Experience the best of Yarra Valley

The Yarra Valley opens out east of Melbourne, where the Yarra River winds through farmland and low hills toward the Great Dividing Range. Vines have grown here since the 1830s, and the cool climate suits pinot noir, chardonnay and sparkling wine. The main towns are Lilydale, Yarra Glen and Healesville, and many wineries have restaurants that look over the rows of vines to the hills beyond.

Healesville Sanctuary shelters native animals such as platypus, wombats and koalas, and the Black Spur road climbs from Healesville through towering mountain ash forest, among the tallest flowering trees on earth. Further east, Warburton lies at the foot of Mount Donna Buang in the Yarra Ranges, and the Dandenong Ranges, with fern gullies and a heritage steam railway, rise to the south-west.

Cheesemakers, chocolatiers, berry farms, orchards and trout ponds fill out the valley's table, and lunch usually comes with a glass of the local vintage. The grapes are picked from about February to April, when the vines turn gold and rust. Winters are cold enough for frost, and snow sometimes dusts the high ranges.