And it’s in a region that’s often overlooked by locals. Here’s why you need to go.
Mount Joyce sits maybe three kilometres away as the crow flies, its steep wooded ridges casting a line of shadows against the tangerine hue of a crisp south-east Queensland autumn sunset.
In front of the mountain lies a vast lake, its still waters mirroring the peaks beyond.
This feels like a primordial scene, and Mount Joyce, at least, is more or less primordial, a remnant of volcanic activity after Australia split from the Gondwana supercontinent 180 million years ago and slowly shifted northward.
The lake, though, is new, created after the construction of Wyaralong Dam in 2011. It now sits couched by the surrounding ridges, held in place by a dam wall far off in its north-east corner.
After the dam came The Overflow Estate, a fetching winery and restaurant on a series of grassy slopes that slip down towards the water. And after Overflow came Wander at Overflow, where I am now.
I sit on the deck of Flintoff, my “light touch” (read, eco-conscious) WanderPod, sipping on a beer while I soak in the scene. Behind me, the Pod has a modern kitchen, a natty little lounge with a fireplace, and a pair of bedrooms with fancy Cultiver linen.
Later, I’ll sit by the fire pit and stare up at the night sky – the lights of Brisbane a faint glow beyond the mountains – while enjoying a meal (Wagyu sirloin, corn, potatoes, broccolini) from a box of local produce.
And that’s really why I’m in the Scenic Rim. Earlier, I attended the launch of Eat Local Month down at the winery. What I thought would be a relatively low-key affair was, in fact, stacked with media, PR, local producers, operators, influencers, ambassador chefs, and other assorted hangers-on. Even Mayor Tom Sharp was on hand.
But then it makes sense. Held every June, Eat Local Month has grown from just a week-long event in 2011 into the showcase tourist event for this still often overlooked region. Sharp laid it out for us.
“Eat Local Week [was] a group of local producers, farmers, and tourism operators [who] came up with the idea as a way to shine a light on the flavours and faces of this region,” he said. “They wanted to create an event that encouraged people to look to their own backyard for seasonal food, and pay tribute to the people who produce it.
“That year, there were around 10 events. This year, now in its third year [as a month-long event], there will be over 100 events across the region.”
As Sharp talked, I flicked through a program someone tossed in my lap. The events are diverse, ranging from tours and veggie-picking experiences to long lunches, booze tastings and campfire cookouts.
You can tour Summer Land Camels, learning about Australia’s largest camel dairy; pick radishes, carrots and leafy greens at fifth-generation Kalfresh Vegetables; learn about cheese making and suit up to harvest Bee All Natural honey at Towri Sheep Cheeses; and explore private gardens on Tamborine Mountain with the Edible Garden Trail.
Then there’s the wining and dining. There’s Feast Over Flames, set among the rolling hills of Beechmont Estate, where husband and wife chef team Chris and Alex Norman will present a five-course menu cooked on the property’s custom-made woodfire grill; a seven-course meal at star regional restaurant Blume in Boonah; and a long lunch with matching Witches Fall wines under towering Jacaranda trees at Scenic Rim Farm Shop.
Talking to Blume chef-patron Jack Stuart the day before, he told me there were a bunch of reasons he chose to open his restaurant in the Scenic Rim (including, unsurprisingly, the rent, which was a fraction of what he could find in Brisbane), but chief among them was the produce he now has on his doorstep.
“It is amazing,” said Stuart, who before Blume had logged time in high-profile restaurants such as Gauge (Brisbane) and Congress Wine in Melbourne. “I had to really do my research, and I’m still finding new things … It’s all this stuff you can’t really find anywhere else, which is a dream come true for a chef.”
Scenic Rim Farm Shop’s Gen Windley is more in touch than most with the significance of Eat Local Month. She worked for the local council back in 2011 when the weeklong event was originally conceived. Later, when the pandemic descended on Australia in March 2020, she launched Scenic Rim Farm Box, an initiative to deliver boxes of local produce to the big smoke as a way of offsetting lost income for farmers from the region.
She and husband Ed Windley bought an old rose farm in 2021 and turned it into Scenic Rim Farm Shop, which besides featuring a beguiling shopfront, packs with diners on weekends going large on breakfast and lunch – once again served under those astonishing Jacarandas.
Over an afternoon coffee on the shop’s expansive deck, Windley told me what she reckons makes Eat Local Month – and the region in general – so special.
“When I worked on the delivery side [of Eat Local Week], I was always very attuned to that authenticity,” Windley said. “Because anybody can put on a long lunch. That’s not a problem. But is it produce-led? Is it real and sympathetic of the farmers and the challenges that they’re going through?
“It’s letting the food be a conversation tool to those broader discussions about [it being] the reason why we have this great landscape … So let’s make sure we don’t put houses all over it. You try to build that connection and appreciation because down the track, you might need it.”
The next morning, I reluctantly pack my gear, bid farewell to Flintoff, and begin the drive back to Brisbane – but with one final stop.
Mount French sits just beyond Boonah, a white rhyolite sill formed millions of years ago when molten magma was squeezed between parallel layers of sedimentary rock. Natural erosion has worn away at it since, leaving a steep-sided, scrub-covered plateau.
“It’s letting the food be a conversation tool to those broader discussions about [it being] the reason why we have this great landscape … So let’s make sure we don’t put houses all over it.”
Gen Windley
The walks here are among the easiest in the region, and I’ve been recommended a stroll to Logan’s Lookout. The tip checks out, the lookout features eye-popping views of the patchwork of farms below, right around to Cunningham’s Gap in the west.
It brings into focus the scale of the region, which produced $276 million of agricultural output in the 2020-21 financial year alone. It’s about time we got used to celebrating it.
Eat Local Month will run from May 30 to June 29.
The writer was a guest of Wander and Visit Scenic Rim.
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Matt Shea is Food and Culture Editor at Brisbane Times. He is a former editor and editor-at-large at Broadsheet Brisbane, and has written for Escape, Qantas Magazine, the Guardian, Jetstar Magazine and SilverKris, among many others.
