Essentials Magazine Summer 2008

Live LifeEat Real Pasta

Launceston LowdownSouthern Cool

Awesome Beers!Our expert con.rmsjust whose hops are hot

essentialsmagazineculture culinary adventure

www.essentialsmagazine.com.auissue 8 summer 2007/2008

Price: FREE

Have you met Isabella?

Isabella, known as Fragola in Italy, has been used over many

years to produce a slightly sparkling wine displaying the characteristics of strawberry (Fragola is Italian for

strawberry). e Michelini family is proud to continue this tradition here in Australia. With strawberry colour and aroma, this Isabella has a

lovely refreshing sparkling fullness in the mouth. Serve well chilled with friends, as an aperitif

or when just relaxing.

essentials magazine summer 2007 page 5

a splash of success

G R A NIT E R A N G E E STAT EVisit our family vineyard and cellar door situated at Wilsons Road, Wangandary (near Wangaratta), Victoria.

Tel/Fax: 03 5725 3292 | Web: www.graniterangeestate.com.au

s n i f f , s i p ‘ n ’ s t a yStay a little longer – uality B&B rooms onsite.

A wine lovingly created, delightfully fragrant and a joy to drink.

At home in more restaurants and cafés than you’d expect.

Granite Range Estate - a splash of success


Features:18 Launceston Con.dential – This city’s cool factor has just gone up54 Quan & The Art Of Culture Jamming – Regurgitator’s Quan Yeomans

Food & Wine:7 Pasta Like Mamma Used To Make – Yarra Valley Pasta14 Picnics At Granite Range Estate – Life as a ‘gourmet’ bushranger15 A Spirited Revolution – Chambord Liqueur Royale de France29 Uncorked – Sam Miranda’s 2004 Sparkling Shiraz Durif32 View From The Hill – Celebrating top summer wines59 Drinking Beer Is Awesome! – Our expert reviews ace North East beers

Discovery & Adventure:27 Sweet Indulgence – Indulgence on Bridge, Benalla48 Alpine Village Dreaming – Bogong Alpine Village68 Bling, Bling – Tremonti Fine Gems and Jewellery76 Looking Through Mauve Coloured Glasses – Ballingarry Lavender

Accommodation:42 Bella Villa – Villa di Oro72 Art Hotel – The Hatton Hotel, Sth Yarra

Art, Retail & Fashion:35 2007 Indigenous Ceramic Art Award – Shepparton Art Gallery38 From The Real To The Surreal – Tony Flint64 Catwalk At Giaconda – Kathryn Hammerton, Beechworth

Regulars:16 Espresso Grand – real coffee from the North East and beyond17 Now Try This – Barwidgee Lavender Skincare62 Essential Interiors – with Michaela Jane

Launceston Con.dential18

essentialsmagazineculture culinary adventure

Managing Editor | ContentJamie Durrant

Contributing EditorEmma Westwood

Sub EditorLisa Maxwell

Arts Editor Ivan Durrant

Advertising | SalesJamie Durrant Tel: 03 5762 3485Mob: 0419 006 391

Graphic Design | Art DirectionJamie Durrant

Advertising CreativeCreated in-house by Layout Looks

ContributorsEmma WestwoodJacqui VerrocchioCharlie BrownEmma GardinerMichaela Jane

PhotographersJamie Durrant, Stephan Miechel, Charlie Brown Additional PhotographsEssentials would like to thank the following contributors for additional content and images: Adrian Lander, Danny Nalder, Matthew Newton, Tamar River Cruises, The Hatton Hotel.

[email protected]

[email protected]@layoutlooks.com [larger .les]

Our Websiteswww.essentialsmagazine.com.auwww.layoutlooks.com

PublisherJamie Durrant, Layout Looks and Essentials Magazine.ABN: 61 114 862 570 PO Box 967, Benalla, Vic 3672.Tel: 03 5762 3485

All photographs and text are the property of Essentials Magazine and or the rightful copyright holders. Under no circumstances are they to be reprinted or published by any means whatsoever without written permission of the editor. While we always try to clear and confirm all editorial content (both text and photographs) before publishing, we welcome the opportunity to correct any errors or omissions. The opinions of the contributors and/or columnists are not necessarily those of the publisher. Essentials aims to please and support the North East region via pleasurable and positive content. Every effort is made to confirm event and calendar dates and factual information, although at times please understand that errors can occur – we’re only human! Essentials strongly recommends travellers phone event managers and tourist operators to confirm dates and events prior to enjoying the fruits of this region. Essentials Advance Plus cardholders are required to register their cards online. We welcome your reviews, letters, feedback and support.

Price in Australia: FREE at selected tourist locations, $24.95 12-month subscription via www.iSubscribe.com.auThis issue: No.8 – summer 2007/2008(We visted the land of gardens, lazy cats and coffee shops – yet we never saw a two headed man!)

Essentials Magazine is printed by Geon Impact Printing, 69-79 Fallon St Brunswick, Victoria 3056.

a splash of success

G R A NIT E R A N G E E STAT EVisit our family vineyard and cellar door situated at Wilsons Road, Wangandary (near Wangaratta), Victoria.

Tel/Fax: 03 5725 3292 | Web: www.graniterangeestate.com.au

s n i f f , s i p ‘ n ’ s t a y

essentialsmagazine

Escape to Mount Beauty in Australia’s magnificent High CountryWhen was the last time you awakened all your senses? Nature provides the striking mountain views, we provide the location and romantic ambience — the rest of the magic is up to you! Spend experiential quality time with your partner. Braeview’s stylish boutique adults only retreat and award-winning B&B allows you to take time out to “relax, unwind your mind and revive your spirit” in Victoria’s beautiful Kiewa Valley.

• Re. ections Cottage (fully self-contained) — step into a special world of your own • Studio Apartment (fully self-contained) — experience the atmosphere and coziness • Traditional B&B Spa Rooms — savour the à-la-carte breakfast

Let us entice you with our special packages — go ahead enjoy some quality time to yourselves maybe a Weekend Indulgence, Mid Week Escapade or a Relax/Revive package all designed to spoil/pamper you both whilst enjoying your stay at Braeview.

savour great wine and fabulous food, or simply venture out and explore the region at your own pace enjoying the crisp alpine air, and finish your perfect day sharing a glass of wine with your loved one. Take time out to explore and experience the Kiewa Valley and Mount Beauty area. Or perhaps you would like to treat special people in your life with a gift voucher or spoil the one you love. Enjoy the pure crisp alpine air, panoramic mountain views, picnics beside crystal clear mountain streams, wineries and cellar doors, stroll hand-in-hand along one of the high country walking tracks or discover the Alpine National Park or Falls Creek Alpine Resort — all this is only a short 30-minute drive from The Great Alpine Road.

Braeview Mount Beauty, Victoria, Australia. Tel: 03 5754 4746 Mobile phone local: 0418 572 834 Mobile international calls: +61 4 1857 2834 Fax: +61 3 5754 4757Web: www.braeview.com.au Email: [email protected]

Pasta Like MammaUsed To Make

Food Bites Summer

WORDS BY EMMA WESTWOOD FOOD STYLING & RECIPES BY LISA COLANERI PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE DURRANT

essentials magazine summer 2007 page 9 essentials magazine summer 2007 page 11

Yarra Valley Pasta’s Roasted

Pumpkin & Gemello Ravioli

with butter-fried sage leaves and mustard fruits

This dish was created by Lisa Colaneri and Todd Adams, Executive Chef of

Lamaro’s in South Melbourne, as part of a wonderful and extremely successful series of promotional lunches, ‘Yarra Valley Comes to Town’.

Serves 2

1 packet of 12 individual Yarra Valley Pasta Roasted Pumpkin & Gemello Raviolo (roasted pumpkin .avour ed with thyme & nutmeg, Yarra Valley Dairy Gemello, ricotta cheese and breadcrumbs). Remember to cook ravioli from frozen – don’t thaw them out!

250g unsalted Lescure French Butter1 cup sage leaves100g mustard fruits (often referred to as mostarda di frutta and available through good food providores)Pinch of sea salt to tasteCracked black pepper to taste

MethodPlace snap frozen ravioli into a pot of simmering salted water and cook for up to 12 minutes, occasionally plunging ravioli every few minutes ensuring each piece is cooked evenly.

Meanwhile, fry off sage leaves, salt, pepper and mustard fruits in butter until sizzling and almost crispy. Once ravioli are cooked, drain from water and gently place back into the frying pan, allowing them to infuse with the flavours of the sage and mustard fruits.

Food Bites Summer

Yarra Valley ravioli production


Serves 4

400g Yarra Valley Pasta Organic Spelt LinguineJar Yarra Valley Pasta Tomato and Basil Sauce (500g jar) 6-8 whole zucchini .owers Handful basil leaves1 cup extra virgin olive oil2 cloves garlic150-200g ricotta cheese (we recommend the Floridia brand)

MethodPlace pasta in a generous pot of boiling salted water and cook for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, fry off garlic & basil leaves in extra virgin olive oil, add zucchini flowers, gently frying for up to a minute or so before adding Yarra Valley Pasta Tomato & Basil Sauce. Once pasta is cooked, drain off water and place back into the saucepot, continuing the cooking process while folding in the fresh ricotta.

tossed through new season zucchini .owers, fresh ricotta and basil Leaves

Spelt is an ancient grain, never genetically modified in any way and a wonderful

alternative for those with intolerances to wheat. Its nutty flavours and grainy textures are a favourite of mine and can be enjoyed with a variety of sauces. This recipe in particular is simple and so easy – in this case I headed out to my father Felice’s beautiful vegetable garden, where I picked some fresh, new season zucchini flowers and a handful of basil leaves. There is always some ricotta cheese in Mum’s fridge (which is made from milk sourced from nearby Gruyere and Coldstream dairy farms), and of course our famous Yarra Valley Pasta Tomato & Basil Sauce from the pantry!

Yarra Valley Pasta’s Organic Spelt Linguine

Food Bites Summer

Felice’s beautiful vegetable garden

and, for the most part, remain unchanged. ‘All the recipes are pretty much the same,’ con.rms Lisa Colaneri, Mary’s daughter and Yarra Valley Pasta’s general manager. ‘We’ve got a bible book of recipes – and don’t think any chef is going to come in and add another kilo of something when it doesn’t belong! Mum and I have done all the recipe development but we’ve had some chefs come and go over the years. They’re traditional Italian recipes and they’re egg-based pastas, so we’re producing more of a luxurious pasta as opposed to your usual flour and water variety.’

As the spokesperson for Yarra Valley Pasta, Lisa cuts a striking presence. Tall and elegant, she is the epitome of urban chic, although she admits to being a Healesville girl, born and bred. It’s not surprising that Lisa took out the title of Miss Healesville Showgirl when she was just 18 years old and, as part of the prize, refined her deportment skills with a modelling course at Melbourne’s Suzan Johnston, before continuing on at the agency as an instructor. ‘They offered me a job teaching people how to walk and talk and I thought, “Yep, I can do that”,’ laughs Lisa, reminiscing on the experience. But it wasn’t long before

Lisa Colaneri at home with dad

essentials magazine summer 2007 page 12 essentials magazine summer 2007 page 12.5

It’s a bold proclamation to make and something no one will dispute… or ignore, especially when walking up to Yarra Valley

Pasta’s Healesville store. Emblazoned across the front windows, this message is at the core of the Yarra Valley Pasta experience. Life’s too short to eat one dollar twenty, dried, packaged pasta from the supermarket shelf. Treat yourself to something better. And something better is unashamedly what Yarra Valley Pasta provides. Their as-fresh-as-you-can-get, melt-in-the-mouth pasta includes treats like free-range egg spaghettini, black pepper linguine and fillings like smoked trout and goat’s cheese, or gorgonzola, prosciutto and fig. Their traditional lasagne is legendary and, figuratively speaking, walks off the shelf, with Brighton ladies buying it by the armful, no doubt passing it off as their own recipe at dinner parties. Yarra Valley Pasta even produces spelt pasta, which still contains high levels of gluten but is much easier to digest, especially for people suffering an intolerance to wheat. This is a premium, certified organic product at a premium price – but worth every cent – and described as ‘just beautiful’ by its very proud creators. The Colaneri Family, proprietors of Yarra Valley Pasta for 10 years, have pasta running in their veins. They’re Italian, harking from Frosolone in the Molise region of Italy, and a true blue Italian will never suffer inferior pasta… or sub-standard food of any variety, for that matter. Family matriarch and pasta wiz Mary Colaneri learnt how to make pasta from her mother, and her mother learnt from her mother, and so the story continues. Quite literally, these recipes are as old as the hills

the Yarra Valley called her back home from the city. Lisa was one of the first hostesses at Domaine Chandon when they opened their doors in the region and also worked at De Bortoli and Yarra Ridge. Mary Colaneri started Yarra Valley Pasta on the encouragement of her plumber, just one of the many locals who’d been impressed by mealtime at the Colaneri household. His suggestion was simple: ‘Mary, why don’t you open up a pasta shop?’ ‘We all literally said, “Mum, just go for it!”’ explains Lisa, of what seemed a no-brainer decision. ‘In Healesville at the time, all these big wine companies had come in, like Domaine Chandon, so you had a new wave of people in the valley who were all very food and wine conscious. From a local perspective, you couldn’t go anywhere in Healesville and buy “foodie food”, if that makes sense. We polished all the floorboards, got a little pasta machine in, made a little tub of sauce, tub of lasagne, a bit of fresh pasta… once word got out, people were like “Oh, thank God”.’ It took 12 months before Lisa felt the calling to join the family business. For her, it was ‘an itch’ that needed to be scratched, something she wanted to do for herself. Lisa concentrated on setting up a simple service café in the Yarra Valley Pasta store. However, she confesses that the café was ahead of its time and a little too specialised for Healesville when the town was still finding its feet as a tourist hub, which meant a cup of Illy coffee at two dollars and twenty cents seemed exorbitantly expensive. ‘Lorenza d’Medici came into our café, though,’ tells Lisa, excitedly. ‘She was a guest of the De Bortoli family for their 10 year

‘Live Life, Eat Real Pasta!’

Food Bites Summer

essentials magazine summer 2007 page 12.5

anniversary. I’ve got a great relationship with Leanne at De Bortoli and she said, “I’d love to bring her over for lunch”, so we had a little luncheon for her. I had royalty in my little café! She was a beautiful lady. Stephanie Alexander used to come up too to talk about .llings for her menu – we would make filled ravioli for her Richmond Hill Café & Larder.’ These days, as well as selling pasta from their original Healesville store, Yarra Valley Pasta distributes to over 40 outlets, stretching from Melbourne to Albury/Wodonga to Canberra and even Queensland. Lisa admits that it took awhile with research to negotiate the most effective means of packaging their pasta without compromising on the freshness but Yarra Valley Pasta made the leap and the demand has been overwhelming. Melbourne locals can find them at their newest retail store at the Prahran Market – look for the pristine white! – which has been open for a year now. While the family aspect of the business continues – Lisa’s dad, Felix, makes all the deliveries and her brother, Michael, oversees the production process – Mary Colaneri takes more of a backseat after being its driving force. ‘She’s the backbone of that business,’ Lisa says, full of admiration for her mother. ‘She’s gone in there and done the hard yards.’ As for Lisa herself, she has no plan to retire from her position and remains committed to promoting the pasta story, which leads us to ask: Do you ever get tired of pasta? ‘Nup, not at all,’ Lisa concludes. ‘It’s too good, you can’t get sick of it.’

Where to .nd Y arra Valley Pasta:Healesville Harvest, Healesville, VictoriaYering Station Produce Store, Yering, VictoriaBright ‘n’ Fresh, Brighton, VictoriaLawson Grove, South Yarra, VictoriaOliv, Hawthorn, VictoriaV&R’s, Geelong, VictoriaLorne Greens, Lorne, VictoriaFruits ‘n’ Fare, Benalla, VictoriaMulberry’s, Castlemaine, VictoriaWilsons Fruit & Vegetables, Ballarat, VictoriaHamilton Island General Store, Whitsundays, Qld Passionate pasta lover and business brain: Lisa Colaneri


Food Bites Summer

It’s an awe-inspiring view. Surrounded by ancient yakka trees and gigantic, pinkish, salmon-coloured granite rocky outcrops, you are free to gaze down at the Ovens Valley river .ats like a fr ee-willed, cattle-hustling, crazed bushranger. Situated in the Warby Ranges a little north of Wangaratta, this summer Granite Range Estate vineyard and cellar door is swinging open its

farm gates to allow visitors to picnic on site. Purchase a bottle after wine tasting and make a short climb to this captivating and timeless place. Do as we did and pack some smoked trout, Milawa cheeses, fruit and berries, and the all-important Granite Range Estate wine and lay out your summer picnic just as Ned Kelly would, using bare granite rock as his gourmet plate. With an outstanding selection of elegant wines on offer, Granite Range Estate is a great place to bring family and friends for an outing and you’re more than welcome to bring your swag full of gourmet goodies, providing you purchase a few bottles upon arrival. For further information or to request a pre-packaged picnic hamper pack, contact the team at Granite Range Estate today.

Wilsons Road, Wangandary, VictoriaTel: 03 5725 3292www.graniterangeestate.com.au

Summer Picnics at Granite Range Estate

Be your own gourmet bushranger at Granite Range Estate this summer

While many of us could be accused of wasting money on frivolous things, King Louis XIV – or more accurately, his .rst wife Marie Therese (commonly known as Marie Antoinette) – took the concept of impulse shopping to a new level when she single-

handedly brought 17th century France to the brink of bankruptcy. As a result, the starving masses who were understandably outraged by the court’s spending, staged a number of violent demonstrations culminating in various attacks on the palace at Versailles. Luckily for Louis and Co, his advisors were able to pre-empt these civilian tantrums by whisking everyone away to the safety of the French countryside when things started to get ugly in the capital. It remains unclear whether King Louis XIV was on the run from an angry mob or just partaking in an innocent mini-break when he ventured down Chateau de Chambord for the first time. Located in the Loire Valley, Chateau de Chambord was originally built as a hunting lodge for one of King Louis’ forbears: King Francois I. After many years of neglect, the Chateau fell into terrible disrepair but King Louis, who was evidently no stranger to splashing around a few francs, decided to renovate the Chateau, adding a 300 horse stable into the bargain. Once the work was completed, King Louis would go on to spend several weeks a year down there entertaining luminaries such as French writer Moliere. It was on one of these potentially quite literal escapes that King Louis was presented with a new invention – a black raspberry liqueur that his subjects had spent years perfecting. The liqueur was made by steeping blackberries and raspberries in spirits for a period of four weeks, during which time the berry flavours would infuse and develop. These spirits would then be extracted and a new layer of alcohol would be added to the fruit and allowed to rest for another two weeks. After this, the berries were pressed to extract the remaining juice and sugars. All three pressings were then blended to create a rich, sweet and uniquely natural berry flavoured liqueur to which the Maitre Liquoriste (the French equivalent of a master distiller) would add cognac, extracts of Madagascar vanilla, Moroccan citrus peel, honey and delicate herbs and spices. Today, this extraordinary liqueur is still produced in the Loire valley and derives its name from the chateau where it was first conceived. Chambord Liqueur Royale de France is made using the same recipe that was created over 350 years ago and remains a staple on French apéritif menus.

A Spirited RevolutionWORDS BY EMMA GARDINER


E S P R E S S O G R A N D

Coffee Republic, LauncestonSize isn’t everything. Located in a hallway space in Launceston’s Brisbane Street Mall and identi.able by the cute Vespa parked out front, Coffee Republic are independent coffee roasters whose shop is stripped bare of all of the usual café accoutrements: If you can wedge yourself between the roasting machine tucked in behind the door and dodge the open hessian sacks of coffee beans, you’ll find the baristas, a massive Rancilio machine and the grinder are about as much as they can squeeze into their tiny premises. But watching your barista carefully monitor that mouse-tail of espresso draining from the group into a miniature paper cup, and then drinking your doppio on the spot, makes the whole experience just that little bit Italian. And with coffee that recently picked up three medals at the Sydney Royal Coffee Competition, it’s all you need. The one thing we’d like to know is when Coffee Republic finally secedes from Australia to become its own independent micro-nation, can we apply for dual citizenship? Or at least buy a bag of coffee beans?

137 Brisbane St, Launceston, TasmaniaTel: 0412 260 445

North Eastern Hotel, BenallaIt was like music to our ears when Tony and Helen Ashton first told us that they’re converting the North Eastern Hotel into Benalla’s first ‘gastropub’. Originally built as a hotel for train travellers, the ‘Northo’ marries the feel of a traditional pub with inner-city-slick. The atmosphere is relaxed and from the lounge area (chocolate-coloured leather couches and banquettes), you can see how comfortably the espresso machine sits alongside the boutique beers. The menu of modern Australian food complements local wines and a great range of beers, including Stella Artois and James Squires on tap. The Northo’s also a great place to meet over a coffee from Melbourne-based roasters Crivelli: Just don’t be surprised when your friend orders a ‘cleansing ale’ instead. And the trains? You don’t even notice them until they go past.

1 Nunn Street, Benalla, VictoriaTel: 03 5762 7333Dinner: Wed-Sat, Lunch: Tues-Sun, Closed Mondays

Barwidgee Lavender, Happy ValleyWith the lavender bushes bursting into full bloom this time of the year, the cottage café at Barwidgee Lavender offers a dreamy (and aromatic) landscape for sipping on your espresso brew from Beraldo – a boutique coffee merchant from Melbourne. Especially suited to the fragrant environment is Barwidgee’s ever-expanding range of Larsen & Thompson teas, including a divine selection of Chinese floral teas, so fresh and revitalising on the palate.

714 Happy Valley Road, Rosewhite, VictoriaTel: 03 5753 5335www.barwidgeelavender.com.au

Semifreddo and espressoat the North Eastern Hotel, Benalla

The city of Vespas, gardens, lazy cats and coffee – Coffee Republic, in The Mall, Launceston

N O W T R Y T H I S

In this rush-rush world, there’s something to be said for feeling calm because, unfortunately, it’s a sensation that is alien to most

of us. That’s where Barwidgee Lavender steps into the picture, championing the soothing properties of a delicate .ower that has been prized in perfumery and medicinal circles since ancient times. ‘We use organic bases for all our products, so the end result is the ultimate in skin care… guaranteed to make you feel good!’ says Jo from Barwidgee about the brand she’s literally nurtured from the ground up. Everything from massage oil, soap, face spritzer (for those ‘moments’ during the day when you need a little tender loving care) and lavender room, linen and body mist to hand cream, body lotion, bubble bath, bath and shower gel and lip balm, Barwidgee has you covered from head to foot. Of course, there’s also the essential oil produced from lavandula angustifolia, which is simply the best grade of lavender available. The flowers are grown and harvested on the Barwidgee property in the Happy Valley, which means they can vouch for the fact that their essential oil is of the highest aromatherapy quality, greatly valued for its calming, balancing and healing qualities (unlike some inferior quality products on the market). Considering Barwidgee Lavender operates as a cottage

industry, there is nothing ‘cottage’ about their products. With elegant labelling and packaging that maintains the integrity of the products’ therapeutic properties, as well as looking good on the shelf, their selection is as slick as anything you’ll find in major department stores – just more exclusive. Stockists considering adding something boutique to their ranges would be well advised to take a closer look at what Barwidgee has to offer.

Current stockists:Bright Berry Farm, EurobinPlump Harvest Produce, MyrtlefordThe Olive Shop, Milawa5 Star Adventure tours, BrightAlpine Discovery Centre, Mount BeautyWangaratta Visitor Information Centre, WangarattaGapsted Winery, GapstedBinna Burra Mountain Lodge, QueenslandScent, Maling Rd, CanterburyOlive Health Foods, Wangaratta 714 Happy Valley Road, Rosewhite, VictoriaTel: 03 5753 5335www.barwidgeelavender.com.au

Barwidgee Lavender Product Range


Launceston

Confidential

Launceston

Confidential

It’s not a big city but if you’re under the impression that Launceston is just a sleepy backwater, you’re

in for a surprise. Launceston’s cool factor, along with its hip quotient, has just gone up.

WORDS BY JACQUI VERROCCHIO PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE DURRANT


QUIRKY, DOWNMARKET HOLLYWOOD GLAMOURGet ready for your screentest

COOL WHITE ON BLUE SUMMER SKYLaunceston’s striking Art Deco architecture

FRANCOPHILES UNITE Inside French bakery Tant Pour Tant

THE LIDO Is .lled with Art Deco accoutr ements


Launceston is a city hell-bent on playing cultural catch-up. Everywhere you look there’s evidence of a burgeoning café lifestyle, a renaissance of ‘inner-city’ living, and among the locals, a friendly

desire to out-compete Hobart in terms of chic. To experience all this, a starting point is The Lido Boutique Apartments, accommodation that falls a little outside of the square. With an address in a leafy street, The Lido Boutique Apartments is a block of eight classic Art Deco ‘.ats’ – some three-bedroom, others single – built in the mid-1930s. Despite not being the slickest accommodation on the block, it has enough personality and comfort to leave most five-star accommodations for dead. It’s also the perfect base from which to explore this compact city. Sitting on the tidal estuary of the Tamar and Esk Rivers, Launceston is a city made for walking. From the recently rejuvenated waterfront with its host of boardwalk cafes, it’s a short walk to the downtown. Beyond this lies a landscape of undulating hills with such a bewildering number of randomly-placed parks one suspects the original town planners dropped a fist of beans on a survey map to decide their placement. In spring the smell of jasmine fills the air, and in the older parts of town, gardens are filled with roses and sunning cats. But if this all sounds a little sedating, Launceston is not without its ‘mojo’. Starting with The Lido apartments themselves, put simply, from the moment you walk in the door, you feel like you own the place: Either you’ve just been given the key to your own stylish, secure apartment (a ‘safe house’ if you want to play spy games), or could it be that your groovy aunt’s left you her place to stay in for the weekend? The Lido’s open-plan apartments were built as full residences and so they

have generous bathrooms, full kitchens, and comfortable lounges with adjoining dining areas, all of which conspires to make you feel at home. There’s room enough to move and plenty of natural light but without cold open spaces. The Lido also plays up to its Art Deco image. While the apartments have retained many of their original Deco features – from small architectural details such as the original mantelpieces, glass bricks in the bathrooms and the cream-coloured, rough-rendered interior walls – each apartment has its own little collection of Deco memorabilia from fashion posters to ‘objets d’art’ (check out the vintage transistors in the stairwell). In terms of ambiance, the unabashed Art Deco character gives the apartments a quirky, downmarket Hollywood glamour: You half expect to find a lipstick-stained martini glass on the table alongside the remains of a pink filter-tip cigarette (oops, The Lido is non-smoking), and you could even be excused for thinking you’ve just walked into a filmset from LA Con.dential or Mullholland Drive. As The Lido is situated on the side of a hill, even the rear ground-floor apartments are elevated, and each has its own little balcony looking out over Launceston’s ‘Hollywood Hills’. A short walk from The Lido you’ll find downtown Launceston, with a great range of cafés and bars. ‘It’s only been in the last five years that Launceston has really begun to enjoy outdoor dining and the café lifestyle,’ says Jo Herbig, owner of French Bakery ‘Tant Pour Tant’. Renowned for their handmade French breads, brioche and croissants (baked on premises daily), Tant Pour Tant’s small cakes are so close to works of abstract art it seems an act of vandalism to eat them. Taking four chefs in the kitchen to create, it’s Jo’s husband Paul who’s the ‘artist and designer’ of these mini masterpieces. And on Sunday mornings there’s a cue outside the door, and customers can get pretty competitive about that last pain au chocolat. Panini and baguettes are filled with the best local produce (including West Haven fetta, Elgaar Farm Organic ricotta and Black Forest smallgoods). For a quick meal, coffee or drink, other local favourites include the tiny cafe Coffee Republic and The Northern Club, a horseshoe bar

located in an ornate period building, sporting a kind of junk-shop decadence reminiscent of Melbourne’s Supper Club. For the ‘serious dining experience’ there are a few options around town, but none better than Luck’s. ‘We do French cuisine backwards,’ says owner Damon Wecker, who’s created a jewel box of a dining room inside yet another of Launceston’s Art Deco treasures, former Luck’s Butchery. ‘Everywhere France has been – those cuisines – influence what we do, while maintaining underlying French techniques.’ There’s a marble-lined bar that acts like a magnet for pre-dinner drinks, which also houses a massive vintage Wega machine. ‘We do the best coffee in town,’ adds Damon, potentially inviting fisticuffs with local baristas. Luck’s accomplished food adapts and modernises the classics. White fish with escabeche beans and a la grecque dressing on a bed of wilted spinach was both colourful and balanced, the delicate saffron-based sauce a perfect foil to the tender beans and perfectly cooked, crispy-skinned snapper. A topping of diced capsicum and tiny capers provided a well-conceived contrast in texture. Classic crème brûlée, deep yellow thanks to fresh duck eggs, was smooth and as it should be: Just warmed through. Behind the scenes, there’s more to Luck’s than meets the eye: On the floor Damon’s dressed in a suave pinstripe suit, but underneath his arms are covered in a series of avant-garde tattoos, which hint at his creativity and self-expression. Ditto his chef Joel Robert, who DJs in a deep trance outfit after hours: No wonder they’ve got French house music playing in the dining room. Aside from a planned bar next door, coincidentally to be named ‘The Lido’, Luck’s has just created a private dining area in the restaurant’s cellar room where (somewhat dangerously) one wall is dedicated to housing 350 different wines representing every major wine region on earth. Another wall is lined with a theatrical set of deep-red velvet curtains. Only the restaurant’s staff really know what goes on in there at night, and their lips are sealed. Apparently, it’s confidential.

‘You could be excused for thinking you’ve just walked into a filmset

from LA Confidential or Mullholland Drive’

KINGS BRIDGE GORGE COTTAGECataract Gorge Reserve


LAUNCESTON Art Deco monuments to the modern age minglewith colonial architecture

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CRUISIN’ Launceston’s Tamar River

The Launceston Lowdown

Flying from Melbourne to Launceston is so fast you won’t even have time to .nish your in-.ight cuppa. (Literally . We didn’t.)

For total relaxation, the Aquarius Roman Baths came highly recommended from touring musicians, Susie Patten of Brisbane’s I Heart Hiroshima, and Ben Ely from Regurgitator. Susie: ‘The baths made me feel like I was Julius Caesar, whooping arses for kicks and being fed grapes by babes. An invigorating and soul cleansing experience.’ Ben: ‘I just don’t understand why they wouldn’t let me go naked.’ (You can judge by their comments, they were extremely relaxed.)

Take a walk: The Cataract Gorge Reserve is accessible on foot via walking trails. You will find peace and natural beauty only 10 minutes from the city centre.

Take a boat: Tamar River Cruises also tour the Gorge in a boat built in the style of the 1890’s steam vessels. Included along the way is a bit of local history and a look at the local ‘ship graveyard’, and dry docks where sea-going vessels go in for repair. (At the time we visited a boat from the fleet of Sea Sheperd.org was having its hull patched after running into a Japanese whaler in the Southern Ocean.)

Launceston’s City Park – which has a history of displaying animals stretching back to the 19th century – has a troupe of Snow Monkeys (Japanese Macaques) in a specially designed enclosure, where they can bathe in water just as they do in the wild: The Japanese can’t resist soaking in an onsen, and neither can their Snow Monkeys.

The Tamar Valley Wine Route, taking in the Tamar Valley and Piper’s Brook, is right on your doorstep. The Tamar River provides frost protection for vines in the cool climate of the upper valley, while conditions become more temperate and maritime where the river meets the sea. These microclimates are perfectly suited to producing pinot noir and chardonnay (think sparkling wines), riesling and sauvignon blanc.

The Lido Apartments 47-49 Elphin Road, Launceston, TasmaniaTel: 03 6337 3000www.thelido.com.au

Luck’s70 George Street, Launceston, TasmaniaTel: 03 6334 8596www.lucks.com.au

Luck’s do French cuisine backwards, says owner Damon Wecker

The Lido is .lled with Art Deco paraphernalia

ARTHOUSE BAKEHOUSE Tant Pour Tant’s Pistache Glacier


1. Organic cotton throws and blankets, Moss Stitch in neutral pallatte’s mocha, wheat and sand, also newly launched are matching luxurious towels all cotton made in Turkey.

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3. Oversized quilts our speciality all cotton fabulous designs include the new indochine machine stitched with thousands of hand stitched French knots, new range from New Zealand coming.

Need advise on designing your bedroom into a sleep haven? Special Packages available.

Now In Store:


Sweet Indulgence

This is where Dorothy excells: Although Indulgence on Bridge has only been open

for a year and a half, she’s been in the beauty business for 12 years and, judging by the gleam in her eye, she approaches her work with as much energy as the days when she was an elite ice-skating coach. Walking into Indulgence on Bridge, the environment is a little different to your usual beauty therapists’ rooms. ‘I didn’t want people to feel intimidated by that clinical setting you .nd so often,’ says Dorothy. Consequently, she’s created intimate,

colourful spaces, where the soft music and aromatherapy flows. ‘People sometimes arrive here a little early, just to unwind,’ she says. ‘They get a little upset if we’re running ahead of schedule and we call them in early.’ ‘Basically we do everything that people need,’ Dorothy explains. Facials use the best quality French products by Sothy’s and other treatments include waxing, manicures, pedicures and special occasion makeup. Don’t forget the spa bath with jets especially designed for deep massage, and re-mineralising salts and bath oils to choose

from. ‘There’s also a nurse who comes in once a month for anti-aging treatments such as dermal filling and micro-dermabrasion.’ Men also like a little pampering, so they come in for waxing, massages and facials. Dorothy concludes, ‘People walk out of here feeling rejuvenated. That’s what I love to do.’

‘It’s all about helping people to achieve the best they can for themselves,’ says beauty therapist Dorothy Eiffet of Benalla’s Indulgence on Bridge.

Indulgence on Bridge13 Bridge Street East,Benalla, victoriaTel: 03 5762 4233Web: www.indulgenceonbridge.com


REVITALISE Experence a range of body treatments in relaxing surrounds

Beauty therapists, Deanne and Dorothy


Uncorked:

At last summer is here, the cicadas are out and the silly season is well and truly upon us. With the scorching temperatures ahead, Christmas

turkey, hams and hopefully seafood to scoff over the coming weeks, we can all just about expect to laugh and joke about gaining a little weight and falling asleep after way too much food – oh the joys of the Aussie season! Thankfully, this year Sam Miranda of King Valley has released a very complementary wine; one that may well be enjoyed now and right into next ski season, when all you mountain-crazed adrenalin seekers rediscover the joys of .ne white powder, downhill whirlwind speeds, clear, blue North East skies and the High Country’s must-do: Christmas in July celebrations. Sam Miranda’s 2004 Sparkling Shiraz Durif is a wonderfully rich, deep, dark plum colour. Complex and earthy, the wine is dancing with flavours of currants, mulberries, blackberries and chocolate – well designed for an end of year toast: ‘Here’s to the New Year, the tiny new arrivals and great things ahead!’ calls a rather tipsy grandmum, with a nervous smile as she prepares the gravy, praying for no lumps. Sam Miranda’s signature confirms confidence in the product and, although this is a wine to think about (complexity-wise), one could be forgiven for suggesting that it is simple enough to enjoy without over thinking. I suggest that you do not feel guilty quaffing this one: It is a fun wine and is here to be enjoyed. Fermented in-bottle and left on lees for 18 months prior to disgorging has resulted in a wine with a soft fine bead. The wine is a classic blend of two wonderful red varieties: shiraz, for its savoury spice and vibrant texture, and durif, for its mulberry characteristics and ripe tannin structure. Both the shiraz and the durif were sourced from the cool upper King Valley region and grown on a double wire trellising system, which allows maximum light penetration so the fruit can ripen at an earlier stage of its development. A visit to Sam Miranda’s iconic cellar door on the Snow Road at Oxley comes highly recommended from all of us at Essentials. It is a great location to share lunch and a wine with friends, and to sample a generous selection of fabulous King Valley wines. As a starting venue for touring the North East region, Sam Miranda of King Valley is a must-visit. If you’ve got an adventurous heart, crack a bottle, wack a great huge smile on your face and tell your family and friends that ‘Sam made this one just for me’ – we’ll keep it on the hush – enjoy!

Snow Road, Oxley, VictoriaTel: 03 5727 3888www.sammiranda.com.au

Sam Miranda 2004 Sparkling Shiraz Durif WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE DURRANT

‘Sam Miranda’s signature con.rms con.dence

in the product’



•

• Now under the new management of Tony and Helen Ashton

• Fine wines and boutique beers on tap

• Chef Steven Lidgerwood of Bank Restaurant London prepares delightful dishes from fresh regional produce

• Highly recommended by Essentials Magazine

1 Nunn Steet Benalla, Victoria. Tel: 03 5762 7333

• Restaurant Dining • Fine Wines & Beers

• Lounge/Bar • Accommodation


1 Nunn Steet Benalla, Victoria. Tel: 03 5762 7333

Unique Skincare – Everyday.

At Barwidgee Lavender our climate and soils allow us to produce one of the world’s finest lavender essential oils. Handpicked and distilled in the foothills of the

Victorian Alps, our oils are renowned for their natural balancing and harmonising effects. Nourish and restore your skin, sooth your senses and calm your mind with our unique, everyday skincare range.

Visit Barwidgee Lavender Farm & Licensed Cafe714 happy valley road, rosewhite, victoria, 3737tel. 03 5753 5335 web. www.barwidgeelavender.com.au

Stockists: Bright Berry Farm, Eurobin; Plump Harvest Produce, Myrtleford; The Olive Shop, Milawa; 5 Star Adventure tours, Bright; Alpine Discovery Centre, Mt Beauty; Wangaratta Visitor Information Centre, Gapsted Winery, Gapsted; Olive Health Foods, Wangaratta; ‘Scent’ Canterbury (Melb); Binna Burra Mountain Lodge, Beechmont (Qld).

I can hear wedding bells, well the clinking of hundreds of glasses at least!

When my long-time best friend, Chris, told me that he was getting married this December at a winery in the Yarra Valley, I was extremely excited; when I heard the winery was Helen’s Hill, I was totally over the moon! I can see the group now: Loads of family laughing away, a few tears in mum’s eye, great friends catching up, school buddies sniggering and girlfriends who have become loving wives – all dressed for success and hoping to outdo the bride – but there is no hope, sorry girls. Chris’s bride-to-be is dressed with wisdom and a calm con.dence. She has the God-given gift of a wonderful personality and love that has the ability to win over any heart, young or old. Chris, my friend, you have found a goddess. I wish you all the best in years ahead. I love a good party and think the world of Chris and his bride to be, Sarah. For a wedding venue I couldn’t think of a better place. Helen’s Hill winery and onsite ‘The Vines’ restaurant is situated just off the Maroondah Highway at Coldstream and enjoys commanding views looking over some of the best pinot noir and chardonnay country Australia has to offer. These undulating Coldstream Hills are an Australian viticultural landmark, with soil, climate and position just right for the most precious of berries. It was only last week that Chris mentioned to me, in passing, James Halliday’s humble plot of vines. I asked him what wines were on the list for the wedding, for I had just sampled some of the best from Helen’s Hill, and I was mighty impressed. The view from Helen’s Hill is a discovery internally also. The winery’s massive mezzanine level tasting room (pictured right), boasts a floor-to-ceiling glass wall that overlooks a huge barrel room. Polished timber floors are gleaming as are pyramid, handcrafted wooden light fittings that hang softly – floating as modernist sculptures possibly inspired by the wizardry of Ridley Scott’s epic sci-fi flick Blade Runner. The tasting room is a great place to bring friends. If you’ve ever wanted to show your mates something new, this place is just the ticket. A welcoming smile from cellar door manager Jeanette De Silva is a great start and once you’re sniffing and sipping, the magic will surely begin, for winemaker Scott McCarthy has travelled the world perfecting his craft. Over the page, I have happily reviewed some of his top wines, now ready to enjoy. Best wishes Chris and Sarah! :-)


WORDS BY & PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE DURRANT

Photo by Danny Nalder


HillView from

the

Helen’s Hill 2006 Pinot Noir With a nose of clean, bright cherry and warm violets, this outstanding pinot noir is classic for the varietal, with complex and super earthy forest .oor characteristics. Think wild mushrooms, cool, damp Yarra Valley soil and exotic fruit. Given a little time (an hour in this case), the wine really opens up with a supple, rather full-bodied, yet graciously balanced mouth feel. It’s nice to detect just a hint of spice and French oak – nothing overpowering. This wine has a beautifully prolonged finish, slightly dry with good tannin structure. Wonderful, lush, bright cherries, spice and chocolate hit the palate and hang in there. While no doubt an excellent accompaniment to game meats, Helen’s Hill 2006 Pinot Noir is elegant and stands tall on its own. Absolute bliss!

Helen’s Hill 2006 Chardonnay The Yarra Valley is well known for producing quality chardonnays and I’m pleased to report that the Helen’s Hill 2006 Chardonnay is certainly no exception – in fact, it’s an absolute winner. The first thing that hits you with this wine is the clean floral/stone fruit nose and lively sense of acid zest. This subtly fragrant wine gently opens up after 15-20 minutes to deliver an outstandingly round mouth feel with a great acid structure and a gentle touch of French oak. This very modern chardonnay (not heavy, think clean mineral and flinty characteristics) will have you coming back for more. It is easy, quality drinking and would be a fantastic wine with freshly barbequed scallops, melted butter and chopped herbs – yum! In my opinion, balance is everything and Helen’s Hills 2006

Chardonnay is without a doubt a new Australian icon – guaranteed to win over the hearts, minds and palates of many astute (or no so astute) wine lovers. Well-travelled and incredibly skilled, winemaker Scott McCarthy has excelled with this wine. Scott’s experience of working in locations such as California’s Napa Valley; the Loire Valley, France; and New Zealand’s famed Marlborough region are a clear indication that sharing and learning from some of the world’s best does make a difference. Scott, you’re on a winner!

Helen’s Hill 2006 Little Rascal (Arneis) For some, arneis (which does actually translate as rascal) is a rather punchy, or possibly too punchy, varietal. Originating from Piemonte, in Italy, the arneis grape tends to be dry, vibrant and full-bodied with notes of pears and apricots. Although this Little Rascal is armed with more refreshing minerally, herbaceous qualities, its lighter citrus elements make a surprising addition to the classic pears and apricots combination. With well-balanced ripe fruit and a full, extremely round palate, this wine is has a touch more depth and complexity than some of its King Valley counterparts. Almond notes add to the joys of this wine. In some ways I would like to see a little more acidic sparkle and spunk from this wine, however as an aperitif it excels – just the thing on a hot summer night. An easy drinking, fun wine with game and punch: A must-try.


SShepparton Art Gallery’s collection of

Australian and International ceramics now spans over 3000 works. The

gallery’s permanent exhibition highlights the development of this art form, from the .rst kilns built in Australia through to contemporary art from around the world. Launching this December is the inaugural 2007 Indigenous Ceramic Art Award (ICAA). This is the first National art award to celebrate the rich and diverse use of the ceramic medium by Indigenous artists throughout Australia. With $33,000 in prize money the exhibition is sure to be a drawcard for artists and art enthusiasts across the state. A comprehensive three-month public program is being delivered at the gallery including workshops with winning artists. As an acquisitive award, it will contribute to the gallery’s significant holdings of Australian and International ceramic art, and over time come to be a major collection of Indigenous ceramics in its own right.

The gallery is publishing a full colour catalogue highlighting the artwork in the exhibition together with wonderful insights into the work written by the artists themselves. The ICAA is made possible with the generous support of The Sir Andrew and Lady Fairley Foundation, Margaret Lawrence Bequest, FRRR and Sarah and Baillieu Myer Foundation. Local sponsor SPC Ardmona Factory Sales is contributing $3,000 specifically for the Victorian prize.

Shepparton Art GalleryEastbank Centre, 70 Welsford Street, Shepparton, Victoria. Tel. 03 5832 9861 www.greatershepparton.com.au/artgalleryOpen seven days 10am to 4pm Public Holidays: 12pm to 4pmChristmas closure: Closed 22 December 2007 – 1 January 2008 (inclusive) Gloria Fletcher Thanakupi (Cape York)

Selection of platters 2007 terracotta

Janet Fieldhouse (Torres Strait) Woven Armbands 2007 porcelain and wood

Shepparton Art Gallery is a regional gallery with a unique focus. It collects Australian ceramics from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries and its ceramic

collection is one of the best in Australia.

Shepparton Art Gallery

2007 Indigenous Ceramic Art Award




Wearing his usual worn, shoelace-less Dunlop volleys, jeans and loose grey shirt, Tony Flint is pulling out examples of his most recent paintings inside his studio, located in Benalla’s old

Castles Dairy. The .rst, depicting a section of the Delatite River with rippling water flowing over rocks, is highly realistic but with greatly heightened colour contrasting with a dark background landscape.

‘I’ve been moving towards a more surreal style, from real to invented landscapes. Some of these new paintings also have a darker edge, with more shadows,’ says Tony, continuing, ‘A favourite landscape of mine has always been that stretch of the Delatite River just below Mt Buller down to Merimba Bridge. It’s usually lush and green but this summer with the landscape blackened from the bushfires, it took on a

dark, spooky look; the accent of the light was different and the lower water levels meant that more rock was exposed.’

Looking around the studio, paints are lined up neatly and areas for painting with acrylic and oils are segregated. The dairy’s cool room is stacked full of works on paper while paintings are piled against the walls and crammed into storage. A half-empty pack of Cubero cigars sits on the bench below a huge pile of CDs from Radiohead and Cypress Hill to Unkle and The Dresden Dolls. ‘At the moment I’m listening to Silversun Pickups. And I love Rammstein.’ In the same breath he adds, ‘My back neighbours play country and western quite loud, which I don’t mind.’

Next Tony pulls out a painting of Hookina Creek in the Flinders Ranges, saying that the dry desert landscapes included in the exhibition

Essentials talks with Benalla-based artist Tony Flint, known in the region for his super-real

landscape paintings, about his recent

exhibition.

From the Real Surreal

to the

Tony Flint



‘provided a great contrast’ to the river paintings. ‘This is the bed of an ephemeral stream with huge mud banks,’ he says. ‘The stream rises very fast in thunderstorms, and in fact this landscape was washed away two weeks after I was there.’

‘I was walking along this stream-bed taking photos, and it was so hot the wind was like a fan-forced oven,’ he explains. ‘There was no shade at all and I’d left my water and ice in the car. So as I started walking back, things got a little strange… The more I walked, the further away the car seemed to get.’ He jokes, ‘If you drive through the Flinders Ranges, you always see these signs, "Mobile Phone Coverage ends here": Just when you reach a place where you might really need it.’

Tony points out yet another painting – one of the desert .oor

including small rocks and the succulent known as ‘samphire’ – one of several pictures that depict tiny sections of landscape in magnification. ‘It’s called One Small Step, a kind of environmental statement,’ he says.Tony says that he’s interested in doing some larger paintings next, concluding, ‘This was a transitional exhibition for me; it had some stuff that was more surreal than straight-out landscape, not that I’ve ever really liked doing straight landscape – it has to have a real feel to it – and not all of the paintings were local landscapes as before. There was a good mix.’

Regrowth After the Fires – Delatite River, Tony Flint, 2007 – acrylic on board

From the Real Surreal



Dancing Shadows – Delatite River, Tony Flint, 2007 – acrylic on board




WORDS BY JACQUI VERROCCIO PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE DURRANT

Bella VillaWho isn’t overdue for that weekend away with friends, and who hasn’t fantasised about sharing a rustic European-styled villa? Villa di Oro has the ambience of rural Italy and there’s no crossing the International Date Line to get there.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE DURRANT

Arriving on a warm spring day, our small group has been longing for a weekend away like this. Villa di Oro’s extensive gardens, dotted with olive trees, are lush and .ower -filled, and as for the villa

itself – a six-bedroom straw bale Tuscan-styled guesthouse – its honey-yellow walls, punctuated with shuttered French windows, is bathed in dappled sunlight. It’s fitting that its name loosely translates as ‘house of gold’. Only the deep peppermint gum forests surrounding the villa are a reminder that this is country Australia, so very far from the urban sprawl. As we arrive, still imprinted on my eyes is the landscape from Beechworth leading up to the small, former goldmining town of Stanley: Orchards, fields, and undulating sweeping hills covered with vineyards, olives and forests. The house is freshly aired. Thank you, Christine, who has arrived to help familiarise us with the villa. We unpack, shower and dress in fresh clothes: Egyptian bath towels, fresh linen and necessities are laid on. Inside the cool tiled floors shine, and the rustic exposed beams overhead support lime-washed walls. The monks of a medieval monastery might identify with our surroundings, with the exception of the comfortable couches and other necessities of modernity. Sometime after we regroup, there’s an intended backtrack to Beechworth for shopping, but it doesn’t get much further than the nearby Stanley Pub, identifiable by its wisteria-draped veranda and inside, its spirit of bonhomie. That night, in keeping with the Tuscan theme, we prepare our meal in the ample kitchen, making a feast of simple pasta with char-grilled capsicum, torn basil leaves, halved fresh cherry tomatoes and local Milawa chevre goats’ cheese, smothered with new season’s olive oil. Alongside we serve salads and a plate of pan-grilled asparagus. We’ve collected these fresh ingredients at the Beechworth greengrocers: Including that most essential, most element ingredient, the local olive oil. With such superb ingredients, everything seems easy. Dinner is served at the villa’s primitive and rough-hewn 12-seater table, with a perfectly matched sangiovese from the King Valley. Later, in the quiet twilight we sit with the simplest of desserts, fresh strawberries from nearby Wooragee – the most intensely flavoured we’ve ever experienced – and toast each other with glasses of a sparkling


UNDER THE TUSCAN SUNIt’s .tting that the name ‘V illa

di Oro’ loosely translates as ‘house of gold’


Dal Zotto prosecco, which tastes of whole bunches of grapes but drinks like a liquid form of air. That night the Milky Way pops out so clear and bright we could easily make out the inky blackness of the ‘the coal sack’ nebulosity and other stars – Betelgeuse and Sirius – shining red and cold blue. If you’ve forgotten what the stars look like, living in the ambient light of a city or town, this is the place to reconnect. The villa, which can sleep up to 11 people, has bedrooms spread over the ground and .rst floors with beds ranging from king-size to queens and singles. My bedroom downstairs, painted sea-mist green, could have been out of a van Gogh painting, and that night I sleep like one newly dead. The next morning, crusty sourdough bread makes perfect toast, topped with Jim Jam artisan jams, made just down the road. Breakfast here might be one of the best times of the day, because the air is so fresh. I take my toast and tea out onto the terrace, where lavender, roses and pots of cumquats and lemons scent the air, and read a book for an hour or more. Of course I’m already imagining future breakfasts here, but this time inside, in winter, warming myself by a roaring fire (bolstered by hydronic heating). Perhaps we’ll celebrate Christmas in winter here, with more friends.

53 Pioneer Rd, StanleyTel: 03 9326 0460 or 0438 479 903 www.beechworth.com.au/VillaDiOro.htmwww.villadioro.com.au


Native peppermint gum forests surround the villa

Farmyard friends drop in for a visit


GUARANTEED COMFORTEgyptian bath towels

and fresh linen

Dreamlike about a place where the tall Eucalypts breathe out air so crisp and fresh it will restore your body. Where the seasons are so perfectly pronounced it’s impossible not to be touched by

the rhythm of nature’s endless cycle. It’s no dream: It’s Bogong Alpine Village. Situated approximately 15 kilometres up the winding road from Mount Beauty, it would be a challenge to .nd a more picturesque village in Australia. Nestled in a natural hillside amphitheatre, Bogong’s tiered streets wind down to the mirror-surfaced Lake Guy. Gardens of European trees, dotted with cottages, cast a welcoming shade in summer giving way to intense reds, auburns and yellows each autumn. The contrast against the backdrop of eucalypt forests rising to the august mountain peaks of the Victorian Alps is nothing short of spectacular.Originally built in the 1940s to house SEC workers on the Kiewa Hydro-electric Scheme, today Bogong consists wholly of holidaymakers who stay in individually owned cottages. Affable couple Helle Borup and husband Therkel Jensen oversee the village.

Each cottage reflects the tastes and personalities of its individual owners, which means there is nothing uniform about the accommodation. However, that said, the Village’s website, as well as the cottages’ newly attributed star ratings, provide a good indication of what each cottage offers. ‘It doesn’t matter where you are in the village, you’re going to have some sort of view,’ says Helle, ‘That view might be of beautiful trees and rhododendrons, or it might be to Lake Guy.’ The range of activities on offer means that each visit to the Village can be completely different and tailor-made to suit individual interests. Hire a canoe for a paddle around Lake Guy, or try fly-fishing in crystal clear mountain lakes: Nearby Pretty Valley Pondage provides some of the best fly-fishing in the State. Always popular, the Lake Guy walking trail rambles through montane forest along the lake’s edge, taking in the East Kiewa River at one end and the dam wall at the other. Recently the trail has been modified to include a viewing platform from which it’s possible to observe excavation work being done for the Bogong Power Station, the

There is something dreamlike about a village so tucked away in the deep forests of the Alpine National Park that you could

easily miss it in the blink of an eye.


Alpinevillage

dreaming


NATIVE BUSHAn easy alpine hike around Lake Guy

COOL SUMMERKiewa River’s calming water.ow




WORDS BY JACQUI VERROCCIO PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE DURRANT

.nal station required to complete the Kiewa Hydro-electric Scheme. While plans for this station sat of the shelf for half a century, today, the massive push for renewable energy has led a private company to take the initiative and finish the project. Fortunately, all of the work is sheltered behind a bend in the East Kiewa River. For more extended walking, or just sightseeing from the comfort of your car, the sublime landscapes of the Bogong High Plains are only a short drive away. Woodlands of twisted snow gums dot open snow grass plains filled with rare wildflowers, heaths and babbling mountain streams. On the horizon lie the highest alpine peaks in Victoria, so prominent in the landscape that they create their own weather systems. The region is also famous for its rustic mountain cattlemen’s huts, which recall the days when cattlemen drove their herds up from the valleys to graze on the nutritious alpine pastures each summer. Many of the huts, including the much-photographed Wallaces Hut and Cope Hut, are easily accessible by a short walk. In the nearby Kiewa Valley, where the pastoral landscape, which has changed little over the last hundred years, is now heritage-listed, there are cool climate wineries and speciality food producers.However, happily ensconced in a cosy cottage reading a book or taking in a DVD, perhaps wandering down to the Village Belle Café for a cappuccino, or enjoying a night’s sleep in a place where the occasional bird call is the only interruption, just may be satisfaction enough.

Bogong High Plains Road, Bogong, VictoriaTel: 03 5754 1131www.bogongvillage.com.au



tel 03 5752 1438www.motelonalpine.com258 great alpine road, myrtleford victoria


Catching up with Quan Yeomans on the afternoon before a live show in Albury – a part of Regurgitator’s national tour to promote their new album Love and Paranoia – he is relaxed (as you can be with

a camera snapping away), soft-spoken, and asking as many questions of us as we do of him. Listening to his songs, you’ll .nd he has an instinctive pop music sensibility, an ability to mix and layer musical genres, an occasionally inexhaustible capacity for profanity (though never mindless) and a keen sense of social and cultural satire. And he’s become a great writer of bittersweet love songs. It is surprising to learn then, from someone so conversant in pop music motifs, that he’d started listening to music fairly late and in a way that was governed partly by chance.

‘The first thing I ever bought was the Ghostbusters soundtrack’, he tells us. ‘But the first album that really grabbed my attention was a Brian Eno and David Byrne record, which I found in my dad’s car,’ (the avant-garde My Life in the Bush of Ghosts). ‘My parents also had all that ‘70s stuff on vinyl, ABBA, The Knack… Also all the Fleetwood Mac albums: I listened to them a lot; it was a great soundtrack to my parents’ divorce. I think that’s one of the things that helped shape my sense of the melodic.’

As a writer of songs that genre-hop from rock and pop-based electronica to hip hop, referencing artists like Prince, the Beatles and on the new album ‘80s New-Wavers like Blondie (leading some to describe him as having ‘an erratically outrageous style’), we asked Quan if his approach to writing was just a matter of cultural osmosis or instead, by design.

‘It’s both things. There are certain songs you want to make odes to, or you aim for a certain sound but sometimes you don’t even realise you’re doing it. I’ve always been a bit of a sponge in that way. But,’ he jokes of Regurgitator, ‘we also have this constant failure to imitate – failure to get it right.’

One song on the new album has echoes of ‘80s band Human League, while another even has a Jesse’s Girl Rick Springfield-esque

guitar break (the love song Michelle – ‘I worked hard on that!’ he says), and we wondered whether all this was meant to be simply enjoyed, or alternatively, is there for the sake of irony.

‘It should be, but it isn’t,’ he says. ‘I still think those songs are great pop songs. There’re limited of course, but I think they’re really the best pop songs ever written. Justin Timberlake is like a watered down version of what was… That older pop has a soft, hazy wonderland feel that you don’t find today.’

As the title suggests, many of the songs on Love and Paranoia are romantic with a heart-broken bent. Quan’s characteristic wordplay and profanity, for which Regurgitator have become somewhat renowned, has been for the most part handed over to his recent collaborative EP Blox, a side-project with the incredibly witty (and bizarre) Sydney ‘elecro-clash’ artist Spod. (Quan says of him, ‘He’s a loveable guy,’ and ‘I rarely meet people as entertaining as him.’) Blox makes liberal use of four-letter words, lending a kind of lowbrow humour to songs mocking celebrity, artistic compromise in the face of the all-mighty dollar, and the mass market’s dumbing-down of culture. The only real sign of profanity on Love and Paranoia is in the album’s opening track, Blood and Spunk, which JTV, lulled by its catchy pop-rock coating, recently described as ‘cheeky’. Instead Quan says it’s an ambiguous song: ‘The blood is violence and spunk is sex, but it’s also pornography… so in that way it can be quite a brutal song, quite aggressive.’

On a lighter subject we talk about Quan’s interest in fairytales, which came about after a friend gave him Angela Carter’s Strange Things

There’s a fork in the road in every musician’s life where they either choose to relax back into what they already know, or for better or worse decide to keep on

experimenting. Quan Yeomans, best known as a singer-songwriter in indie pop-rock band Regurgitator, is one of the latter.

‘Justin Timberlake is like a watered down version of what was… That older pop has a soft, hazy wonderland feel

that you don’t .nd today’

QuaNWORDS BY JACQUI VERROCCHIO PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE DURRANT

& the art of culture jamming


QuaN& the art of culture jamming

UNLIKELY ROCK STAR Quan Yeomans in Albury’s Zoi Café

Foodies that we are, we already knew that Quan’s mother Lien Yeomans had established Brisbane’s ‘The Green Papaya’, a restaurant with North Vietnamese cuisine considered to be one of Brissie’s .nest Asian food experiences. (She now runs cooking workshops). So we asked Quan if he had any favourite dishes in Hong Kong.

‘Not really. Mostly I like to cook for myself: Just simple dishes. I’m obsessed with ingredients like olive oil, raw garlic… and I’m addicted to dark chocolate.’ And if he were to move back to Australia?’

‘Melbourne’s the only city I’d consider living in now,’ he says (to cheers all ‘round from us Melbourne-centrics). ‘It’s a feminine city too. I like the way that people in Melbourne are educated; it’s easier to find people to have serious conversations with. I’ve never had any trouble talking to people in Melbourne.’

At the end of our meet, Quan goes to meet his bandmates at Albury’s Cinema Centre. Asked what he is seeing, he replies, ‘Oh, it’s a no-brainer: The new Bourne Identity. But it beats sound check.’

It’s kind of nice to know that some alt-rock stars, even those with a devout following of fans, still watch Hollywood movies in cramped cinemas like the rest of us.

***

Quan Yeomans’ recent musical collaboration with Spod (Brent Griffin), Blox, reminds us of Juan Davila and Howard Arkley’s Blue Chip Instant

Decorator; A Room (1991-92), pictured right. In this large 3D installation of painted backgrounds filled with constructed furnishings (creating the corner of a suburban room), Davila and Arkley ‘mock the corporate investment in art and the search for "blue chip" artists who fit the modern office décor.’ While Davila appropriates and plays with imagery from Lichtenstein to Magritte, both artists overtly refer to their own influences: For Davila, the Chilean neo-Surrealist Matta, and for Arkley, David Hockney. It’s surreal, playful and also self-referential, with what’s been described as ‘as distinctively lowbrow sense of humour – pop mixed with schlock.’

Regurgitator Love and Paranoia (Valve Records)See the new video, Romance of the Damned, on YoutubeQuan and Spod present Blox (Valve Records)

Still Sometimes Happen: Fairy Tales From Around the World. ‘The lyrics to Blubber Boy (Regurgitator’s first radio hit) came

from an Inuit story in that book. In the non-Disney versions, fairytales often end in the most bizarre and quite jarring ways, and occasionally you end up thinking, "Where’s the moral in that?"’ He goes on to explain that he’s also interested in their structure. ‘Fairytales have this great scope for writing parables. They also have a lot in common with pop songs, particularly in their use of repetition. At one time I was writing a lot of short stories that were fairytales.’

One of these stories has been incorporated into Under the Milky Sky, a 2006 art project by Sydney/Berlin-based art collective Rinzen, and this, coupled with an experimental ‘soundscape’ track on Regurgitator’s last EP Pillowhead had us wondering whether future work might be more art-based.

‘I’m discovering how to explore without boundaries again,’ he tells us. ‘When I had my first four-track, writing the early Regurgitator stuff, I was quite experimental. Then the band became a bit more conservative… the band was satirical and I was concerned with the "pop" nature of things, but now I’m trying to relax a bit more with the technology and music, which will come out in my solo project.’ So what’s that about?

‘It’s going to be all rap – not that I’m particularly good at rapping – I can’t free-style, I forget words,’ he says (contrary to the performance we see on stage later that night). ‘But there aren’t many good rap lyrics out there, so I’d like to do something different.’ (The Blox song Needle Hits replaces anticipated gangster-style drug references with sewing: ‘I’m nimble with thimbles/I’m in the zone when I’m rolling the spindles’.) He talks animatedly about a new song he’s working on, with lyrics in the style of ‘a Shakesperian epic’, but with microphones coming to life and assuming strange familial relationships.

At the moment Quan is living and working in Hong Kong, a city he’s currently calling home.

‘I like the way people connect there really quickly,’ he tells us. ‘It’s a transient population; you meet new people quickly. It’s a real wonderland for me. I also have a sense of anonymity there; I feel like I can start a new artistic life.’

Having grown up in Brisbane and spent time in Scandinavia, London and Berlin, Quan told us, ‘Hong Kong’s the only city I’ve ever really felt comfortable in, other than feeling comfortable in my mother’s house. It’s easy to get around: It’s got a public transport system that’s second to none… you can take a boat out to the islands, to great beaches. The pollution is the worst thing about it but it has a real village feel. It’s a very feminine city.’


Quan Yeomans talks about his diverse musical influences


Howard Arkley and Juan DavilaBlue Chip Instant Decorator: A Room, 1991-92

On display, this summer at the Benalla Art Gallery© The Estate of Howard Arkley and Juan Davila

Licensed by Kalli Rolfe Contemporary Art


Available from: Alpaca Passion, Albury, tel: 0417 676 822; Harvey Norman, Albury, tel: 02 6041 1944; e Ardent Alapca, Beechworth, tel: 1300 660 993 Call for your nearest stockist: Kelly & Windsor Australia, 17 Adrian Road Campbellfield, Victoria, 3061. tel: 03 9357 0116

THIS SEASON GIVE THE GIFT OF A LIFETIMEe ultimate in summer sleeping comfort: Alpaca light quilts are filled with 60% Australian grown alpaca and blended with 40% Australian grown pure natural cotton to create an exquisite quilt for summer sleeping comfort.

Drinking Beer is Awesome!As a well-known boutique beer importer and distributor, also with

duties as the manager of hip Melbourne bar Cookie – renowned for its list of over 220 beers – John Cope-Williams knows his beer like

no one else. Recently he tasted his way through the beers of North East Victoria’s .nest micr obreweries. It’s an understatement to say that John Cope-Williams loves his beer. At Cookie, located in Curtin House, John oversees a continually evolving beer list. In addition, because some beers improve with age, he’s created a beer cellar and, to top it all off, he changes beers on tap to reflect the seasons. With a gleam in his eye, John sat down with Jacqui Verrocchio and Lisa Maxwell of Essentials for what amounted to a mammoth, if fast-paced, beer tasting session of the North East’s best. After well over five hours, the results were...

TASTING NOTES BY JOHN COPE-WILLIAMS PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE DURRANT


Bridge Road Brewers Bavarian WheatPale straw and golden, this beer has an aroma reminiscent of freshly baked banana bread. The Bavarian yeast gives it .avours of banana and clove, with the slightest hint of confectionary. ‘Drink this in the sunshine,’ says John enthusiastically.

Bridge Road Brewers Biere de GardeA deep toffee colour with a honeycomb head, this beer has an earthy bouquet, with aromas of dried fruit, spiced rum and rum and raisins. Soft and round with mouth-warming sherry notes, it has complex flavours of spicy dried fruit reminiscent of Christmas pudding, with associated hints of raisins, almonds and cinnamon. ‘It’s complex, with all of these different things happening at once,’ says John. ‘It’s definitely a beer that gets better as it warms up.’ John also notes that Bierre de Garde loosely translates as ‘beer to keep’, which means it will improve with some cellaring.

Bridge Road Brewers SaisonBright golden in colour with a little suspended yeast and a tight white head, Saison has a funky, estuary aroma, created by the presence of brettanomyces (a wild yeast). In wines, this aroma is often described as ‘barnyard’, and John adds, ‘in the right beer, it’s a blessing.’ The flavour is sour and citric, with funky characteristics derived from well-developed yeasts. ‘I think this is a great beer for breakfast. It would be perfect with eggs served with hollandaise sauce, because it’s a good counter balance to the creaminess of that dish.’

Bridge Road Brewers Australian Pale AlePale amber in colour with fresh, delicate citrus and floral aromas with a hint of geranium, this beer has a great mouth-feel with beautifully balanced bitterness that lingers ‘enough to make you want to take another sip just as it drops away,’ says John.

Bridge Road Brewers India Pale AleDeep toffee in colour, this beer has a rich strong toffee and molasses aroma, particularly as it warms up. Initially the aromatic hops create a bitterness associated with a strong hop profile, giving way to a bigger malt structure: Caramel-filled malt characters of sweet toffee and molasses, finally returning to a lingering, pleasantly bitter hop finish.

Bridge Road Brewers Australian AlePale straw in colour with a good head that’s foamy, this beer is not so aromatic when it’s cold. Soft and round in the mouth, this is a very approachable, easy drinking style of beer: A good entry-level beer to the range.It’s worth mentioning that Bridge Road says: ‘This is a great session beer drunk in multiples of six’!

Bridge Road Brewers Robust PorterJoan Jett black, with a tight mocha head that has good retention, this porter has a bouquet of bitter chocolate and cacao, also tasting of chocolate. Some other tasters also detected hints of smoke (an interesting characteristic), as if last summer’s bushfires had somehow penetrated their tanks!

Jamieson Beast India Pale AleThis beer is one of John’s favourites and even when its name is mentioned, his eyes begin to shine like a lover dreaming of his belle. Deep caramel in colour with a tight fluffy head, the Beast is extremely aromatic. ‘Citrus hops hit you straight away, like a punch in the face,’ says John. This gives way to sweet notes of caramel. ‘It’s teasing me now – I want to drink it,’ he continues. Initially this beer tastes of the bitter pine flavour of the hops, but this is finely balanced with a toffee sweet malt. ‘Gotta love those hops,’ says John, explaining that Jamieson adds hops to their brews progressively (six hop additions in all). The final additions of hops are less fermented, lending the beer a fresh finish.As a planned shipment of Jamieson Brewery beers went M.I.A., Jamieson’s Beast India Pale Ale was the only example on hand at Cookie available for tasting. Other beers in their range that we did not get to taste include: Jamieson Pale Ale, Jamieson Brown Ale, Jamieson Mountain Ale and Jamieson Raspberry Ale.


C h a r m & p e r s o n a l i t y : N o r t h E a s t m i c r o b r e w e r i e s s t r u t t h e i r s t u f f .

Boynton’s PilsnerNot really made in the classic pilsner style (originating from the Czech Republic, pilsner uses Saaz hops to create a pale straw-coloured beer that is .oral and refreshing), Boynton’s pilsner is unfiltered with a colour more resembling pineapple crush. The bouquet is slightly spicy with pineapple and citrus notes. Opinion was divided about the flavour, and while prominent acid with a citrus/pithy end was noted, other tasters considered this to be ‘bready’. Speculation suggests that the yeast used creates a flavour that is somewhat different to a typical pilsner style.

Bright Hell.r e Ale With an electric, vibrant deep amber colour, this ale has power-packed citrus aromas: Almost like a sophisticated Vitamin C tablet. As for the flavour, it tastes of sweet mandarin balanced with burnt caramel crystal malts.

Bright Blowhard Pale Ale An American-styled pale ale, this beer is pale gold with a rich honey and sweet marmalade (more grapefruit than orange) bouquet. The flavour has a well-balanced bitterness that lingers: A great showcase for cascade hops.

Bright Fainters Dubbel A Belgian-styled dubbel, coloured like tawny port, this beer has complex aromas of caramel, dark fruit and nut chocolate: It smells just like Christmas morning! Similarly, it tastes of spicy dried fruit, raisins, scorched almonds, cloves, and Christmas pudding.

For tasting above and beyond the call of duty, our thanks go to John Cope-Williams. John imports and distributes a range of boutique beers from the Emerson's Brewery in Dunedin NZ, as well being the Victorian representative of the Unibroue range of beers from Quebec, Canada. Contact him at:Better Beer Pty Ltd Tel: 0421 203 386 www.betterbeerimports.com

Bright Brewery121 Great Alpine Road, Bright, VictoriaOpen: 12am daily, into the early eveningTel: 03 5755 1301

Bridge Road BrewersTanswell’s Old Coach House, Ford Street, Beechworth, VictoriaOpen: Every day except Tues. Mon-Wed 11am-4pm; Thurs-Sat 11am-6pm; Sun 11am-10pm with pizzas and fabulous atmosphere on Sunday nightTel: 03 5728 2703

Boynton's Brewing Company6619 Great Alpine Road, Porepunkah, VictoriaOpen: 10am-5pm dailyTel: 03 5756 2610

Jamieson BreweryEildon Road, Jamieson, VictoriaOpen: 10am daily; lunch 12am-2pm; dinner 6pm-8pmTel: 03 5777 0515


Below: Although a relatively new microbrewery, Bridge Road Brewers at Beechworth have a substantial and interesting range. Daily fresh-baked pretzels add to the experience. They do traditional pizzas: How good’s that?

Located on the picturesque Great Alpine Road over-looking Mt Buffalo, Boynton’s Brewing Company also carries (currently) two beers. It’s worth noting that Boynton’s are, despite their beers being a local artisan product, currently out-sourcing their brewing. However, Janelle Boynton’s brother, Scott Marsen, will be taking over the brewing himself in early 2008.

Boynton’s Porpunkah AleThis is apricot-coloured in a way that’s similar to apricot nectar, due to the presence of suspended yeast. It has fruity aromas but definitely not fresh fruit; more like stewed fruit before the sugar has been added. The flavour is tarter than the aroma, with notes of green apple and a mouth-filling dryness.

Ben Kraus of Beechworth's Bridge Road Brewers

Drinking Beer is Awesome!

C h a r m & p e r s o n a l i t y : N o r t h E a s t m i c r o b r e w e r i e s s t r u t t h e i r s t u f f .

Drinking Beer Is Awesome! is also a great song taken from Regurgitator’s new album, Love And Paranoia.

with Michaela Jane

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Well, it’s summer!

The cicadas are singing, the temperature is soaring and thoughts are turning to the holiday season, family and friends. In this issue, I would like to introduce you to the ‘quirkiness’ of the Australian homestead, with its lifetime of memories. ‘A new twist on the old masters.’ ‘Creating the perfect balance between old and new was truly uplifting for me,’ said Michaela Jane. The window furnishing is a modern Roman with a traditional shape, chosen to catch your eye as soon as you enter this welcoming home. From there on, you are at home!

1. Filigree sansilk, cream (roman fabric)2. Pascol, melancholy gold (paint colour)3. Pascol, dreamy space (paint colour)4. Pascol, custard cream (paint colour)5. Caprice dinner set and Parassy placemat (Provincial Home Living)6. Silk feathers (Rambling Rose)7. Cushions (Nettex)8. Roman tassels (Simpilicity)

Michaela Jane Drapes ‘n DecorTel: 0409 181 063www.drapesndecor.com.au

Interior designer Michaela Jane

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GiacondaCatwalkat

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE DURRANT STYLING BY KATHRYN HAMMERTON MODEL ALYCE HAMMERTON LOCATION GIACONDA WINES, BEECHWORTH

GEORGE, Danielle Dress, silk $450.00

GiacondaCatwalk

NOUGAT, London, silk $650.00

K

NOUGAT, London, silk $650.00 MATTHEW EAGER, Sydney $510.00

B E E C H W O R T HHK

athryn

ammerton

Exclusive Labels • Women’s Stylist59 Ford Street, Beechworth, Victoria

Tel: 03 5728 1981


Karin Tremonti is someone who doesn’t mind being called a ‘stoner’. In fact, she’d go so far as to describe herself

as a ‘gemstone maniac’ or even a ‘stone addict’. ‘My husband is the same, but he’s worse because that’s the only thing that he does,’ she says of her partner-in-crime Mark Tremonti, who is Director of the International Coloured Gemstone Association, although more familiar to gem consumers as The Opal Hunter on The Gem Shopping Network (think Steve Irwin without the dangerous animals). When Karin talks, it is with a continuous laugh. Her eyes glitter with the excitement of it all – just like her jewels – when she explains her longest-lasting love affair with gemstones. Words like ‘fascinating’ and ‘amazing’ constantly tumble from her mouth. Take one look at the pieces in the display cabinets of Karin’s unassuming Beechworth store and you can imagine why there’s no wiping that smile off her face. It’s hard not to gasp in complete wonder when Karin produces a magni.cent marquis cut emerald ring – the most dazzling shade of green, set in gold – which she has been exhibiting around the world. ‘We found the rough piece and I said I’m going to cut that shape out of it,’ Karin elucidates with obvious pride. ‘Although they thought I was insane because you lose a lot of material if you cut it in a marquis cut. But that was the only


option I wanted for that stone. It’s an absolute unique piece, for its size (33.36 carat), colour and shape. So unique is this ring, emerald dealers at a Hong Kong fair followed Karin around surreptitiously to get a closer look. Potential customers are already registering their interest – included in that list is Rod Stewart’s latest wife, Penny Lancaster. And who would think that such a precious find now resides in Victoria’s North East? As serendipity would have it, Karin met her Australian-born husband, Mark, appropriately, at the world’s most prestigious gem trade fair in Basel, Switzerland. ‘I bought my natural unheated sapphires from him for a couple of years – and still do!’ laughs Karin. Their relationship clocked up the frequent flyer miles for three years before Mark asked Karin, a Swiss native, if she’d consider relocating to Australia. ‘I had visited Australia before and thought I’d never go back. It was very unattractive and it was always raining…’ muses Karin of her unfortunate introduction to her new homeland. But, since Mark was adamant he didn’t want to ‘live in a fridge’ (ie. Switzerland), Karin made the decision to sell her shop of 10 years in Zürich and give Sydney a go, before they bought the Tremonti family home near Albury where she also opened her work studio and shopfront. Question Karin as to why she

Tremonti Fine Gems and JewelleryWORDS BY EMMA WESTWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE DURRANT

opted for Beechworth for her second store in Australia (only recently opened) and her answer is a curious one. ‘It was because of the measurements,’ she says. ‘I looked at a store in Toorak and was thinking about it, then my friend from Divine Linen in Beechworth (Di Van Dorssen) said “I’ve always told you to come here,” and I said, “Di, I want my measurements – three by 10 metres,” and she said, “Call here, there is one available that might be just right”. So that’s why I took it. It just all fell into place for some reason – it’s the right space dimensions and the door number is ‘44’ and I’m 44… it’s destiny. Besides that, I have had the luck to find the most supportive landlords, Heidi and James Freeman’ (owners of what Karin refers to as ‘the most amazing bed and breakfast’, Beechworth’s Freeman on Ford). If anyone was to doubt the North East’s ‘internationality’, then Karin’s presence proves the region is truly global. Not only does her passport identify her as a citizen of the world, her clients range from Keanu Reeves (‘he bought a bracelet off me in Sydney’) to Arnold Schwarzenegger, who requested Karin create a diamond-encrusted skull ring, and, one of her latest clients, Cate Blanchett, who is getting what Karin calls ‘an absolute extreme piece’ made of opalised shells ranging exponentially in size from big to small. Karin also maintains outlets in Beverley Hills, New York and Switzerland.


Being a mother of two children under seven years of age keeps Karin rooted to Australian soil these days however, she does jet off to the occasional international gem fair and reveals that, considering her remarkable designs tend to feature on the red carpet, she has been known to score a ticket to the Oscars now and then. In comparison to her early years, though, you could say Karin is now living a sedate existence. Karin’s pursuit of precious gems has taken her to the ends of the Earth – Colombia, Madagascar, Africa, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Brazil, United States. Against the wishes of her parents, who baulked at her pie-in-the-sky plans, she convinced one of the most celebrated jewellers in Zürich to take her on as an apprentice goldsmith. There in Switzerland, she learnt to ply her trade, before branching out solo with an exhibition of extravagant silver pieces and her .rst gold collection – a lucrative debut that sold out and set Karin off on an adventure where she bought ‘a Mercury Marquise 1970 and followed (her) dream of travelling across America with a pig as a companion’. ‘I had to claim the jewellery I was wearing as weapons when I got onto the plane to go to America,’ admits Karin of the ‘dangerous’ nature of her extreme work in silver. ‘Bracelets with fur underneath them… just bursting out…’ She gestures over her body to indicate the extent of these wild pieces.

This was just the start of Karin’s travelling, though. Her obsession – or ‘fever’ as she calls it – for gems meant she wasn’t content with being a mere goldsmith. She had to know everything about stones. Considering every gem is unique, the only way to learn was to go directly to the mines and see the stones as they come out of the ground. ‘A lot of jewellers haven’t got a clue,’ she says. ‘What they see in a lifetime, we (Karin and Mark) see in a month. When we go to Sri Lanka to buy rock, we’ve got parcels coming in from eight o’clock in the morning until nine o’clock at night, just people showing us parcels of sapphires… We see so many stones, we can’t be fooled.’ While she has retained her preference for oversized pieces, Karin has refined her signature style to something more ‘organic’ over the years. On Karin’s finger, she wears one of her own creations on a daily basis – even to do the gardening, she confesses. This gold ring, which could double as a ‘knuckle-duster’, features the almost Emmental cheese-like, wave patterning in layers that appear as a recurring motif in Karin’s work. Despite Karin being reluctant to name a favourite gem, she admits to considering diamonds ‘boring’ and harbours a soft spot for opals. If anything was testament to her love of opals, then it’s the world famous ‘Path of Enlightenment’ necklace, which she created from 87 Australian crystal opals, and

toured the world in 1999 before being snapped up by a lucky purchaser on Fifth Avenue in New York the following year. ‘Even a gravel stone from the street has an energy, though,’ concludes Karin, proving that a rock doesn’t have to be worth a wad of cash to be worth something. ‘If someone comes to my shop and I give them a selection of gemstones, it’s quite amazing the energy that comes from them. They’ll just become glued to a particular stone – and that’s the stone they belong to. That’s the stone that’s made for them. It’s quite amazing and absolutely wonderful to be able to create the jewellery with the customer and see the joy and pride in their eyes when they wear their unique piece the first time. 44 Ford Street, Beechworth, VictoriaTel: 03 5728 1003

638 Kiewa Street, Albury, New South WalesTel: 02 6041 [email protected]

Top right: Karin’s handcrafted designer jewellery, including a 33.36 carat emerald ring set in gold. Below, right: Karin shows off a dazzling pink sapphire – truly one of a kind

Self-confessed gemstone maniac and jeweller to the stars Karin Tremonti bites her bling



AHotelArt

If you thought boutique hotels were a recent invention, then consider that the Hatton was originally built as one, just over a hundred years ago. Once the preserve of wealthy landowners visiting the

city, by the end of the 1990s this stately but run-down mansion was in desperate need of a change of fortune, and that change for the better came with Lynn Hatton. Passionate about interior design, Lynn poured her considerable talents – not to mention her eclectic private collection of paintings, statues and antiques – into the restoration. The result is sympathetically restored period architecture combined with an interior that re.ects both Melbourne’s cross-cultural diversity and its contemporary art scene. On arrival, the Hatton’s diverse and international clientele are greeted with an architectural juxtaposition: In fact, the first of many. From a palatial entrance at one end of a marble-tiled colonnade of sweeping arches, you can take in the full impact of a stylised Japanese sculpture garden that fronts the building. Designed by Naomi Matsumoto-Hatton, it features a monolithic decorative clock as its centerpiece, offset by imposing white granite flagstones that lead across a garden of white quartz river pebbles. It’s the kind of brave architectural contrast that

increasingly defines Melbourne style: Just think of Federation Square sitting opposite Flinders Street Station, or the Meccano-coloured cubes and boxes of the Melbourne Museum adjacent to the Victoria-era Exhibition Buildings. The hub of the Hatton is its foyer where a long kauri pine-topped haberdasher’s counter showing a century of wear forms the reception desk (staffed by the affable Martin Clarke), also doubling as the breakfast bar. Arched windows face onto Park Street, while a

heavily scarred carpenter’s bench with much abused timber vices holds magazines. The room’s minimalist leather seating has been made to Lynn Hatton’s personal specifications. Adding drama to the space on one wall is a large abstract in deep browns overlain with broad stokes of gold leaf, by Melbourne artist Carolyn Sroczynski, while a vibrant landscape by Brian Seidler, depicting the red ochre boulders and grasstrees typical of the Australian bush, sits on another. It’s been said of Melbournians that they love nothing more than weather cold enough to freeze the moat that fronts the National Gallery of Victoria because it provides good reason to hunker down in one of the city’s cool cafes, so it’s fitting that during the day, the Hatton foyer also has espresso coffee. Uh-hum… and is also a wine bar at night. But before you become too ensconced in this comfortable space, it’s worth just walking through the hotel’s three floors simply to admire the art. Right now, the Hatton’s irrepressibly bubbly and enthusiastic host, Taya Murphy, is giving the guided tour. From the reception and past a colossal resin vase filled with flowers, one wall of the soaring stairwell is taken up by a stepped series of towering antique Ming Dynasty Chinese screens. These black and red screens with their rich patina and faded Chinese characters depict classic farm life on the nobleman’s estate of the period, and were most likely a gift to a nobleman from the Emperor or his envoy. They act as a reminder that Melbourne’s Chinatown beckons, only minutes away. On the landing above the screens, an antique Japanese wedding kimono worn by the mother of Lyn Hatton’s daughter in-law hangs shimmering, brilliant white silk with cranes embroidered in red silk thread. An accompanying antique red lacquered armchair with decorative hand wrought copper joinery adds to the feel of a ‘Japanese’ dressing room, forming a visual precursor to the exotic Eastern Balcony Suite. If you weren’t actually a guest in the Eastern Balcony Suite, it would be easy to take its doors – intricately carved double-bronzed

There’s something quintessentially, almost inexplicably Melbourne about the Hatton Hotel. With its opulent Italianate revival façade, this 20 room boutique hotel close to the inner city is filled with contemporary

art and sophisticated design concepts, while maintaining an understated and hospitable intimacy... like a microcosm of the city itself.

WORDS BY JACQUI VERROCCHIO

It’s the kind of brave architectural contrast that increasingly de.nes

Melbourne style

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ADRIAN LANDER & JAMIE DURRANT


HotelArt

PHOTOGRAPHY BY ADRIAN LANDER & JAMIE DURRANT

temple doors from Rajasthan – as simply a decorative antique hanging on the wall: Only a keyhole gives them away. As for the Suite itself, it’s spacious with private access to the grand front balcony, and features an impressive marble .r e mantel, high ornate ceilings and Chinese and Indian antiques from the nineteenth century. Pieces such as Chinese chests in rich red lacquer that warm the entire room or the Flemish armoire finished with an embroidered Hyderabadi sari, give the Suite an ambiance suggestive of travels through the Near East. ‘Each room is different,’ says Taya as we look into some of the other suites. While neutral walls and waxed floorboards accentuate high ceilings and original period features, these are offset by swaths of colour, like the saffron orange carpets and walls in aubergine or blue. Bathrooms are clean and minimalist, intriguingly, some with stairs leading down to the suite, others with stairs leading up. Joining us on our ‘art tour’, a guest from Canada approvingly points out, ‘You can open the windows for fresh air, there’s a big tub to soak in, and the park (Melbourne’s Botanical Gardens) is near-by if you need to stretch your legs: Just the thing after a long plane flight.’ An expressionist-style painting by Astrid Dahl, Leave Me Gently, marks the entrance to the rooftop deck, with its sweeping view of Melbourne’s city skyline, growing more distinctive and extraordinary by the day. (Is Eureka Tower a phallic symbol, or what?) Although Taya admits ‘it’s sometimes too windy,’ the rooftop deck is often the perfect location for breakfast or pre-dinner aperitifs and is always worth the look in any weather. Zig-zagging down-stairs, even the hallways are interesting: Instead of retrofitting this old mansion with ceiling lights, the Hatton has opted for floor-level up-lighting. To draw attention to architectural features as well as create a theatrical atmosphere, Melbourne stage lighting designer, Phillip Lethlean, has created special lighting effects using coloured gels and a variety of materials. Up-lights stand on reclaimed objects such as old ammunition boxes and pattern-making dyes, while internally illuminated boxes of ripple glass that sit above each door denote room numbers while casting a dappled reflective light onto the ceilings. It’s a kind of reduced-scale model of the architectural lighting you see in Melbourne’s Arts Precinct and opposite Southbank.

Along the foyer-level hallway, you’ll find an installation of small paintings of Melbourne icons – the Melbourne Cup, footballers, and cans of Victoria Bitter – by New York-based artist Steve Keene, pegged to a clothesline that runs along the wall. ‘They were purchased from Linden Galleries in St Kilda in 2003 via an honesty system,’ says Taya, ‘you just picked out what you wanted and put the money in a box!’ The lower level landing features a vernacular Depression-era kerosene can cabinet from the Barossa Valley, along with a large naïve Aboriginal painting from Broken Hill, which takes its inspiration from the dreamtime rainbow serpent that winds its way like a river through a distinctly Australian landscape. Running along the lower hallway is a major ‘street art installation’ by Julian Liu, the work itself being a mishmash of photos of street and graffiti art printed onto self-adhesive nylon fabric cascading the length of the hallway. Each room along the ground floor has a kitchenette as well as French windows opening onto walled courtyards, each courtyard having a dividing wall with a mural by Julian Liu. As well as individual pieces of art, all rooms contain the necessary facilities to keep you in the loop: A direct-dial phone number and voicemail, free dialup and wireless broadband internet access (with 64 bit WEP encryption), or if you don’t ‘carry your own’, there’s a communal laptop in the front foyer. Of course, this is only a snapshot of what’s inside the Hatton, and like Melbourne itself, the Hatton is terrain to traverse on its own terms. While great restaurants like Botanical are just around the corner, an iconic Melbourne tram stops virtually outside the hotel’s door meaning that the inner city or Toorak Road and Chapel Street are only minutes away. The Hatton Hotel suggests that to stay with them is to live like a Melbournian. What they’ve forgotten to mention is that Melbournians like to think of themselves as cultural cognoscenti, and that the Hatton is your ideal primer.

65 Park Street, South Yarra, VictoriaTel: 03 9868 4800www.hatton.com.au

EXPLORE THE HATTON’S COLLECTION OF ARTWORK AND ANTIQUESBanksias and Parrots, Donald Green (Northcote late 1970’s)


VIEW ON HIGH Survey the city skyline from the rooftop deck

The intimate foyer is a cafe by day, winebar by night

SUN SHINES THROUGH MY WINDOW The Eastern Balcony Suite

EXPLORE THE HATTON’S COLLECTION OF ARTWORK AND ANTIQUESBanksias and Parrots, Donald Green (Northcote late 1970’s)

Lavender means something different to each and every one of us. Whether it’s the scent that wafts from your grandmother’s potpourri bags, calming vapours from an oil burner or a novel addition to nouveau cuisine, this versatile, little .ower represents many centuries of mystique, aesthetic and medicinal healing.

For Geoff and Karen Finnigan, establishing a lavender farm in the gentle .elds of Oxley (near Milawa) was somehow serendipitous. Their new lifestyle was intended as a retirement project, and initially,

one that was to be far more languorous than what they created. ‘We were talking to my sister,’ explains Karen, as we munch on delicious lavender scones and sip tea. ‘And she said, “What are you going to do up there?” and we said, “Don’t know, we’re going to retire”. She said, “You’ve got an awful big block of land, what are you going to do with that?” and I said, “I don’t know, we’re just going to enjoy it”. Then she said, “Why not grow lavender?”’

Coincidentally, Geoff’s cousin works as an industrial chemist who, for the last 30 years, has specialised in advising the French on their lavender growing. Considering the French are the undisputed masters of lavender in the world – ‘even though the English would like to portray themselves as the lavender people,’ says Geoff – the Finnigans were off to a flying start with expert advice on the most appropriate cultivars to buy for their land’s elevation, soil and so forth. Just like fine wine, lavender takes time to reach its peak so, while meticulously researching their plants and taking courses with Sydney Essential Oils to refine their skills, the Finnigans waited patiently for 12 months until their first, small yield last Christmas. (Note: In order to see the fields in full bloom, October/November is the most appropriate time to schedule a visit, however the Finnigans’ gift shop, with its impressive array of lavender products, is open all year round). According to Geoff, the distilled oil from these plants should hit maturity in approximately eight month’s time. In the meantime, they’re busying themselves with the establishment of gardens, a B&B and a retail shop on the property – all value-added services to create extra pizzazz for those visiting Ballingarry. Customers are encouraged to optimise their lavender experience by staying the night in one of the two queen-sized bedrooms or, even if just passing through, Essentials suggests you consider booking ahead for a therapeutic massage with Karen. A nurse by trade, as well as a masseuse trained in Bowen therapy, Karen offers the most effective service for ridding steering wheel knots from drivers’ shoulders.


views from the swinging bench seat on the porch and the heady scent of .owers in the air are enough to send anyone off in blissful reverie. The Finnigans have grand plans to nurture an old-fashioned garden planted in the shape of traditional knots from their Celtic heritage. They’ve also built a pergola out back, which will soon lead out to a sunken pool and be covered with Mr Lincoln climbing roses. Look very closely and you’ll notice more than one Gallic reference here, in particular, the intricate knot-work in the dining room floor, which is Geoff’s labour of love and patience – a Celtic design in Australian ironbark and rosegum then carved into redgum. Even the colours of the homestead and the name ‘Ballingarry’ are of genuine cultural significance. ‘“Ballingarry” is an anglicised version of a Gallic word from our homestead in Galway – it means “house with an orchard”,’ reveals Geoff with more than a hint of pride in his voice. ‘The colours of the house are Galway’s colours too – maroon/burgundy and white.’ ‘Lavender is an old style product,’ he continues in explaining how all the pieces of the puzzle slot together. ‘It makes people think of the last century – that’s the reason why the house is designed the way it is. I guess you could call the theme “Irish lavender”.’

Nankervis Lane, Oxley, VictoriaTel: 03 5727 3935www.ballingarrylavender.com.au

Enter the workshop and guests are welcome to view close-up the lavender still, as well as a variety of scientific-looking contraptions that extract the oil from the buds. All of the processes are on display here, right down to the scribbles on whiteboards of yields produced per cultivar. Apparently, there are approximately a thousand different varieties of lavender available but the Finnigans have streamlined their specialty to four major cultivars for commercial purposes, as professionally instructed by Geoff’s industrial chemist cousin. While Karen and Geoff spout out the many qualities of lavender cultivars with names like ‘angustifolia’ and ‘seal’, they challenge us to a lavender sniff test laying out a number of unlabelled bags on the table in front of us. ‘We’ve found people are very different in what they like,’ says Geoff and, by blindly allowing your nostrils to do the work – as opposed to following technical specifications - you’re more likely to isolate the lavender that agrees with you best. Karen tells us that pure angustifolia is the most popular for perfumes and medical applications because it is a fine oil with very low camphor (vapour) levels. The creams, soaps and lotions that line the shelves of Ballingarry’s store are primarily made from this sought-after angustifolia oil – all lovingly mixed and tried and tested by the Finnigans themselves (not on animals). Take it from this curly-topped girl, Ballingarry’s intensive hair conditioner is a bonafide lifesaver for dry hair when used at least once a week. While still in its developmental stage, the Ballingarry homestead is a wonderful stopover spot, especially at sunset when the

Looking Through Mauve Coloured GlassesWORDS BY EMMA WESTWOOD PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHARLIE BROWN



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Essentials Magazine Summer 2008