mudgee Farmers Market in the Central West of NSW, Noosa Farmers Market on the Sunshine Coast, Mindil Beach Sunset Markets in Darwin, and Bream Creek Farmers Market east of Hobart in Tassie.in WA, head to Margaret River Farmers Market cos lets face it, you will be there buying some of Australia's finest wine.

One of the most criminally underrated facts about regional Australia is the produce

Victoria’s stone fruit could bring a French chef to tears. Northern New South Wales grows greens so crisp you can hear them scream “eat me” from the dirt. Menus here don’t follow trends, rather they follow weather. You get what’s in season, because that’s what’s good, and nobody’s interested in a mango in May. Order a breakfast bowl and find eggs from the farm down the road, avocados from a neighbour’s tree and tomatoes so sweet they could be dessert. Not only does it taste better, but your money stays local which, in rural terms, means you’re now indirectly funding someone’s new irrigation system.

Joadja Distillery Southern Highlands

Now, let’s talk booze. The indie drink scene in regional Aus is currently doing what craft beer did in Melbourne ten years ago, except perhaps with less beards and more bush botanicals. Tiny distilleries and microbreweries are popping up like wild thyme, run by people who wear Blundstones and know their way around a still. In the Southern Highlands, we found a brewery using finger limes and wattleseed to create a saison that tastes like a citrusy campfire dream. Is it niche? Absolutely. Is it delicious? 100%. Is the brewer named Troy and does he live in a converted shipping container? Possibly. Look to every corner of the nation and you'll find someone making something exciting. Gin with Green Ants? Yes, in Darwin. Hartshorn Distillery in Tasmania uses sheep's whey from a nearby cheese farm in their gin production. The Sarina Sugar Shed in Mackay, Queensland, produces rum and liqueurs by fermenting sugar syrup directly after extraction, creating a distinct flavour profile. Applewood Distillery in the Adelaide Hills embraces hyper-creative techniques and local ingredients, including native riberries and strawberry gum leaf, in their spirits. 

You want character? Try regional Australia’s artisans. We met a cheesemaker using century old techniques, milked from the dawn goats, and possibly a little Hogwarts magic. There’s a chocolatier infusing Kakadu plum into ganache like it’s normal and it is. These producers don’t just make things. In reality, they tell stories, and through their hands, ingredients become narrative, memory, art. And yes, the chocolate will ruin you for supermarket bars forever.

Kakadu Plum Co

It’s not just about eating. It is about immersing yourself into what Regional Australia has to offer. Take a cooking class with a local chef who’ll teach you how to turn bush tomatoes into sorcery. Tony Tan in Trentham runs a beautiful and welcoming cooking school. Or walk a vineyard with someone who remembers when it was just sheep paddocks and dreams. Studies, and perhaps common sense, show you’re 50% more likely to return to a place if you’ve had a memorable, engaging experience. You know what’s memorable? Picking grapes at dawn, mildly buzzed still on last night’s shiraz.

The inimitable and bloody delightful Tony Tan

Regional Australia isn’t just having a food moment, it is the moment. It’s slow, seasonal, intimate and deeply personal. It’s about flavour, but it’s also about place and people, and the kind of meals that linger in your mind longer than any online trend.

The best Jam is always found at the local market.

So get in the car, ditch the beachside resort and follow your stomach inland. What you’ll find isn’t just food. You will find storytelling, life lines, terroir, community and possibly the best damn jam you’ve ever had on a sourdough crumpet, crafted from hand milled local flour and a 20 year old sourdough starter. None of this is new but regional neighbours need you more than ever before.

Oh and pack an esky and take the big car!