Common Grounds

By Haley Cohen Photos Included

Whether you’re hankering for a soy mocha with extra foam, a half-caf iced latte (hold the ice) or just a classic cappuccino, in the coffee-crazed cities of Sydney and Melbourne, you won’t have to walk half a block to find it.

However, it was not until recently that smaller Australian towns joined their cosmopolitan counterparts and jumped on the café caravan. With tourism to smaller towns in Australia on the rise, chic coffee shops are popping up in some unlikely locales.

One such establishment is the sophisticated Wharfside Café, appropriately located on the main wharf in Eden, an industrious fishing town of 3,000 500 kilometers south of Sydney.

Wharfside Cafe

Owned and managed by Eden local Diana Stojanovic, the Wharfside Café offers up rich flat whites and foamy cappuccinos in a relaxed but polished environment.

The Wharfside was not always so sleek – until 9 years ago when Stojanovic purchased the space with her husband, it served as a take-away joint serving fried fish, chips and lollies. However, Stojanovic and her husband, an interior designer, had different plans for the café. They completely redecorated the storefront – adding floor-to-ceiling windows, sponging rich navy paint on to the walls, and inserting small nautical-themed details such as decorative lights shaped like portholes – to give it what they hoped was a “retro-maritime” feel.

The Wharfside's Chic Interior

Stojanovic also stopped offering a take-away option and filled her menu with more up-market dishes such as fresh mussels steamed in tomato broth ($25) and tuna nicoise salad ($22). But perhaps most importantly, Stojanovic introduced high quality espresso to Wharfside’s repertoire.

“Prior to Wharfside, no one in Eden served espresso of the caliber you can get in the cities. Some little bakeries may have offered coffee but it wasn’t good coffee. We’re trying to offer Eden locals and tourists the same standard of espresso they would find in a cafe in any big city in the world.”

Stojanovic admits that the bulk of her clients are tourists but adds that the Eden locals are slowly becoming receptive to café culture. “It’s going to take time but café society is building among the local populace,” she explains as a young female police officer orders a flat white at the counter. “Its just a new idea to them. Most locals are used to drinking coffee at home, or at a friends house where it’s free.”

Graham Hinkley (correct), owner of Twinkle’s of Omeo, reports that his business is similarly tourist-based thanks to his café’s location on the scenic Great Alpine Road and his quality menu that includes fresh soups, omelets, sandwiches and of course, coffee. Like Stojanovic, Hinkley also founded Twinkle’s to fill what he perceived as a gap in the Omeo culinary and caffeine markets.

“We’ve got a bakery and a few take-away joints with fried foods but before I founded Twinkle’s 2 years ago, there was nowhere in Omeo that travelers could find the higher standard of food and coffee that they were used to.”

Situated in a quaint wood cabin with a rustic interior, Twinkle’s is also a great place to enjoy views of Omeo’s rolling golden cattle fields where the majority of Omeo’s 452-person population make their livings.

Twinkle's of Omeo

Though Hinkley is not optimistic about sit-down coffee shops becoming more popular with Omeo’s diminutive population, he does think that café culture will catch on in other small Australian towns.

“As people from small towns start to travel around Australia more, and become more educated about coffee, they’ll come to expect higher quality and café culture will expand.”

Hinkley’s prediction seems to have come true in Cobargo, a small farming and artisan community in the southeast of New South Wales where partners Kerryn Davey and Erin Tatnell operate the Valley Edge Café.

“While it’s gradual, coffee culture in Cobargo is definitely increasing. In our first year we were surprised to see the local farmers in here enjoying coffee and cake. Now, its not surprising at all. We get as many, if not more, locals in here as tourists,” Davey comments, motioning to the filled wooden chairs in her café.

In addition to its convenient location on Cobargo’s main street, Davey believes that Valley Edge owes its local following to the public becoming more knowledgeable about food quality.

“As they’ve started coming to us, locals have started to realize that its worth it to pay a couple dollars extra for high-caliber food and coffee instead of paying a little less for stale food and bitter coffee. Now that they know what quality tastes like, they’ve come to require it.”

The rise of coffee in Australia can be attributed to a few forward looking Italian immigrants who imported the first espresso machines in 1956 in preparation for the Italian team’s arrival in Melbourne for Olympics. Since then, café culture has taken Australia’s cities by storm. To qualify just how popular coffee shops have become: the Yellow Pages currently lists around 2000 cafes in both Sydney and Melbourne.

Just as coffee has become inextricably linked with the cultures of Australia’s larger cities, the development of café culture in small town Australia is not likely to be a passing trend. The way things are going, very soon you’ll be able to get your paws on an soy mocha with extra foam, a half-caf iced latte or plain cappuccino just as easily on Dalrymple Creek Road in Allora (population 923) as on George Street in Sydney (population 4,284,379) - news that is sure to perk up caffeine-addicts all across Australia.

Eden: Wharfside Cafe Shop 3 253 Imlay St Eden 2551 NSW Phone: (02) 6496 1855 Hours: Daily 8am -4pm, with extended hours during the summer Located directly on Eden’s stunning operational wharf, the Wharfside is a great place to enjoy a salad or grilled fish while watching the fishing boats tow in their catches. Specialty coffee: Muggachino, the Wharfside’s version of a Cappuccino Specialty meal: Catch of the day topped with coconut shrimp and garnished with rice

Omeo: Twinkle’s of Omeo 174 day Ave Omeo Victoria 3898 Phone: 03 5159 1484 Hours: from 7.30am 7 days a week, as well as dinner from 6pm on Friday and Saturday nights and long week ends. Groups catered for, some meals are available for takeaway. Specialty coffee: Cappucino topped with chocolate stars unique to Twinkle’s Specialty meal: Homemade pumpkin soup and any of the Foccacias

Cobargo: Valley Edge Café 59 Princes Hwy Cobargo 2550 Phone: 02 6493 6007 Hours: 9am to 4:30pm Specialty coffee: Cappucino Specialty meal: Homemade Paninis

Garden (and Wharf and Cemetery) of Eden

June 16th

We began today with a breakfast of champions. No not Wheatties, a cemetery! Thankfully, we did not have an interlocutor to the underworld and were allowed to quickly walk through instead of having to hear about the stonemasonry of each and every gravestone.

 Then it was on to Eden’s Killer Whale Museum: a beautiful museum that boasts a stocky lighthouse and permanent exhibitions on orcas and whaling. There was also a temporary exhibition commemorating the 10 year anniversary of the closure of Eden’s cannery: an event that put a vast number of locals out of work.

Eden Killer Whale Museum

Part of the Cannery Commemoration in the Museum

Part of the Cannery Commemoration in the Museum

 The display sparked me to poke around town after lunch looking for ex-cannery workers to see if they thought Eden had recovered since the closure. I tracked down few ex-workers that would talk to me but their responses were somewhat mixed. Some said the town had fully recovered and some said you only had to look at all the vacant shops on Main Street (and I can attest that there are many) to see that Eden was obviously still struggling.

Ex-Cannery Workers and current Bi-Lo employees Sheryl and Nicole

After talking to the ex-cannery workers I made my way down to the Wharf to talk to the fishermen about whether fishing as an industry was indeed in decline as many townspeople had claimed. 

Butch and Rob, fishermen

Their answers were more definitive with all of them agreeing that the fishing industry in Eden is floundering (sorry, I had to). I’m trying to hone in on a sharper angle or perhaps divide what I learned today into two separate articles: one on the ex-cannery workers and how they personally have recovered after the cannery closing and the second on why the government has rescinded almost 60% of fishing licenses in Eden over the past few years. They government claims its for conservation purposes but one burly old bloke I talked to, appropriately named Butch says “fishsticks!” Well actually he didn’t say that, but he could have. In any case, it might make an interesting piece to figure out whether the scaling back (jeeez, I just can’t stop) of fishing in the area was at all related to the closure of the cannery. The contemporaneity would suggest that the two events were in fact connected and that perhaps the repealing of the fishing licenses was an attempt to prevent the re-opening of the cannery by depriving it of stock. Very fishy…

In addition to being an interesting journalistic endeavor, walking around the Wharf was a pretty uncanny experience. First of all, I was the only female on the entire Wharf – a fact that immediately aroused curiosity and a whole ton of confusion. I amusedly watched the mystified fishermen watch me and I could almost see their thought bubbles “What the hell is that sheila upto? Must be bonkers.”

After I finished talking to the fishermen and tugboat operators I lingered on the dock snapping photos. There is something very mystical about winter sunlight in Australia and the effect was heightened by the bay and presence of a light fog. The way the golden rays bathed the boats lent the dock a romantic air. Suddenly, the stank odor of fish was no longer vomit-inducing but invigorating in its raw authenticity. The light transformed the horrifying sight of the fishermen beheading their catches into a scene of artists skillfully practicing their trade. The Wharf seemed an industrial paradise: totally peaceful but all the while efficient.

Wharf

Tug Boat on Wharf

Another Tug Boat on the Wharf

Then the sun set and the wretched stench of fish guts nearly bowled me over so I said my goodbyes to my new pals and made the long trek up the hill to “Eagle Heights” the motel units where we’re staying.

June 17^th

^{This morning it was off to Ben Boyd national park where we visited Boyd’s tower and Davidson’s Whaling Station. As I looked up at Boyd’s dilapidated tower, I was reminded of “Ozymandius” the poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley that goes:}

“I met a traveler from an antique land

Who said: ‘Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert…Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed;

And on the pedestal these words appear:

My name is Ozymandius, King of Kings,

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

 

Boyd's Tower

Here was the tower at Ben Boyd had intended to serve as the center of Boydtown – a development he believed would eventually surpass Sydney in importance. In reality, Boydtown never grew to be more than a small village with a Hotel, Church and a few cottages. Now all that remains of Boyd’s grand vision is the crumbling tower he built for his crew of whalers to keep watch for the prized Baleen whales they hunted.

No Thriving City Here  (Beautiful Beach Though)

Next we visited Davidson’s Whaling station – the longest running of all Australian shore based whaling stations. From the 1860s through the Depression years of the 1930’s, successive generations of the Davidson family used the station to slice the blubber off of the whales and eventually boil it down to oil. The Davidson’s were also renowned for having especially good relationships with the Killer Whales in the area. The orcas reportedly forced passing Baleen whales into the bay, harassing them unitl the whaling crews arrived. They were then rewarded with the lips and tongue after the whalers had successfully killed their prey.

After lunching at the Seahorse Inn, a boutique hotel in Boydtown that began as part of Boyd’s development before it was abandoned, I spent the remainder of the afternoon on the Wharf  searching for more information that might help me develop the article I intended to write on the closure of the wharf and its possible connection with the rescinding of fishing licenses. However, after talking to a few fishermen who informed me that the fish they caught around the bay (mostly breem and flatheads) were not the types they used in the cannery (Bluefin tuna and salmon) and therefore there could be no connection. With that story shot, I poked around for a new one and found it in the form of an outlandishly swanky café located on the end of the Wharf.

Sandwiched between two take-out clam shacks, the “Wharfside Café” is oddly cosmopolitan. The interior design is stunning. Rich navy walls and ceilings, complemented by pop art paintings of fish and lights shaped like portholes create an ambiance of retro-maritime chic.  In addition to cheaper Eden standards like fried shrimp and fish and chips, the menu also offers higher-end fare such as fresh mussels and grilled fish topped with coconut shrimp.

 

Wharfside Cafe

Lights shaped like Portholes

 Bar at Wharfside Cafe

Intrigued by how such a sophisticated eatery ended up on Eden’s utterly untouristy Wharf I sat down with the Wharfside café’s owner and chef, Diana Stojanovic. Diana explained that the café owes its fashionable décor to her husband, an interior designer who helped her refurbish the space when she opened “Wharfside Café” 9 years ago. Though she insists that her café offers something for everyone, she founded Wharfside with the  intention of attracting tourists (including drivers passing by Eden as few people actually stay overnight in the town except en route to go elsewhere). In any case I think I have enough info from her to do a fluffy restaurant profile/review. As I mentioned before reviewing is the form of travel writing that I’m least interested in but as far as reviews go I think this one will be fairly engaging to write just because of how incongruous the café is with its environment.

The more people I talk to and the more towns I visit, the more I become convinced that I want to pursue travel journalism in some form. Increasingly I feel like I’m able to connect with the places I travel to, and get the inhabitants to open up. What form of travel journalism I aspire to (writing, broadcast or a combination of the two) remains to be seen but I’m becoming ever more resolved to do it in some manner. I’m drawn towards writing because I love to write and I think that people are more articulate and open without cameras and a camera crew around but by the same token, video captures things that writing can’t and allows people to see exactly what the travel journalist is experiencing. Ideally I’d love to do both but they’re both such difficult fields to break into that I may have to become more realistic at some point. But for now, a girl can dream. 

Itinerary

I just finished up packing for our 12 day journey around small town Australia and figured I'd copy down a brief version of our itinerary in case I'm not able to post frequently which will probably be the case considering how often we're in transit and how dubious the internet scene is.

Tuesday June 9th (mah Birfday!)

Sydney to Braidwood

Today we'll be stopping for lunch at Rainbow Pies, one of the most renowned pie shops in Australia. Along with Vegemite and Marmite (which i tried this weekend and do NOT recommend unless you want to chunder (vomit in 'strine)) Pies are the quintessential Australian dish. The most typical Pie is ground beef topped with mashed potatoes, mushy peas (smashed peas) and gravy. That being said, it seems when it comes to Pies anything goes. I've seen adds for curry pies, lamb pies, chicken pies, creamy vegetable pies and kangaroo pies. The only requirement that is it has a Pie crust. 

Our first overnight stop is in Braidwood, a town so small it doesn't even make my 700 pg. tome of a guidebook. According to its meager website, Braidwood, 300km south of Sydney, is the first entire town to be listed on the NSW (New South Wales) State Heritage Register. The site boasts "Beautiful churches, old time pubs, restaurants, galleries, craft and antique shops, all operate in sensitively restored old buildings which served the town since the Gold Rush days." 

During our stay in Braidwood we will sleep in a converted flour mill which i think should be incredibly cool. 

Wednesday June 10th

Braidwood

The majority of today is left free for us to wander around Braidwood and search for stories. The only planned event is a bus tour of the cemetery. Sharon, our professor has an odd fetish for cemeteries. When i gave her a skeptical look during orientation she insisted that its only for their historical value. Still, I think Ill sleep with one eye open, especially since her only other suggestion on the itinerary is a "Ghost Tour".

Thursday June 11th

Braidwood to Milawa

It seems like we'll be on the road for the majority of today, stopping in Gundagai for lunch where we will also visit infamous bushranger Captain Moonlight's grave (more graves...suspicious...).

We'll spend the night in Milawa, a town of only 260 people that has somehow developed into an gourmet haven. From boutique vineyards to several homemade cheese shops and even a store selling nothing but gourmet mustard - it is unlikely that we'll go hungry in Milawa (we're scheduled to do a wine tasting and visit the cheese shop on Friday). I'm very interested to learn how such a small town became such an epicurean center and might even smell (or taste, i suppose) a story topic. 

Friday June 12th

Staying in Milawa but touring Beechworth and Yakkandandah (say that 10 times fast)

Today we're scheduled to tour Beechworth, a town that is closely associated with Ned Kelly. I'll attach an abridged encyclopedia entry of Ned here since he is sure to keep coming up.

Edward "Ned" Kelly (c. January 1855 – 11 November 1880) is Australia's most famous bushranger, and, to many, a folk hero for his defiance of the colonial authorities. Born near Melbourne to an Irish convict father, as a young man he clashed with the police. After an incident at his home, police parties went in search of him. After murdering three policemen, he and his gang were proclaimed outlaws. A final violent confrontation with police at Glenrowan, with Kelly dressed in home-made plate metal armour and helmet, led to his capture and trial. He was executed by hanging at Melbourne Gaol in 1880. His daring and notoriety made him an iconic figure in Australian history, folk lore, literature, art and film.

Besides taking a guided walking tour that traces Ned's movements through the Beechworth, we will visit a shop in Yakkandandah that sells nothing but Lavender before doing a wine and cheese tasting at Brown Brothers Winery in Milawa. 

Saturday June 13th

Staying in Milawa but touring Benalla and Glenrowan

I'm really looking forward to this day because we're lined up to see a Puppet Show rendition of Ned Kelly's last stand in Glenrowan. Though the name might be tedious ("Kelly's Last Stand") my thinking is that a reenactment of a shootout starring life-sized puppets that weave in and out of the audience instead of staying on stage will not be. 

We are also slotted to visit a museum in Benalla that houses artifacts of Ned's such as his favorite green sash (sounds a bit feminine for a bushranger, but hey). 

Sunday June 14th

Milawa to Bright

Today we depart Milawa (bye wine! bye cheese!) and head to Bright, stopping in Wandilgong to test out our senses of direction in a huge Maze (pictured).

If you never hear from me again, you can confidently assume that I'm still there as I have the worst sense of direction known to human-kind. I blame using GPSes and growing up in a city with a very convenient and sensical grid, but in any case my hippocampus is the size of a shriveled raisin.

Once we arrive in Bright, a town on the edge of the Snowy mountains (yes, i will be seeing snow!) we have the rest of the day free to search for stories provided we haven't found any yet. 

Monday June 15th

Bright to Eden

"This is a long road day" the itinerary reads. Yikes! In the morning we travel through Harrietville and over Mt. Hotham (one of the tallest in the Snowy Mountains), stopping in Omeo for coffee and to check out the Cuckoo Clock Shop. Another boy on our trip mentioned that he wanted to write a story about it, but I'm also very intrigued by the idea of a shop selling nothing but Cuckoo Clocks nestled in a small town at the top of a mountain. It seems very eerie and bizarre. 

Hopefully by dusk we'll have reached Eden, a town associated with the forestry and whaling industries. Lore has it that back in the whaling age (essentially from 1850-1930) orca whales would help the Whalers to heard the blue and humpback whales into the harbor, making them easier to kill. The whalers would reward the orca whales with the lips and tongues of the murdered whales. Doesn't exactly sound like a fair trade to me, but I suppose i can't knock whale lips and tongue until i've tried them. 

I'm especially interested in writing about the role of whales in the history of this small fishing town: at first as a lucrative industry, and now as a tourist attraction (apparently most travelers who come to Eden, do so for the whale watching). 

Tuesday June 16th

Eden

Today we're slotted to visit the Killer Whale museum and the (surprise surprise) Beach cemetery. Then the rest of the day is free other than a movie screening of a PBS special on the whaling industry in Eden. 

Wednesday, June 17th

Eden

Today is mainly free again other than a visit to Boyd's Tower, named after the Australian entrepreneur Ben Boyd whose accomplishments include such illustrious feats as floating the Royal Bank of Australia and attracting the hatred of all who knew him. He also managed to get himself mysteriously killed when he departed his Yacht (where he lived after being shunned from Australia) to hunt in Papua New Guinea. 

Thursday, June 18th

Eden to Bermagui

Again, today is mainly free except for a guided tour around Bermagui's Blue Pool, a man made, ocean-water swimming pool. From what I can tell, Bermagui is only notable for its associations with Zane Gray, a famous big-game fisherman. 

Friday June 19th

Staying in Bermagui, Touring Montague Island

Today we're set to tour Montague island home to a large colony of fairy penguins (score!). Besides watching the little guys waddle around, we'll be exploring a lighthouse that has since been converted into a hotel. This could make for a good hotel review piece, though I'm more interested in doing feature pieces than reviews.

 In case i haven't explained, most travel writing can be sorted into 2 categories: features pieces or service pieces. Features pieces focus on grasping the overall essence of an area while service pieces are mainly reviews and "how-to" pieces. I'm more interested in the former. 

Saturday June 20th

Bermagui

On the schedule for today is a tour of the aboriginal heritage centre, mystery bay (this will remain a mystery until i get there because i can't seem to find anything on it), and central tilba (an area that was previously inhabited by the Aborigines).

Sunday

Bermagui to Sydney

Today we come home! But to break up the long drive from Bermagui to Sydney we'll be stopping at Mogo Zoo, a zoo that specializes in the care and breeding of endangered species. Zoo stock includes the burmese python (in my opinion the world would be a better place without snakes but many (including the boa constrictor) would strangle me for saying that), the black and white ruffled lemur and the albino lion. It should be a roaring (sorry) good time!

Whew, I got a bit carried away there. Hope i still have things to fill in when i actually go to the places! In any case I'll post pictures and updates when i can. 

Tata for now!