The pit stop

What’s old is new in New Norfolk, where historic buildings have been reinvented as fine restaurants and hotels, and antique emporiums have transformed the town’s shopping, writes Andrew Bain.

New The PIT STOP Norfolk

EAT

It’s an incongruous setting for one of Australia’s top restaurants, but the Agrarian Kitchen Eatery brings refined touches and tastes to a former ward in Willow Court, the country’s first purpose-built psychiatric institution. The set lunch menu celebrates local, seasonal produce, and you can now enjoy takeaways from the kiosk.

SHOP

Fitting its status as Tasmania’s third-oldest settlement, New Norfolk does a fine line in antiques, from top-of-the-line Drill Hall Emporium to the sprawling Willow Court Antique Centre. Drill Hall’s sister store, Flywheel, combines a letterpress studio with a lovely range of stationery.

SEE

The River Derwent flows like an artery through New Norfolk and was the town’s original highway, linking it to Hobart. It’s now best seen in a couple of ways: on a riverside walking trail that rises over cliffs with a good view back to the town; or from across the river at Pulpit Rock Lookout, perched high above a wide bend of the Derwent.

DRINK

Head upstream to find farmhouse ales and ciders at Two Metre Tall craft STAY

Slip back into New Norfolk’s headiest days with a stay at The Woodbridge, a grand 1825 mansion on the banks of the River Derwent. Guest rooms look out across the river, and rooms and corridors are filled with artworks and artefacts in what feels like an elegant English country estate.

ESSENTIAL STOPS

• • • • Agrarian Kitchen Eatery Drill Hall Emporium Pulpit Rock Lookout Two Metre Tall

•The Woodbridge

brewery. An old shearing shed serves PLENTY as the brewery, with an open-air bar serving a range of wild-fermented beers that use ingredients grown on the farm or sourced from other Tasmanian farmers.

HAYES MAYFAIR MAGRA

THIS PAGE (Top to bottom) The River Derwent; The Agrarian Kitchen Eatery; Two Metre Tall.

TWO METRE TALL

GLENFERN