The Margaret River wine story is well told. Cellar doors line Caves Road, the trophy cabinets are full, and the cabernets are sent to London by the case. What is less told is the quieter story running alongside it. The cheese rooms with hand-poured French moulds. The single-origin chocolate bars wrapped in paper. The olive groves picked and pressed on the same day. The venison salami, the strawberry tart still warm, the truffle pulled from karri soil. The South West is one of the great food regions of Australia, and most of it sits within thirty minutes of Abbey Beach Resort.
This is a guide for guests who want to taste their way through the area without spending the day on cellar door tasting mats. It is built around farm gates, factory windows, and the small producers who make food properly and sell it directly. Opening hours, drive times and seasonality are noted where relevant, so the day plans itself.
Less wine, more cheese. Less itinerary, more wandering. The South West rewards the slow lap.
Stop 01 · DairyThe Cheese Run
The South West has a particular kind of dairy country. Cool, green, well watered, the cattle graze on coastal pasture and the milk lands in small cheese rooms that still hand-pour, hand-wrap and hand-stamp. Two stops are essential.
On Bussell Highway just north of Cowaramup, the Margaret River Dairy Company has been the South West's cheese institution for two decades. The Brie and Camembert is made in classic French style: milk pasteurised, culture stirred in, hand-poured into moulds, brined, and matured over ten days to build the white mould bloom. Each cheese is hand-wrapped before sale. The tasting bench runs the full range from soft whites to cheddars and yoghurts, with coffee and ice cream on hand for the drive back.
Open daily · 100% local South West milk · Tastings free
The smaller cousin to the Dairy Company. Yallingup Cheese makes a tighter, more artisanal range, with a focus on washed-rind, soft-ripened and natural cultured cheeses that turn up on the best platters across the region. The shop is small, the tasting personal, and the staff will happily talk through what is in season and what has just come out of the cave. Worth pairing with a Yallingup beach walk afterwards.
Best paired with: a baguette from Yallingup Woodfired Bread, picked up on the same drive
Stop 02 · ChocolateThe Chocolate Detour
Chocolate in the South West is not a single story. There is the big, family-friendly chocolate factory with viewing windows and over a hundred products. There is the single-origin, bean-to-bar artisan operation that takes its cocoa seriously enough to bag it by country of origin. Both are worth the time, and they are nothing like each other.
The original factory at Metricup is a half hour from Abbey Beach Resort and built for visitors. Tastings are free, the viewing window shows the chocolatiers working through the day, and the range stretches across more than a hundred products from handmade truffles to ice cream and chocolate fondue for two in the cafe. Unashamedly accessible and very good at what it does. The Providore next door does olive oil tastings and stocks Coward and Black wines, so the two pair back to back.
415 Harmans Mill Road, Metricup · Free tastings · Cafe on site
A completely different proposition. Gabriel Chocolate works in single-origin, bean-to-bar style, with bars carrying their country and region of origin like a bottle of wine carries vintage. The free tasting flight sits four or five origins side by side, and the difference between a Madagascan and a Peruvian is genuinely revelatory if you have never tasted them in sequence. Chocolate-dipped gelato bars and a serious hot chocolate are on the menu. Sit down for half an hour and pay attention.
Corner Caves Road and Quininup Road, Yallingup
Order matters. Cheese before chocolate, never the other way around. Sweet ingredients flatten the palate's ability to read salt, acid and lactic notes. A short coffee stop between the two helps.
Stop 03 · Olive OilThe Olive Groves
The South West's Mediterranean climate is well suited to olives, and the region has built a quiet reputation for cold-pressed, estate-grown oils that hold their own against anything coming out of Tuscany or Andalusia. These are more meditative stops, often with groves to walk through and tasting rooms that take their time.
A 320-acre certified organic olive farm a few minutes from the beaches at Gracetown. Olio Bello grows fourteen varieties of olive, picked and pressed on the same day, with a tasting room running flights across the range alongside marinated olives, preserves and a cafe. The grounds are among the most photogenic in the region, with rows of trees disappearing toward the hills and a slow pace that suits the product.
Armstrong Road, Cowaramup · Tasting room, cafe and onsite accommodation
Closer to the resort than most stops on this list, Vasse Virgin pairs extra virgin olive oil with a full tasting room of table olives, tapenades, vinaigrettes, pasta sauces, pesto and dukkah, plus an olive oil-based skincare line that has become a quiet hero product. Good for an early lap of the trail before the larger drives further south.
135 Puzey Road, off Abbey Farm Road, Wilyabrup
Wake Up Twenty Minutes From the South West's Best Food.
Abbey Beach Resort sits at 595 Bussell Highway, Busselton, the launching point for everything on this trail. Beachfront apartments, two pools, a heated indoor pool, and breakfast at Reflections Cafe before you head out for the day.
Check AvailabilityStop 04 · MeatVenison, Salami and the Smokehouse
The South West produces some of Australia's most interesting charcuterie, and the standout is venison from the family operation at Margaret River Venison. Slightly off the tourist line, it rewards the detour with a product range hard to find anywhere else in the country.
Venison prosciutto, pates, liverwurst, pastrami and biltong, all made in-house and sold from a small shop on Caves Road. The prosciutto is exceptional, with a clean, lean flavour that puts most pork prosciutto in the shade. Buy a small vacuum-packed selection, drop them in the apartment fridge at Abbey Beach, and build a platter back at the resort with cheese from the Dairy Company and bread from Yallingup. The trail rewards stacking like this.
Caves Road, Margaret River
Stop 05 · Berries and SweetThe Berry Farm and the Fudge Stop
Two stops here that are doing different things but both reward the detour. The Berry Farm is the one to plan a long lunch around. The fudge stop is a fifteen minute pull-in on the way somewhere else.
Hidden inland at Rosa Brook, the Berry Farm has worked the same Margaret River patch for decades. Their fruit wines, vinegars, jams and chutneys are made on site, and the rambling cottage garden cafe does a lunch that turns most people into return visitors. Children climb on rocks, parents share a long platter, and the drive out is part of the appeal.
Worth a half-day stop in its own right
In the centre of Margaret River township at 152 Bussell Highway, the Fudge Factory makes hand-cut fudge in a rotating range of flavours. A short stop, samples on the bench, and a small box of fudge for the drive home does the job.
Stop 06 · MarketsThe Farmers Markets
For guests staying across a weekend, the local markets are the single best way to taste the whole region in two hours. Each one is run by growers, bakers, cheesemakers and producers selling direct.
Held on the Busselton Foreshore, Origins is the closest market to the resort and an easy walk or short drive. Fresh produce, local bakers, prepared food, and the kind of small producers who often have no permanent shopfront. A good market for filling the apartment kitchen for the week.
A larger Sunday market with food, makers, and live music in Barnard Park alongside the foreshore. The mix swings more general than Origins, but the food stalls and produce are always strong.
At Vasse Community Hall on the first and third Saturdays of the month. Smaller and more local in feel, with a strong showing from the growers, bakers and small producers based around Vasse itself.
Stop 07 · SeasonalTruffle Season, June to September
Western Australia produces around 70 percent of the Southern Hemisphere's black Perigord truffle harvest, and the centre of that industry sits at Manjimup, around two hours south of Abbey Beach Resort. From early June to September the truffles come out of the ground daily, sniffed out by trained dogs and exported within forty-eight hours to Michelin-starred kitchens across Asia, Europe and North America.
For guests staying through winter, several Manjimup growers run public truffle hunts that include the hunt itself, a tasting of truffle-infused produce, and wine pairings. Truffle Hill, Australian Truffle Traders, Manjimup Truffles and Millgrove Truffles are the major names, and the experience is among the most memorable food activities in the country. The annual Truffle Kerfuffle festival in late June draws growers, chefs and visitors from around the world for three days of marketplace tastings and dining events at Fonty's Pool.
The drive from Abbey Beach Resort to Manjimup takes around two hours each way, making it a full day rather than a quick stop. For serious food guests, it is the trip of the trip.
If you are staying in winter, the truffle hunt is the single most extraordinary food experience in the South West. Book it before the rest of the trip.
Stop 08 · Building a DayThree Suggested Routes
For guests who want a route rather than a list, three working day plans, each starting and ending at Abbey Beach Resort. Times assume an unhurried pace with stops for tastings.
The Half-Day Loop · 4 hours
Leave the resort at 10am. Vasse Virgin first for olive oil. Cross to the Margaret River Chocolate Company at Metricup for tastings and a coffee. Margaret River Dairy Company at Cowaramup for cheese. Back to the resort for a late lunch at Reflections Cafe. A relaxed half-day covering the three most accessible producers.
The Full Day · 8 hours
Leave at 9am. Vasse Virgin, then Olio Bello, then a long lunch at the Berry Farm in Rosa Brook. Afternoon stop at Margaret River Venison for charcuterie, then Gabriel Chocolate or the Margaret River Chocolate Company. Return via the Dairy Company for cheese. Arrive at the resort by 5pm and build a platter on the balcony as the sun drops into Geographe Bay.
The Truffle Day · Winter only
Book a truffle hunt at one of the Manjimup growers in advance. Leave the resort at 8am, drive south via Bridgetown for a coffee, arrive in Manjimup for the morning hunt and a truffle-paired tasting plate. Return via the Blackwood Valley wineries, back at the resort by 6pm. A long day, but the kind that defines a trip.
Stop 09 · PracticalitiesHow to Run the Trail Properly
Drive and Carry an Esky
The producers on this trail are spread across a region that does not lend itself to public transport, so a car is essential. Designate a driver and pack a cheap esky with an ice brick. The difference between getting a soft-ripened cheese home in good condition and not is fifteen dollars at the bottle shop. The apartment fridge at Abbey Beach does the rest.
Buy Less, Taste More
The temptation is to buy at every stop. The better approach is to taste at every stop and buy at three or four. Cheese needs eating within a week, chocolate travels well, olive oil keeps for months. Pace the purchases to the trip length, and phone ahead for the smaller producers in shoulder seasons since opening hours move.
Pair With the Beach
Geographe Bay is one of the calmest, clearest stretches of coastline in Australia, and Abbey Beach Resort sits directly on it. The food trail works best balanced with morning walks along the beachfront path, an afternoon swim, and a long evening on the balcony. The South West is not a region to rush.
The South West Food Trail Starts at the Front Door.
Book direct at Abbey Beach Resort for the best rates on one, two and three-bedroom self-contained apartments. Beachfront on Geographe Bay, two pools, heated indoor pool, sauna, gym, two on-site restaurants, and twenty minutes from everything on this trail.
Check AvailabilityThe producers in this guide are part of what makes the South West one of the great quiet food regions of Australia. They are family-owned, locally run, and often single-handedly keeping a craft alive. The wineries get the headlines. The producers in this guide are the story underneath them, and the trail is yours to run at the pace you want.
