Yarra Valley finally gets more winery accommodation

An hour east of the Melbourne CBD, the Yarra Valley, one of Victoria’s most long-established and popular tourism destinations, is brimming with views, atmosphere and award-winning wineries. Yet its cup runs low on accommodation.

Yarra Ranges Tourism says there are about 3100 accommodation rooms in the area, with about 55 per cent of these represented by traditional hotel accommodation, the rest being short-term residential-style stays. It says at least 1450 more hotel rooms need to be added over the next decade to ensure the sustainability of communities as tourism continues to grow.

“Our destination management plan is very much about what we can do structurally, to make the Yarra Valley a more seven-day-a-week destination,” says Yarra Ranges Tourism chief executive, Simon O’Callaghan. He believes it’s vital the traffic pivots from the day trips that largely make up the valley’s nearly five million annual visits, to overnighters.

Fortunately, there’s action afoot. Several popular wineries have accommodation in their sights. Levantine Hill has stage-one of its accommodation project under construction, with more than 30 rooms set to open in 2025.

Hubert Estate, owned by Gerry Ryan who is also the proprietor of Mitchelton Wines and Hotel in the Goulburn Valley, has a permit for 80 rooms, though a start date has not been announced.

And earlier this year, the popular Helen and Joey’s at Gruyere opened its Re’em Yarra Valley hotel and restaurant. It features 16 deluxe rooms and a restaurant devised by respected culinary consultant Mark Ebbels (previously of The Fat Duck, Bacchanalia and TarraWarra Estate), with a menu using techniques that honour the owner’s Chinese heritage, with premium seasonal Australian produce at its heart. It’s helmed by chef Abe Yang, previously of TarraWarra Estate and the hatted Levantine Hill.

Helen and Joey’s is seeing about 30,000 visitors a year – with management anticipating the new accommodation and restaurant has the capacity to triple that in coming years.