Popular writer Richard Cornish has highlighted six attractions of the Kinglake region, in a featured in The Age.

• Foggy Mountain Bluegrass Festival
• Philip Lobley Wines (Glenburn)
• Flying Tarts Cafe
• Bowden Spur cycling
• Wombat Park
• Masons Falls

Bluegrass Festival
The people in Kinglake refer to their hometown as “The Mountain”. At about 600 metres above sea level, Kinglake has a microclimate colder and wetter than the surrounding terrain. Despite being just 46 kilometres north of the city, the locals have a culture unto their own. Here they grow berries, great potatoes and have great areas of forest that have regenerated since the 2009 fires. Because their town is often cloaked in mist, their annual bluegrass shindig is called the Foggy Mountain Bluegrass Festival. It is a fun weekend kicking off on October 13 with a community bush dance. Heading the bill are the Davidson Brothers from Yinnar in Gippsland alongside the Cherry Pickers, The Knott Family Band, Brucellosis and iconic renegade band from Adelaide, The Beards, who will also be judging the best beard competition in which hirsute local men say ”no” to domestic violence. This is a great little festival that still has a community feel with performances in cafes and the pub throughout the weekend. Because Kinglake doesn’t have a lot of accommodation, visitors are encouraged to park their caravan or pitch tents behind the Kinglake Hotel, which features a fire pit around which, judging from previous years, will be lots of late night jamming.

Good Wine
Philip Lobley makes wine. Rather good wine. Not a lot of it but it is all wild yeast fermented, unfiltered and unfined. You can taste his textural sauvignon blanc and aromatic cabernet franc at his beautiful little cellar-door-cum-rustic-patio by the banks of Loch Lobley – aka the dam. While cellar door visits to this low carbon footprint winery are by appointment, there are regular Vinyl Sundays on the third Sunday of each month, where Philip spins classic vinyl, pours wine by the glass and serves up pizza fresh from the wood-fired oven. Philip’s partner Lyn Cunningham runs wholesale Wild Crust Bakery from an adjacent building where she bakes excellent sourdough in an Alan Scott wood-fired kiln and holds regular sourdough masterclasses. (wildcrust.wordpress.com, 0438 063 824)
Philip Lobley Wines, 1084 Kinglake-Glenburn Rd, Glenburn, 0447 166 377, philiplobleywines.com

Pies and Pastries
Alvin Charles is a hardworking baker producing a range of pies and pastries that have made his family’s bakery a destination stop for visitors to this very pretty part of the world. Try a bee sting, a golden yeast bun filled with creme patisserie and glazed with honey and slivered almonds. His lamb and rosemary pie is packed with real rosemary and the perfect vehicle for lashings of tomato sauce.
Flying Tarts Bakery and Cafe; 888 Whittlesea-Kinglake Rd, Kinglake West; Mon-Fri 5am-4.30pm, Sat-Sun 5am-4pm; (03) 5786 5800

Downhill on a Bike
It is a double black diamond rapid descent dropping nearly 250 metres in altitude in just over two kilometres, making it one of the most popular mountain bike tracks for skilled riders in the state. It’s called Shepherds and runs down Bowden’s Spur under high-voltage power lines. Extensive earthworks sees jumps and cambered corners zig-zagging a trail across the spur. It is rough going. Yet good riders tackle the rocky terrain reaching 60km/h-plus, completing the course in under three minutes.
parkweb.vic.gov.au

Wombat Park
Wombat Park is one of the most beautiful children’s playgrounds in the country. Right in the heart of Kinglake, bordered by forest and overlooking green rolling hills is Bollygum Adventure Playground. Based on the popular children’s book Bollygum by author Garry Fleming, this is a wonderland of hiding and playing spaces, swings and cubby houses, dry creeks, bowerbird nests, ramparts and keeps. It is also home to the Bollygum Community Market held on the second Sunday of the month, 10am to 2pm from September to May.
Bollygum Adventure Playground; 40 Whittlesea-Kinglake Rd

The Falls
Masons Falls are a dramatic series of a dozen cascades that drop some 40 metres over ancient silt stone ledges through the Mountain Grey Gum forest. The resident lyrebird near the car park is presently in full song with the songs of about 10 birds he mimics perfectly, including magpies, eastern rosellas and currawongs.
Masons Fall Rd. Kinglake West; parkweb.vic.gov.au
Contact Richard Cornish at 6reasons@richardcornish.com.au or Insta or Twitter @Foodcornish

Mr Cornish’s article can be read at: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/whats-on-melbourne/six-reasons-to-visit-kinglake-20170912-gyfpzt.html