Recently I got up at 4.30am on a Sunday morning to paddle a canoe with local platypus in the tiny town of Forrest (population 170) in regional Victoria.
The experience was so phenomenally good, I didn’t even whinge about how early it was, or how cold it was, or how I really needed a coffee (although I did make an immediate beeline for caffeine afterwards).
The whole paddling with platypus experience got me thinking about how truly awesome Australia is, and I know I’m not alone in that thought.
Just like a great champion racehorse, Australia is on the comeback trail. While Australians love travelling overseas, we are also pretty enamoured with ourselves too (in a good way).
Sure, we love scoring a cheap flight to Bali or putting on our backpacks for a year on the road in South America, but lately we’ve also embraced the formidable charms of travelling in our backyard.
According to Tourism Research Australia data released in March this year, domestic trips of all types are posting strong growth.
From overnight business trips to long weekend jaunts in search of interstate fun, and make-it-up-as-you-go-along, improvisational road trips in regional areas, we are all rediscovering the joys of travelling on home soil.
The way to our hearts….
Signs in Barossa
So, what’s driving this renewed love affair with domestic travel? Simply put, we are a nation of gluttons and the way to our heart is through our bellies.
While travelling to attend festivals and visit friends and family are strong factors for travel, food and wine tourism is so very hot right now. So hot in fact, that it’s hard to keep up with how many incredible places there are to scoff strawberries fresh from the farm, learn about how single malts are crafted over time and taste wine made from the world’s oldest Shiraz vines.
In regional Victoria areas like the Bellarine Peninsula are growing in popularity thanks to renewed interest in the wine and artisanal cheeses offered by local providores, farms and makers, while the inland region has seen a resurgence in culinary tourism thanks to the iconic dining experiences on offer at cult favourites Brae and the Royal Mail in Dunkeld.
Grampians kangaroo
Over in New South Wales, fertile areas like the Hunter Valley, Mudgee and the Southern Highlands are all going gangbusters thanks to everything from rustic cellar door experiences to bespoke mushroom foraging tours.
The same trends are reflected in world-renowned foodie destinations all over Australia. Places like South Australia’s Barossa Valley and Kangaroo Island regions, and Western Australia’s Margaret River continue to attract domestic travellers keen on savouring some of the best wine and produce in the world.
Even Canberra has come to the party by adding some awesome epicurean standouts (like the annual Truffle Festival) to the political mix.
The undisputed comeback king
Tasmania wine
No region represents a greater reversal of fortune than the state of Tasmania.
In the past, poor Tassie was unfairly seen as a bit of a daggy, backwater with nothing much to offer outside of outdoors experiences.
Yet Tassie is now a genuinely hip destination thanks to a combination of factors. So how did Tassie’s street cred seemingly go from zero to a hundred in one hot minute? The answer again is our love of sinful pleasures.
Produce from Maria Island
If you’re into truffles then the truffle farms of North West Tassie will welcome you with open arms for an afternoon of truffle hunting with their trusty hounds. If you fancy a warm tipple, Tassie’s Whisky Trail delivers some serious distillery action, while the iconic Maria Island Walk showcases the best produce of the region, from fresh seafood to premium cheese, tasty craft ales and beyond (with a sneaky side serve of daily wombat sightings).
Truffle dog and owner
But it’s not just all about the food. Call it the MONA Effect but the birth of the bizarre artistic fever dream known as MONA has had a butterfly effect on the rest of the city, with wine bars, other galleries and accommodation providers all upping the ante with their offering.
By investing in fresh accommodation options suited to an artistically-inclined crowd interested in aesthetics, Hobart has been able to attract a new demographic of travellers. Forget musty bed and breakfasts with lace curtains and stained carpet that’s well past it’s used by date.
Hobart is now home to genuinely luxe accommodation providers like the Mona Pavilions and the Henry Jones Art Hotel.
With the recent Tasmanian Tourism Snapshot figures showing that in the last year Tassie received a whopping one million interstate visitors for the first time in the state’s tourism history, it appears that for now almost everyone is hankering for some southern comfort in Tassie.
A million of us can’t be wrong!
