Out our front door
Branxton & The Hunter
A historic country town on the doorstep of Australia's oldest wine region. Here is what to see, starting from our driveway.
The town
Historic Branxton
Branxton's main street still wears its history: antique stores, verandahed pubs and buildings that go back to the 1860s, all an easy walk from the motel.
- St John's Anglican Church: a brick church with a tower designed by J. Horbury Hunt, built 1871 to 1879.
- The Branxton Court House: brick with a gabled roof, front verandah and symmetrical offices.
- The Police Station (1880): designed by colonial architect James Barnet, with its stepped gabled roof and pediment.
- The old Methodist (now Uniting) Church (1865) on the corner of Drinan and Clift Streets.
- The Victoria Building (c.1860): originally a general store, now a coffee shop, on Clift Street at the highway.
- Brown's Garage, said to date from around 1875, among the old residences near John Rose Avenue.
The region
The Hunter Valley
The Hunter Valley stretches from the Goulburn River and Wollemi National Park in the south right up to Barrington Tops National Park in the north, and it is one of Australia's most famous wine growing regions.
The Pokolbin area, ten minutes from the motel along Wine Country Drive, carries a huge concentration of vineyards, cellar doors, restaurants, shops and golf courses, including names you will know: Tyrrell's, Wyndham Estate, Lindemans and McGuigan among them.
Make us your base, head out to the vines after breakfast, and be back in the courtyard garden before the evening cools off.
Stay at the gateway
Quiet ground-floor rooms, parking at your door, and the whole Hunter within an easy run.