Small Town, Big Heart

The Age

Saturday June 14, 2008

Brigid Delaney

Brigid Delaney was able to impress her city friends with a trip to this quaint town

In trying to get two Sydney friends down to Port Fairy for the weekend I meet resistance. They are not fond of beach towns. After all, much of the NSW coast is a horror of cheap housing, towns running into each other like a colony of carbuncles, separated only by neon-lit service stations, box-like RSLs and fast-food restaurants.

Besides, my friends operate on the presumption that the further a place is from a capital city, the more the quality and number of restaurants decline. "Four hours from Melbourne!" they squeal, "it's bound to be awful."

Port Fairy is anything but.

It is so charming that even walking down its main streets lined with historic cottages and Norfolk pines elicits the response of, "Awwww, isn't it gorgeous!"

The old buildings have been preserved, there are no pokies, it's an area that has natural beauty including bird life, and even the air has a curiously sweet, clear quality.

Its distance from Melbourne discourages hordes of day trippers, so you don't get the Saturday day-crush of Queenscliff or Portsea.

And when you add interesting shops, including a quality bookshop (Ironbird) and some excellent second-hand bookstores, a cultural bent in the form of regular festivals (Port Fairy Folk Festival, Spring Music Festival, Ex Libris book fair) and some great restaurants, you have a perfect seaside town.

With this spiel I convince my Sydney friends to come to Port Fairy for the weekend. By the weekend's close they have radically reappraised their notions of country towns. I find them pressed against the real estate windows, their faces flushed with unshed tears at the prospect of going back to Sydney. It is only when I tell them that house prices in Port Fairy would make Bill Gates blush, that they turn onto the highway towards Avalon Airport.

So what is it about Port Fairy that makes people fall in love with it and never want to leave? For my friends it is the town's beauty, great walks and a number of top-end restaurants.

So let's explore the walks, the beaches and the food that make Port Fairy so special.

Walks

Port Fairy, west of the Great Ocean Road, is surrounded by an abundance of water. There is a river - the Moyne, where the cray boats pull in and out - which is flanked by South Beach and East Beach.

Walk OneEast Beach is a long crescent of sand that borders some of Victoria's most expensive coastal real estate. It's a great swimming beach, but even better for walking. Start from the mouth of the Moyne and walk all the way around to nearby Killarney beach.

The tides can creep up and wash the sand away - but it's perfect at dusk when the sunset puts a blush on the water and makes the shells embedded along the sand sparkle. Towards Killarney at certain times of the year, the endangered hooded plovers nest. They march in packs towards the water on their stick legs - then take off as one.

Sea eagles also hover around the dunes.

I take my mates swimming at East Beach. It is overcast and grey - the water carries with it the chills of the Antarctic floes. Quickly our flesh takes on a bluish tinge. The waves are fun to body surf and in the clear water underneath, fish swim between our legs.

Surf schools also operate on East Beach and in times of high wind it's not unusual to see kite surfers at play.

Once you have walked along East Beach, turn around and head back towards town. There you should have a snack and coffee in one of the many excellent cafes. Ready for another walk? Let's go.Walk TwoThis one is known among my family as dead Mutton Bird Island (officially Griffith Island) owing to the rather grisly sight of birds scattered around the island with their heads ripped off and their torsos lying bloody and prone in the sand dunes.

My Sydney friends ponder who could have murdered all the birds - foxes? Dogs that run off leashes? Hawks?

A helpful woman at the Tourist Information Centre tells me the birds killed are likely to be chicks that have hatched late. Their parents have flown non-stop from Siberia to the island and return after breeding season. For the chicks born late, there is no one to feed or protect them so they die on the island. The headless birds were most likely attacked by crows who feed off the heads but not the bodies. "Natural selection," murmurs the woman at the tourist office. I'll say!

But despite the corpses, this walk is fascinating - there's a lighthouse, coves, and plenty of (live) bird life. An hour later and you should have covered the island and find yourself back in the car park. You have one more walk to go. Turn south-west. You are now going to venture down South Beach.

Walk ThreeWhere the east beach is flat, glistening and calm, the South Beach is aggressive; it churns, spits and rages. Rocks poke up from the sea - no palm trees and sultry breezes here.

When I take the Sydneysiders we can barely hear each other above the ocean's roar. Our hair looks wild. It's cold. This walk will take you around bays, over rocks, through the heath and along a quaintly named beach called Pea Soup. There's a sort of heartbreak in seeing houses spring up along this patch of coastline. Yet as we are hypocritical latte tourists we don't mind that a gallery/cafe has been built on the dunes.

Time and Tide Gallery marks the end of this walk. Here you can enjoy meringues piled high on the plate and doused in raspberry coulis.

My friends nestle into a table by the windows and look out at the gurgling, spewing ocean below. We have walked so far, been blown along like rubbish on the beach and seen far too many decapitated birds - now it is time to eat.

Food

About 3000 people live in Port Fairy, which must mean more chefs' hats per capita than any other place in Victoria.

If you want fish and chips head to Wisharts on the river wharf. On still, hot nights you can eat your fish and chips from their paper on outside tables facing the river, with a crisp glass of white. Mid-range Madagalli in Bank Street does good pasta and pizza, while Rebecca's, a popular cafe, has a range of foods including a great breakfast menu.

Yet it is the top end of town - the posh nosh - that is in abundance in Port Fairy.

Local talent Ryan Sessions is head chef at the Merrijig Inn - Victoria's oldest inn that visually reminds me of England.

The food, though, has been described in Epicure as "Melbourne-style Middle-Eastern dining".

I take my friends to Saltra - a relative newcomer on the scene. It has a great interior, good service and wonderful seafood bouillabaisse.

Nearby Portofino on Bank is inventive with its use of local produce while the Stump across the road does great pub grub including the Stump Rump - a massive hunk of steak usually washed down with a belting glass of red. It is to the Stump we head after dinner with Saltra. It is rocking. A cover band is singing the Choir Boys and Cold Chisel.

Men dance with their arms around each other in an elderly mosh, Swedish backpackers have taken off their poly fleeces and are swaying woozily and we - well, we haven't had that much fun since the '90s.

When we leave, sweaty and beer-soaked, there is a taxi idling out the front. One friend is almost crying tears of joy. Outside, the air smells like log fires and the sea - yet there are also taxis! How civilised!

Where to stay

Port Fairy has a good range of accommodation, from camping and caravan parks to bed and breakfasts, to beach houses.

Gipps Street on the Moyne River is a lovely place to stay. The Douglas offers wonderful waterfront rooms as do Oscars and Goble's Mill House.

I like staying by East Beach. Going to sleep with the ocean roaring in the background is one of the nicest ways to nod off, particularly after a series of walks and good food. When we finish the weekend with a massage and facial at the Port Fairy Day Spa it feels like we are living a charmed life, in a charming little town. Ahhh, Port Fairy! You'll never want to leave.

Other activities

? Mickey Bourke's Hotel, Koroit - authentic Irish pub in nearby village of Koroit.

? Tower Hill, 10 minutes east towards Warrnambool - wildlife including kangaroos, emus and koalas.

? Warrnambool - regional hub, 20 minutes east of Port Fairy.

? Port Fairy Day Spa, Bank Street, Port Fairy, phone 5568 1161, see portfairydayspa.com.

Links

Accommodation

? The Douglas, phone 5568 1016, or see port-fairy.com/thedouglas.

? Oscars Waterfront Boutique Hotel, phone 5568 3022 or see oscarswaterfront.com.

? Goble's Mill House, phone 5568 1118 or see goblesmill.myportfairy.com.Food

? Merrijig Inn, phone 5568 2324 or see merrijiginn.com.

? Saltra Brasserie, phone 5568 3058.

? Portofino on Bank, phone 5568 2251.

© 2008 The Age

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