I visit Mark and Sandy Renzaglia's vineyard and also see what else Bathurst has to offer. I also return to Wahluu on both nights for the Inland Sea of Sound,an annual music festival (the 2020 festival headliners are Missy Higgins and Killing Heidi),which opens at dusk with a smoking ceremony by the Wiradyuri people.
Bathurst is Australia's oldest inland settlement and many of the historic buildings are now cafes and restaurants.
We breakfast at The Hub in Keppel Street,in a old terrace with posting rails out front,which serves its own blend of local artisan coffee,Fish River Roasters. Sweet Caramel,opposite beautiful Machattie Park,has French flair and terrific cakes. Both are buzzing. The city's top-rated dinner spot,Cobblestone Lane,has taken over the former EG Webb&Co department store.
Church Bar,in the old Anglican church hall in a lane named after the notorious Ribbon Gang,is the place for wood-fired pizza and drinks,while the old Crago Mill now houses the Two Heads craft brewery.
The latest restoration project,the Bathurst Rail Museum,is due to open in February 2020 in the former railway institute building,once the social hub for railway workers and their families. A scale model of the Main Western Line,that connected the inland city to Sydney,is one of its attractions.
And then there are the city's jewels - the neoclassical Court House,Ben Chifley's home and King's Parade with its memorials and Carillon. And Bathurst also has its own castle,or more correctly a Scottish baronial mansion,Abercrombie House. Here we meet the lord of the manor,Christopher Morgan. He has lived in the 50-room,seven-staircase granite and sandstone residence since his father,Rex,bought it 50 years ago. He and his wife,Xanthe,run tours and hold weddings,high teas and jazz nights to finance the never-ending restoration work. Built in 1878 by James Stewart,the son of the Lieutenant Governor of NSW,William Stewart,the house had been shut up and unoccupied since 1927.
Chris tell us that his father,who still owns the property,operated the first guided tours on Easter Saturday 1969 for the princely sum of 30 cents and 400 people turned up to see what was behind the rusting iron gates.
Our next slice of history is a visit to whip-maker Robin Willis who crafts Australian stock whips from his home workshop. He's one of 220 whip-makers in Australia and although formerly a school teacher who only began making them six years ago,he has a steady business for his custom made designs which he sells at the monthly Tarana Farmers'Market in the tiny town 42 kilometres from Bathurst.
The last encounter with Bathurst's rich past is my home for the weekend - the Bishop's Court Estate. This former residence of Anglican Bishop Samuel Marsden is now a sumptuous boutique hotel. Owner and interior decorator Christine Le Fevre took four years to restore the 1870 two-storey mansion with six guestrooms,library,private chapel and sprawling gardens,to five-star standard. Breakfast is served in the grand dining room and dishes are enhanced by veggies and herbs from the garden and eggs from the resident hens.
TRIP NOTES
MORE