Riverina2020: October 2020

After a well informed town tour, we were taken out to Yenda and the only naturally dried prune farm in Australia. To support Australian growers buy Angus Park. Australia does not produce sufficient crop to fully support the local market but buying local when we can will always put money in the right pockets. We learned a lot about how the industry operates in Australia and the ecological practices in place.

After a wonderful lunch of smoked Murray Cod and a Moroccan rice salad, all provided by a local catering company, using all local ingredients, we left the farm to visit another local successful business, a cotton gin.

This operation was a risky investment by producers but it has paid off and the cotton gin is now a highly successful business, bringing in efficiencies and cost savings to the production and harvesting of cotton in NSW. It demonstrated to us that cotton, as a crop, is not as devastating on water resources as is portrayed in the media. This area produces cotton on limited water resources and manages production very efficiently. It is wonderful to see such innovations.

We were told about how it all came about and then we were shown how the product gets from field to bale. This is truly a unique and special event on our tour. After the information sessions, we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon tea – yes! More food! – on the floor of the cotton gin. The machinery which was imported from the US towered over us as we sat enjoying tea and yummies! Luckily for us the equipment was not in operation.

After a brief time to rest up and freshen up, our day came to a close with a gala dinner. This food and wine paired dinner was held in a wine tasting venue on the outskirts of town. It was truly superb. Long tables, beautifully decorated, wine flowing and a guitarist to entertain in the background all made this a really special evening.

Lake Wyangan

View over Griffith from the lookout at Hermit's Cave

Path down to Hermit's Cave

Demonstrating the prune drying system

Long lunch!

Smoked Murray Cod

Arriving at Sugarmill

After a very early start, we were dropped at Central Station just on 5am. All checked in with our escorts we boarded our heritage train and departed on time at 5:30am. Leaving behind the Sydney suburbs we headed SW towards Goulburn.

Shortly after leaving Sydney the first food of the trip was served – of course, I should mention this is a Wine and Food Tour!!! Breakfast! A large ham and cheese croissant, fresh fruit, mini muffin and juice. We had to wait for the tea as the hot water was not heating! The first of many little hiccups which happens on these heritage train trips.

The train is a small timber bodied rail motor, and this model was first introduced to the Sydney rail system in 1923. This model of train gave sixty years of service to New South Wales government railways before being withdrawn from service in late 1983. Our rail motor (one carriage) CP1 entered service in 1926. We have two other rail motors all joined together, on this trip.

Passing through the Southern Highlands and SW to Goulburn, it was wonderful to see so many green fields and slopes. After years of drought, when this landscape is mostly light brown, it was also astonishing to see rivers full to bursting and dams full to overflowing. A result of recent welcome heavy rain.

After our lunch stop at Cootamundra West station (now inactive) which included a talk on the history of the town of Cootamundra, we rolled ever further west. Paddocks of green of varying shades, purple hillsides covered in Patterson’s Curse – a weed – and a vibrant reminder of how the genie can easily escape from the bottle into this fragile environment, could be seen on all sides. Fields tall with canola, soon to be harvested. Some later plantings, still showing signs of the once amazing gold of now fading flowers. We are travelling through one of many food bowls in NSW to the rich wine growing region of the Riverina, where Griffith will host us for the next few days.

Continuing on to Ariah Park, a former vast grazing property, we disembarked the train for afternoon tea served in the heritage listed Ariah Park Hotel. This was followed by a tour of the town which, although, quite small, has an amazing history. Most notably, when wheat became a staple crop in the area, the railway was brought town. Then when it became apparent that the manual loading of the grain in sacks, could not continue when all the able bodied men of the town left to go to war in 1916, an automatic loading system was created and the rest is history.

After two more hours on the train, we are safely ensconced in our hotel for the next three nights. Dinner tonight is at an Italian restaurant. Pretty much everything in town comes back to Italian migrants and our focus will be on all things Italian food, and everything else (most notably wine) which is associated with this central west town.

Zecca, the restaurant we had privately booked out, was a wonderful introduction to our Italian food fest! Wonderful food, good company, but a late night after a long day travelling. Really looking forward to more of this Food and Wine tour.