Books in the Bong Bong Bar
The Southern Highlands Literary Festival
Hopewood House, Bowral
July 2019 (2 min read)
Rows of blue and white coffee cups line the length of a 50-seater long table in Hopewood House on a blazing July Saturday. The ladies, and a few blokes, of Bowral and beyond have turned up in force to hear Nadine Ingram talk about her passion for baking. It’s the second session of the day at the annual Southern Highlands Literary Festival and I’m nibbling the lushest lamington of my life.
Ingram owns the ten-seater Flour and Stone bakery in inner-city Woolloomooloo. She tempered her skills in various high-profile, high-pressure kitchens in London and Sydney, and has no wish to make her own staff endure the same hardships. Being an A-grade baker is a tough enough job in itself. “You get in to the business because you love feeding people”, she says.
The Flour & Stone lamington (half is enough!)
It’s good to hear that a new generation of chefs is changing the old whip-and-cuss style of Gordon Ramsay. Which isn’t to say that Ingram is a push over. She exudes a quiet steeliness. After only a third of that lamington, I’m so sated, I’m a teeny bit relieved the Christine Manfield curry lunch sold out. But I’ll get in quicker next year.
This is the first time the Festival has been held at Hopewood House and I hope it isn’t the last. This grand old residence, five minutes out of town, is the home of the painter Tim Storrier and his wife, Janet. Built in 1884, the house has a Dutch colonial look to it and the extensive grounds are lovely. In between sessions, my sister and I wander through the garden, fantasizing about life in the country. A kookaburra squats on the head of a nude female bronze and eyes off the worms.
Storrier’s sculptures and paintings are on display in a gallery adjacent to the Bong Bong Bar where J. R. Lonie is in conversation with Sue Turnbull. Lonie, a former head of Screenwriting at the Australian Film & Television School, has a humble disposition. “What’s the worst thing that can happen to my characters”? he asks, by way of illustrating his authorial method. “This is the best way to get to know them.” Using the Second World War as a setting gives him plenty of material.
Michaela Bolzan is the diminutive founder and Artistic Director of the Bowral festival. This is her eighth year on the job. She’s there every second of the day, though the Bowral womenfolk and us out-of-towners are exemplary festival-goers, applauding heartily and happily buying the books on sale.
Bolzan is a powerhouse who laments the fact that adults “suppress a lot of our creativity in order to conform”. She founded Creative & Co, a series of conversations with film makers, designers, tailors, actors, composers and other such types: “It all begins with an idea”! She is the new Artistic Director of the Canberra Writers’ Festival which this year runs from 21-25 of August.
We sneak back in to Bowral at lunchtime for a browse at the Milk Gallery. It is a hotchpotch of ceramics, paintings, jewellery, felt and glassworks. Upstairs is The Modern, a furniture store that sells bold Marimekko tableware and gorgeous wooden arm chairs.
Storrier sculpture in the garden of Hopewood House
Mikey Robins kicks off the afternoon session in the Bong Bong Bar with his new book Seven Deadly Sins and one very Naughty Fruit, which gives him plenty of eye-popping anecdotes about the what, way and why we eat. Ah, it’s only just dawned on us that there’s a foody theme to this year’s festival.
In the half-hour break we photograph the garden in the late afternoon sunshine, listen to the magpies, rosellas and cockatoos, dodge the sprinkler and get so carried away we have to make a mad dash back to the Bong Bong Bar. There, the glass of riesling we are given to see us through the last “conversation” is a nice touch. The wine is from Todd Alexander’s own grapes on the 100-acre property he bought with his partner, Jeff, in the Hunter Valley seven years ago.
Alexander is a born story-teller with a dry, self-deprecating wit and has us giggling in to our glasses for an hour. He’s the author of Thirty Thousand Bottles of Wine and a Pig called Helga. The two former Sydney corporate types are now vegan lumberjacks, olive-oil makers and the toilet-scrubbing proprietors of a B&B. Well-behaved visitors are allowed to give Helga Van Hoggett a tickle.
The sun has yielded to the winter chill as we gather our coats and scrunch down the gravel road to our car and a quick gin & tonic in the lounge at Craigieburn Peppers just around the corner.
EXTRA
The next SHWF will be held in October 2021 at Milton Park Country Hotel.
Join the mailing list for the Southern Highlands Writing Festival see www.shwf.com.au
Michaela Bolzan can be contacted via www.creativeandco.com
Stay We went for an inexpensive Stayz room in Bowral on Aitken road, a 20-minute walk from Biota. Our hosts, Tina and John, were delightful. Craigieburn Peppers is looking a little shabby and veal coloured, but it’s an easy stroll to Hopewood House.
https://www.peppers.com.au/craigieburn
For a bit of spa glamour and a leafy outlook for twice the price of our room ($279 and up) you could try Hotel Gibraltar, just across the golf course on Centennial Road.
https://www.gibraltarbowral.com.au
The crème de la crème of luxurious hotels in the Southern Highlands is Milton Park. Splash out on one of their packages.
http://www.miltonpark.com.au
The Royal Hotel has a Happy Hour Friday nights in which glasses of Veuve are $14 and oysters are a $1 a pop. Be quick to order, the oysters go fast. We followed these with the fish pie. It’s huge, comforting and bland. The local Italian, Ornesto Cucino, is highly rated but if you get a late booking at 8.30, the dishes come pre-prepared and re-heated. A dry cassoulet is no fun.
Back in May 2019, Raw & Wild café baked their own gorgeous healthy cakes and slices and served up a slab of creamy polenta with wild mushrooms and spinach for breakfast. It has since changed hands. The vibe has gone, along with the baked treats. The breakfast menu is the same, but the chef is not. The same thing has happened to Ludo.
If you like a stroll, head up to 2 Park Road. This café is full of contented locals and their scrambled eggs on sourdough is just the ticket at $10.
On a Sunday morning, Press Café was packed, which is a good sign, and the queue for Gumnut Patisserie on Bong Bong street stretched out the door.
For lunch, Bendooley Estate, 7.6km out of town, can’t be bettered. Every dish I have tried there during 6 visits has been sensational. Sadly, they’re not open for dinner. If you’re aiming for a late lunch, call first to make sure they’re not closing to make way for a wedding. They also offer accommodation. A pretty weekend cottage for 2 costs from $675.
There are three bookshops on Bong Bong St and Berkelouw’s Book Barn at Bendooley Estate, so go and support independent booksellers and spend Sunday morning with a book.