Bruny Island, Tasmania

Experience some of the finest produce the Apple Isle has to offer on a culinary road trip across this picturesque little island.

To Australians, Tasmania’s very name conjures up images of farmers’ markets, cool−climate wines and succulent seafood.

Some of the best produce is hidden away off Tassie’s southeast coast, on Bruny Island. Against this backdrop of abundant wildlife, Bruny’s produce benefits from clear waters and fertile soil. Large, meaty oysters are farmed in the D’Entrecasteaux Channel. On land, one−of−a−kind cheeses are matured, fruity chardonnays are bottled, and bees are sent out to work collecting nectar. Producers are few and standards are high, meaning a gourmet road trip of the island has an exclusive, boutique feel – if you mention the cheese place or the winery, locals will know exactly where you mean.

GET SHUCKED

The oysters farmed on Bruny Island are glistening, juicy−fat mouthfuls that slide from their pearlescent shells onto eager tongues. And they don’t come fresher than at the memorably named Get Shucked, only 15 minutes’ drive south of Bruny ferry terminal. There are Tasmanian wines and beers to wash them down, and a play area to entertain the kids while the grown−ups order another dozen.

BRUNY ISLAND CHEESE CO

Less than 1km south of Get Shucked is Bruny Island Cheese Co. Since 2017, all cheeses have been made from milk produced at its own organic, sustainable dairy farm. While leaning into local cheese−making styles, the specialists behind this boutique fromagerie have also drawn inspiration from far and wide across Europe.

Their ‘Tom’ is a riff on the French Alpine semi−soft cheese Tomme, while one distinctly local creation is infused with fragrant Huon pine – the ‘1792’ cheese (named after the year the French first stepped on Tasmania). Order a selection of cheeses and pair them with beers (made behind the dairy), perhaps the raspberry stout or barley−quinoa ale, and linger a while at a table under the eucalypt trees.

THE HONEY POT Less than five minutes’ drive south is a perfect companion to those rich, nutty

cheeses: honey. “Bruny offers a climate that is a little milder than mainland Tassie,” explains the owner and manager of The Honey Pot, Natalie Wright. Two decades of honey production on Bruny have grown The Honey Pot into a 400−hive operation.

BRUNY ISLAND PREMIUM WINES

Bruny Island Premium Wines takes a small−batch approach: a community hand−picking effort in April, grape pressing, then at least nine months in French oak barrels before the wine is ready to be poured. Oenophiles will find a varietal to their taste: the honeyed chardonnay with notes of fresh−baked croissants; bright and grassy sauvignon blanc, appley gewürztraminer; lightly spicy pinot noir... For something even more Tasmanian – after all, the state has been known as the Apple Isle – Bruny’s only ciders are made here, too.

BRUNY ISLAND HOUSE OF WHISKY

Now that your belly’s full and your car boot is clanking with jars of honey and bottles of wine, it’s time to return to the ferry. Thirty−five minutes into the northward drive, pause at Bruny Island House of Whisky to add to your stock of Bruny produce to haul home. You’re only 3km from the ferry terminal at this point, so if you aren’t driving, kill some time with a flight of whiskies by the open fire inside.