Australia’s best (and cheapest) state for a holiday by train

It feels as if Woodend should be much further away than just one hour from Melbourne.

You board the V/Line train at the city’s Southern Cross Station – skyscrapers, honking traffic, the ding of trams and the desperation of commuters trying to catch them. But as the train starts to move, the city quickly recedes; large buildings give way to normal housing, which gets sparser until you’re soon clacking through the Victorian countryside, all gum trees and grassy plains.

And then Woodend appears. I’m only halfway through a podcast.

Just 7000 people call Woodend home. The town was founded during the gold rush as a stop-off point on the way from Bendigo and Ballarat to Melbourne, though it hasn’t exactly boomed since. It’s a quaint, attractive little place, where there are probably more kangaroos and rosellas to spot on a Thursday morning than actual residents.

I’m in Woodend because this is the obvious first stop on a rail journey of regional Victoria. My idea is to use the V/Line service (which has half-price fares until January 1, 2027) to see just how much of this state you can explore at $5.70 a day (or $2.85 concession).

Victoria has many drawcards, though its relatively tight geography – the state occupies just 3 per cent of Australia’s landmass – is in this case its greatest asset. With just a pocketful of change and a few hours to spare, you can travel to so many historic, charm-laden regional centres and enjoy all they have to offer. Maybe spend the night, maybe spend two. Or jump back on the train and return to the city.

I’m using Woodend for a similar purpose to the early gold prospectors by taking a break on the way from Melbourne to Bendigo. Only, I’m not here to rest my horses. I’m here for lunch.

Woodend is proper country Australia despite its proximity to the state capital, a place where the old streets are wide enough to drive cattle through, and the World War I memorial clock tower serves as the centre of town. There shouldn’t be much out here and yet, there’s Kuzu Izakaya, a Japanese diner hidden in a cottage behind a wine shop.

Most towns of 7000 people don’t have an izakaya that does oyster shooters with Japanese vinegar dressing, flying fish roe, green apple and wasabi. There isn’t usually anywhere to get char-grilled wagyu sirloin with red onions, chives, ponzu and grated daikon. But there is in Woodend.

This is a good taster for what is to come. On this rail odyssey I will visit Kyneton and Castlemaine, Bendigo and Heathcote. I will appreciate history and natural beauty. I will shop for art and antiques and wind up buying Italian amaro. I will eat everything, from fine-dining cuisine to a kebab, on the same day. And I will explore the idea of what a country town or regional centre even is any more. And how easy it is to experience it.

Next stop: Bendigo. Former gold rush boom town; still home of the eponymous bank. Known as widely for its tulips as its old trams that rattle around on sightseeing jaunts.

People come to Bendigo for all those reasons and more, though you could also just come here to eat.

This city has four restaurants that have been awarded a hat by the Australian Good Food Guide. You might think you can’t get to them all, but Bendigo Guided Tours runs a monthly Four Hats of Bendigo progressive dinner, in which diners sample four courses at these four-hatted restaurants. So this evening, that’s appetisers at Alium Dining overlooking the Queen’s Gardens precinct; then stuffed zucchini flowers for entree at Terrae; incredible wagyu at The Woodhouse; and a modern take on the lamington at Le Foyer that has no right to be so good.

Five main regional train lines run out of Melbourne. To the east there’s the Traralgon line, while the Seymour line heads north-east. To the south-west there’s the Geelong line, and the Ballarat line heads north-west and continues to Maryborough or Ararat. All will take you somewhere interesting in two hours or less, at $5.70 for a full fare (capped for an entire day), or $2.85 for concession holders, which is ridiculous value.

My pick for this trip is the route to Bendigo, which calls through the likes of Castlemaine, Kyneton, Woodend and Macedon, towns rich in culture, both historic and contemporary, and the sort of places I want to hang out.

Heathcote is cheating: it’s not on the train line, but it is easily accessible from Bendigo via a bus that takes less than an hour. I’m breaking my own rules to get there but it’s worth it.

This is the home of some of Victoria’s biggest, gutsiest red wines, made by legends such as Jasper Hill and Syrahmi. It’s also the home of Chauncy, a French-leaning fine diner in a former survey office once presided over by Heathcote’s original town planner, Philip Chauncy.

The modern restaurant is owned by Louis Naepels, former Grossi Florentino head chef, and his partner Tess Murray, a sommelier who once worked with the Melbourne-based McConnell Group. The powerhouse couple open for lunch only (Friday to Monday) and serve produce either sourced from local farms or grown onsite.

There are few better places to dine in Australia, let alone in country Victoria, and this is a side quest you do not want to miss out on.

Though, a quick note: if you allow yourself to linger at Chauncy long after lunch should have finished, and then hang out at Palling Bros Brewery until closing time and suddenly find yourself peckish, you might follow your fine-dining experience with a trip to Heathcote Pizza & Kebabs.

But we need to move on. Back to Bendigo and back on the train, with another $5.70 to spend on today’s adventure. I’m off to Castlemaine, a formerly sleepy country town that is now something like Northcote-North, an outpost of creative, arty Melbourne, which makes sense given it’s only 1.5 hours from the city.

Behind Castlemaine’s historic facades are wine bars, pizzerias, Vietnamese restaurants, Latin American eateries, cafes and thrift stores. The 1870s wool mill has been turned into The Mill Castlemaine, a precinct filled with local boutiques, coffee roasters, winemakers, cheese producers and bakers. Shedshaker, the on-site brewery, has live music most nights.

Twenty minutes south on the train there is Kyneton. With just 10,000 residents this town is an unlikely hub for art and antiques, but that’s exactly what I find along Piper Street – you could while away an entire day sorting through shop after shop.

The boutique bottle shop Botanik has an incredible collection of European aperitifs and digestifs, everything from Spanish vermouth to Italian amaro to French herbal liqueurs.

It’s worth stocking up because you won’t have to carry it far. Southern Cross Station is just over an hour away.

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Ben Groundwater is a Sydney-based travel writer, columnist, broadcaster, author and occasional tour guide with more than 25 years’ experience in media, and a lifetime of experience traversing the globe. He specialises in food and wine – writing about it, as well as consuming it – and at any given moment in time Ben is probably thinking about either ramen in Tokyo, pintxos in San Sebastian, or carbonara in Rome. Follow him on Instagram @bengroundwaterConnect via email.