Local's guide: Bathurst

Most people associate Bathurst with “Brocky”, Mount Panorama race circuit (pictured top of story) and chequered flags. But Bathurst is Australia’s oldest inland European settlement and bursts at the seams with fascinating history, hip cafes, award-winning producers, fine-dining restaurants, a blossoming wine industry, and budget or luxury boutique accommodation.

Where to eat

Twenty years ago in Bathurst, a seven-course degustation meal was a six-pack and a pie. Oh how things have changed! At Vine and Tap, with your contemporary Italian share plates, you’ll dine alfresco in the courtyard beneath the spreading Chinese pistache tree, that turns merlot-red in winter. In the crisp country air, you’ll savour each dish, talk, drink and laugh, sipping a Milano cocktail or a local wine with your exquisitely cooked octopus. This uber-hip restaurant underscores the emerging sophistication of Bathurst and throws down the gauntlet to neighbouring foodie towns like Orange and Mudgee. 

Above: Abercrombie House, one of many impressive historic buildings dotted around town.

For a more budget-friendly option, try old Vicky. Established in 1876, the Victoria Hotel is a Bathurst icon and is completely pokies-free with a focus on live music (remember live music?). Vicky’s meals are excellent value, with a range of craft beers on tap. Here you’ll enjoy char-grilled ocean trout or the succulent lamb shoulder, matched with a turbo-charged 2018 Mount Panorama Estate Shiraz. In the beer garden, chat with locals about their wonderful town and its emerging narrative. Walking up Keppel St you may even find a solitary country-hipster on a pushbike fitted with a boom-box playing beats while eating takeaway Chinese food from a plastic tray because Bathurst is now cool and groovy.

What to see

With your Bathurst Museums Pass make a beeline for the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum. Home to the Somerville Collection – the lifetime work of local knockabout farmer Warren Somerville – it features some of the finest specimens of gems and fossils that Wazza collected from around the globe. However, the showstopper is the giant teenage T-Rex. Psst! They have torchlight tours here, too. Double-Psst! Entry for the entire family is one $25 NSW Discovery Voucher.

Another Bathurst ‘gem’ is Miss Traill’s House. This delightful heritage house/museum was bequeathed to the National Trust in 1976. You may even meet one of their lovely volunteer guides, Susan. She’s exactly what you imagine the president of the Bathurst CWA to look like: an amalgam of the two Margarets: Thatcher and Fulton. This gorgeous house contains a collection of antiques, ceramics and horse racing memorabilia. Indeed, some of the family’s dearest fillies were made into ashtrays. Because nothing says ‘grief’ like having your deceased companion’s hoof or paw fashioned into an ashtray.

Above: Bathurst Motor Museum.

Do chug over to the excellent Bathurst Rail Museum. The completion of the railway to Bathurst in 1876 was critical to the development of NSW. This marvel of engineering opened trade, transport and communication opportunities for inlanders. Indeed, Prime Minister Ben Chifley (with your pass you can also visit his family home that’s now a museum in town) was a railway driver and remained a dedicated member of the Bathurst community.

Moreover, Bathurst has superb architecture from Old Colonial to the Victorian period. So stroll around Batho with the Bathurst Heritage Walk brochure as your guide and listen to the War Memorial Carillon, with its erratic 35-bell melody. Then visit Machattie Park. This Victorian-era park has The Duck Pond, The Rotunda, Monro Drinking Fountain, The Fernery, Begonia House and the Grand Fountain. For the best experience, download the free ‘Bathurst Step Beyond’ App on Google Play or the App Store and enjoy an audio tour of this famous park.

Where to play

Okay, ‘Bathurst winery’ might sound like an oxymoron. But this emerging cool-climate wine region feels like the Hunter Valley 20 years ago, with friendly vignerons, who genuinely want to have a chinwag with you over a tasting glass of purple shiraz. Moreover, you seldom mix ‘luxury wine tour’ with ‘altruism’. But uniquely, Bathurst Tours is a not-for-profit organisation who reinvest your coin into subsidised transport services for aged and disabled clients for Bathurst Community Transport. No guilt required with this luxury tour.

One of the charming places Bathurst Tours will bus you to is Winburndale Vineyard and Winery. This family-owned boutique vineyard’s climate, landscape and slopes create the ideal plonk, with handpicked grapes, producing a superlative drop, with a jazz-chord of notes and cashmere-soft tannins. Indeed, it’s a picturesque setting for any tasting, where the sun-tickled vines twist their way up the slope to produce the ideal grape. The vineyard is cared for by the owner’s son, Henry. With minimal use of chemicals and fertilisers, Henry and his dad hand-pick the grapes as they ripen. Psst! They have boutique accommodation here, too, with sweeping views of Bathurst plains from your luxury pod, repurposed from the Sydney Olympics.

Another father and son team is Bathurst Grange Distillery: the hottest gin-joint in Batho. As you stroll through their cottage gardens, learning about the botanicals used in the spirits, you’ll discover the historic estate has been visited by luminaries such as Charles Darwin and Brett Whiteley. Today the Grange is sustainably producing Australian gin with distinctive flavours sourced from local ingredients like their famous Blue Mountain gin, that turns from eucalypt-blue to lavender, with a magical splash of tonic.

Where to stay

Located in the sympathetically restored 1884 Victoria Stores building, the Mill Apartments is situated within walking distance of most of the aforementioned venues and museums. The Victoria Stores received both Bathurst Regional Council and National Trust heritage Conservation awards and its apartments are spacious and finished to a very high spec. You’ll love sipping a latte on the sweeping bullnose veranda, overlooking the country-wide avenues of Batho. Moreover, the landscaped grounds of the entire Tremain’s Mill Precinct offers a relaxing open space for visitors to enjoy. Then slam a coffee and flakey croissant at Doppio, a hip Italian hole-in-the-wall style cafe beneath the boutique accom.

For a budget-friendly family option, you can’t go past NRMA Bathurst Panorama Holiday Park (pictured above). The accom has a rustic, early-settler aesthetic, with faux 19th-century lanterns flanking the cabin doors and corrugated iron facades. There are fun activities for families, too, with a resort-style swimming pool, snooker and table tennis in the games room, a giant bouncing pillow, indoor cinema and even mini-golf (if only Augusta had a Pirate-Windmill on the 18th!)

History

The Frontier Wars (1820s) was a bloody period in the history of Bathurst. Clashes with the Wiradjuri people claimed numerous lives on both sides. Bathurst Aboriginal Land Council wants to erect a statue to Windradyne, a Wiradjuri leader and feared warrior who resisted the intolerance of white settlers in Bathurst. Auntie Shirley tells NRMA that community support has been positive so far, according to a recent survey.

For more info visit The Bathurst Visitor Information Centre. Recently awarded the Gold Award at the 2021 NSW Tourism Awards, it’s staffed by a dedicated team of enthusiastic locals assisting over 50,000 visitors annually.