The magnificent Yarra Valley

By MELANIE BALL

The bubbles surface so slowly they appear to have all the time in the world. And they would have, if I could stop swipping (that's sipping crossed with swigging).

Holding the glass at eye level, I study the scene blurred by the wine. Green sharpens into grape vines as I lower the glass to my lips. Darker forms firm into hills and the pale smudge separates into blue sky and grey marbled clouds.

If Victoria's Yarra Valley were less scenic and its wines more resistible, discovering its other attractions would be so much easier.

Melbourne's much-mocked Yarra River begins life as a stream in the high country, from where it charts a circuitous route to Port Phillip Bay. Just before snaking through the city's outer-eastern suburbs, it irrigates fertile pastures bounded by the hills of the Great Dividing Range.

Cattle and sheep dot the river flats here. Dams reflect lone gums rooted in chocolate soil. Summer, autumn, winter and spring roll their colours along row after row of vines, a pastoral symphony that is particularly pleasurable from a hot air balloon.

The Yarra Valley is an easy day trip from Melbourne, but staying overnight allows time for indulging. Within the region there are blackfin and trout to catch, yabbies to trap, berries to pick and a train to ride. The Yarra Valley Tourist Railway runs trolley-train trips along the historic Healesville-Lilydale rail line on Sundays and public holidays.

Money not budgeted for restocking cellars is easily spent on antiques or art from galleries and monthly markets. Valley tearooms, cafes and award-winning restaurants satisfy cravings for scones with cream and home-made jam and tender Yarra Valley venison - and every temptation in between.

At more and more wineries you can enjoy fine food with a bottle of wine instead of standing at the tasting bench. De Bortoli's fare has an Italian flavour, Yarra Burn and Kellybrook specialise in roasts and desserts.


The Yarra Valley is a great base for between-meal scenic drives. The road up over the Black Spur to Marysville through majestic mountain ash forest replanted after the 1939 bushfires is one of Australia's best. And on foot you can walk with the ghosts of timbermen and gold miners and lose yourself in national parks.

The National Trail along the Great Divide from Healesville to Cooktown, in far north Queensland, starts (or ends, depending on your point of view) at Donnelly Weir.

Too energetic? Then travel back in time to when the Wurundjeri Aborigines ranged through the region. Guided bush walks and other cultural activities offered by Healesville's Galeena Beek Living Cultural Centre reveal the Yarra Valley's rich Koori heritage.

Early European history lives on in museums, homesteads and famous hotels such as Yarra Glen's Grand, a landmark since 1888.

Victoria's most complete 19th-century farm complex is a couple of kilometres north. Comprising age-greyed outbuildings and a hand-split plank house in a cottage garden, Gulf Station dates back to 1854. Its ducks, geese and sheep are free-range, so watch your step or you will take home more than stories about pioneering life.

If the ducks flew south for summer, they would pass over the weathered shed housing the wonderful Yarra Valley Dairy Cafe. Here you can't help but overindulge in semi-dried tomatoes, spicy sweet relish, warm walnut bread and cow's and goat's milk cheeses - the Persian fetta is sublime - washed down with a glass of Yarra Valley wine.

Victoria's wine industry began in the Yarra Valley when William Ryrie planted the state's first vineyard at Yering Station in 1837. After Paul de Castella bought the property in 1850, he expanded the vineyard with imported French cuttings. The international acclaim for his wines culminated in a Yering Cabernet receiving one of only seven prestigious Grand Prix awards at the 1889 Paris Exhibition.

De Castella's brother Hubert founded neighbouring St Hubert's vineyard in 1862, and here, in 1966, about 50 years after the last original vineyards were pulled out for dairying, the Yarra Valley wine industry was reborn.

Now, like the region's great wines, the names of Yarra Valley wineries roll around wine-lovers' tongues: Domaine Chandon, Yeringberg, Mount Mary. With dozens of wineries open daily or at weekends (and another dozen by appointment), the only thing more difficult than deciding where to start tasting is deciding when to stop.

Somewhere along the way, drop in at Warramate, and help owners Jack and June Church. June told me they applied for a licence to sell wine only because they couldn't drink their annual yield of 1000 cases.

Warramate's view is arguably the best in the valley. Its riesling and shiraz aren't bad either.

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Information:Yarra Valley tourism, accommodation and winery information from Visitor Information Centre, ph (00613) 5962 2600, fax (00613) 5962 2040, emailYarra Valley Tourism, visit their website or visit Tourism Victoria


ACTIVITIES: Yarra Valley Winery Tours, ph (00613) 5962 3870, offer tours for individuals and small groups from $A80-$A130 ($100-$164) each, which include lunch, wine tastings and pickup from Melbourne or the Yarra Valley. For larger groups, prices start from $A60 a person.

For hot-air ballooning check out Global Ballooning or phone Go Wild Ballooning, ph (00613) 9890 0339.