Bathurst: beyond the racetrack

Australia’s oldest inland city shakes off its high-octane image to showcase its hip bars and edgy eateries.

Words: Caroline Gladstone

PERCEPTIONS CAN be hard to shift. Twenty years ago Canberra was considered ‘boring’, Byron Bay was cast as backpacker party-central and Bathurst – well, home to rev heads and petrol fumes.

But anyone who’s lived in, studied at or visited Australia’s oldest inland city can tell tales of Bathurst beyond the racetrack. For one thing, the famous ‘mountain’ was officially renamed Mt Panorama-Wahluu in 2015 after a campaign by the local Wiradyrui people, who have long held it as a sacred initiation site.

Supercar racing certainly brings in big bucks – some $200 million a year from its two mega events. But those who seek good food, wine, craft beers and micro-distillery gin – and love art – are also heading west and with the opening of the Bathurst Rail Museum, train buffs are also, pardon the pun, making tracks to the city.

Bathurst, 200 kilometres west of Sydney, is rich in history: explorers Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth crossed the Blue Mountains in 1813, and soon after, the first European settlement took root. Buildings sprang up around a neatly laid out centre, and today it’s easy to see Bathurst’s architectural gems, by strolling the square bordered by George, Howick, Havannah and Piper Street.

Like all good cities Bathurst has mixed the old with the new, resulting in some hip places to eat and drink. And this re-energising hasn’t taken long. In December 2018 I donned a hard hat to walk through the old Tremain’s Mill, an 1857-built grain mill, which hadn’t been used since 1980. Today, it has morphed into an edgy dining space housing Doppio Espresso Café and pizza restaurant Osteria Roma in old shipping containers, and the run-down adjacent pub has been reborn as The Victoria, complete with funky murals of the British queen, craft beers and distilled spiced rum cocktails, and a dog-friendly lawn out the back. The Australian Milling Museum, the first of its kind in the world, will take over the disused mill itself when it opens this year.

Bathurst has many such restaurants and bars. The stately E. G. Webb & Co department store that graced George Street from the 1860s now houses Cobblestone Lane restaurant, which is open for lunch and dinner and features a very civilised late-supper menu on Friday and Saturdays. Next door is the newish Webb & Co Bar, which calls itself a beverage emporium, and in keeping with its historic surroundings mixes up an array of retro cocktails – Harvey Wallbanger, Grasshopper and Tom Collins – in a snug space on the edge of beautiful Machattie Park.

Just down the road is The George Hotel, formerly the Park, a new relaxed gastropub serving Mod Oz specialties along with an all-day bar menu. Don’t miss the must-have pulled-pork sandwiches can be had. Owner Matt Harrowsmith is also part of the team that created another eatery, Church Bar, a favourite with uni students and complete with a courtyard coffee van. As the name suggests the restaurant inhabits an old Anglican church hall located in Ribbon Gang Lane, which in turn takes its name from a notorious group of escaped convicts who terrorised Bathurst in 1830.

While the city dishes up every culinary preference, it’s far more than a foodie haunt. Museums, wineries, art galleries and studios and heritage crafts are all part of the fabric.

Surprisingly, there’s also a castle: Abercrombie House.

Built in 1878 by James Stewart, whose father William Stewart had been Lieutenant Governor of NSW decades earlier, the Scottish-style baronial mansion was once set on vast tracts of pastoral land. Today’s lord of the manor is Christopher Morgan, who has lived in the 50-room, seven-staircase granite-and-sandstone residence for 50 years, ever since his father Rex bought it in 1969. He and his wife Xanthe run regular tours and hold weddings, high teas and jazz nights in the castle grounds to finance the never-ending restoration work.

History lovers will also relish the city’s museums, including the new Bathurst Rail Museum that opened in February 2020. Housed in the old Railway Institute building in Havannah Street, its exhibits include a model railway track the size of a tennis court – the largest of its kinds in Australia. It’s set to be a big hit with kids, as is the Australian Fossil and Mineral Museum with its centrepiece skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus tex.

Other museums that map the city’s rich past are the Bathurst District Historical Society Museum in the east wing of the neo-classical Courthouse, and Ben Chifley House, the early home of Australia’s 16th Prime Minister.

Museums also cater for high-octane addicts: there’s the National Motor Racing Museum at Mount Panorama and Ash’s Speedway Museum, the holy grail for motorcycle devotees.

Art lovers can join the Bathurst Arts Trail on the first weekend of every month, when galleries and studios open their doors for free, or visit the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, which runs three to four exhibitions at a time and holds talks and workshops.

A city so rich in history naturally has several beautifully restored hotels and guesthouses. In the heart of town are the Mews Apartments in the heritagelisted Royal Hotel, which dates back to the 1840s. The four apartments each have balconies overlooking Machattie Park and the Courthouse.

The swishest place to hole up, however, has to be Bishop’s Court Estate, a six-home boutique hotel occupying the former residence of Anglican Bishop Samuel Marsden. Each room has an alluring name – Serenity, Divinity and Harmony – and is painted in a colour reflected in a bishop’s vestments. Owner and interior decorator Christine Le Fevre spent four years restoring the 1870-built twostorey manse that includes library, private chapel and sprawling gardens. Her labour of love has created the most stunning but relaxing space – grand but far from overwhelming. The stairs creak a little, adding to the olde worlde feel, and the fresh herbs from the garden and eggs from the resident hens create a homely touch. TB