A TASTE OF THE GRANITE BELT

Locals like to boast that Stanthorpe, the main town in Queensland’s Granite Belt, is the state’s coolest town. At elevations between 800 and 1200 metres, this energetic farming and winemaking region does experience a real winter — and even occasional snowfalls. But Stanthorpe is also cool in the other sense of the word as the thriving country town, population around 5000, punches above its weight when it comes to hospitality and visitor experiences. In part, that’s attributable to its vibrant food and wine culture. But it’s also because the region has a multicultural history that dates back to the earliest European settlement.

While the first settlers were squatters who took up vast holdings around what was then known as Quart Pot Creek, Stanthorpe really made it onto the map when tin was discovered in the 1870s and miners from all over Europe and Asia came to seek fortune. The district’s first parish priest, Italian-born Father Jerome Davadi, planted