Cheese Travel in Australia

Where the Cheese Is

Australia has no single cheese region. The good stops are spread across the dairy country of Tasmania, Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia, with a couple in Western Australia and Queensland. Most are cellar-door style: a shop beside the factory with free or cheap tastings, and often a window onto the vats.

Tasmania and King Island

The island state is the best place in the country for a cheese trip. Bruny Island Cheese Co. makes cheese and beer on Bruny Island, Grandvewe milks sheep at Birchs Bay south of Hobart, Ashgrove near Devonport has windows onto its factory, and Pyengana Dairy in the north-east has made cloth-matured cheddar for more than 130 years. Out in Bass Strait, King Island Dairy has a cheese store at the factory. The Tasmania cheese trail pulls them together.

Victoria

In the Yarra Valley, an easy day trip from Melbourne, Yarra Valley Dairy serves tastings from $5 in a century-old milking shed. In the north-east, Milawa Cheese has run free daily tastings in an old butter factory since 1988. On the Mornington Peninsula, Main Ridge Dairy sells goat cheese from its own herd. Gippsland is big dairy country, but its cheesemakers rarely open to visitors; Gippsland Food and Wine in Yarragon stocks their cheese.

New South Wales

The Hunter Valley has three cheese tasting rooms among the Pokolbin wineries, and the free Bega Cheese Heritage Centre is on the Sapphire Coast.

South Australia

The Barossa Valley Cheese Company makes and sells its cheese on the main street of Angaston, close to the Saturday Barossa Farmers Market. Adelaide holds CheeseFest each October.

Western Australia and Queensland

In the South West, Cambray Cheese near Nannup has a farm shop with viewing windows and a stall at the Margaret River Farmers Market. On the Sunshine Coast hinterland, Kenilworth Dairies runs a cheese shop and café.

When to Go

Most cheese shops are open all year, but the calendar shapes a trip. MOULD x Pinot Palooza tours five cities over the southern winter: Brisbane in late May, Sydney in mid-June, Melbourne in early July, Perth in early August and Adelaide at the end of August. CheeseFest fills an October weekend in Adelaide. Tasmania is at its best from spring to autumn, and King Island Dairy keeps short winter hours. Sheep cheese is seasonal: Cambray milks from about August to February and makes sheep milk cheese from September to March.

Suggested Routes

Tasmania, Five Days

From Hobart, drive south to Grandvewe at Birchs Bay (Friday to Monday), then take the ferry to Bruny Island for Bruny Island Cheese Co. On the way north, stop at Wicked Cheese in Richmond, then follow the east coast to St Helens and Pyengana (Wednesday to Sunday). Finish at Ashgrove between Launceston and Devonport on a weekday, when you can watch the cheesemakers through the glass, and catch the ferry from Devonport.

Victoria, Two Day Trips from Melbourne

Spend one day in the Yarra Valley, with a tasting at Yarra Valley Dairy and lunch at a winery. For a longer trip, drive up the Hume to the King Valley and Milawa, where tastings run daily from 9:30am.

Barossa and Adelaide

Go on a Saturday: the Barossa Farmers Market in Angaston runs from 7:30 to 11:30am, and the Barossa Valley Cheese Company is in the same town on Murray Street (closed Tuesdays). In October, add CheeseFest in Adelaide.

Getting Around

You need a car for almost everything outside the festivals. Bruny Island is reached by vehicle ferry from Kettering, and King Island only by air, with flights from Melbourne and northern Tasmania. The MOULD festivals and CheeseFest are in city venues on public transport.

More Cheese Stops

Not Open to Visitors

The Margaret River Dairy Company is now a yoghurt brand with no visitor centre. Island Pure, the sheep dairy on Kangaroo Island, no longer has a website and is reported closed. Prom Country Cheese in South Gippsland has closed its cellar door for now.