artist John Douglas at South Hill Gallery

eating well at Trappers

Goulburn's wealthy past has endowed it with beautiful historic buildings

no wonder it was crowded

opening of Wilde In The Country at Goulburn's South Hill Gallery

Trappers Motel in Goulburn

Avant-garde Art, Provocative Theatre, Comfortable Accommodation-Can This Be Country NSW?

With all the talk of the high Australian dollar, reasonable airfares, and adventures that await elsewhere, it's not surprising that record numbers of Australians are exploring the world beyond our borders. Sometimes, though, you just want to get away for the weekend, somewhere close and convenient that doesn't involve arriving at the airport two hours before departure.

Take those two hours and you can already be in Goulburn, just a bit more than 120 minutes' drive from Sydney and a short hop across the state border from Canberra. Though citydwellers have a habit of dismissing smaller places like Goulburn as mere stops for apples along the road to the allure of other urban centres, those who take the time to unwind from the insidious stress of daily life will find that this town high (690 metres elevation) in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales offers an unexpected respite from the traffic, both vehicular and human, we accept as part of our daily lives in the city. Why not leave the stress of driving behind altogether and take the train? There are direct rail links from Sydney, Melbourne, and Canberra.

Just because we leave the bad of the city behind doesn't mean we have to sacrifice the good. There is enough happening in Goulburn to keep busy-at a relaxed pace, of course-for a weekend away; some of the activities are surprisingly avant-garde. Even the Sydney Mardi Gras has come to Goulburn. The city's South Hill Gallery is hosting Wilde In The Country, an art exhibit part of the Sydney Mardi Gras Art Festival that features a diversity of Australian artists, including celebrated photographer William Yang and controversial painter and filmmaker John Douglas. This is the first time Mardi Gras has ventured beyond Sydney to include a regional location in its arts festival, and South Hill Gallery owners, former Sydneysiders Linda and Roland Gumbert, have provided a superb space for curators Cherry Hood and Steve McLaren to set up this provocative and unprecedented exhibit in their huge mansion cum arts centre complete with beautiful views of the Southern Highlands in all directions. Wilde In The Country runs until 11 March.

On a more permanent basis, the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery offers forays into the world of art while creative types at the historic Lieder Theatre see to it that this landmark building is put to good use as a forum for experimental performance pieces under the experienced leadership of the beguiling Chrisjohn Hancock, this year celebrating his twentieth as Artistic Director of the Lieder Theatre Company.

Modest in name, Best Western Trappers Motel offers a wide array of accommodation options in Goulburn, including two-bedroom retreats where families or friends travelling together have room to spread out. Trappers is located next to one of Australia's most famous roadside attractions, the Big Merino, which houses an interesting exhibit about the history of the Australian wool industry here in this part of the country where in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, wool provided the riches for the construction of Goulburn's fine buildings, many of which still stand here in Australia's first inland city. Guest at Trappers eat well, too; for jaded cityfolk accustomed to flavour sensations, the restaurant at Trappers commands begrudging acknowledgement that creative cuisine is not the exclusive domain of capital cities. Who'd have expected all this in country New South Wales? What next-watermelon martinis at the corner pub?

If you do happen to be wanting some apples while whizzing through town on the way somewhere else, whiz through on 6 May for the Tallong Apple Festival, where even Mardi Gras goers would be interested in meeting members of the Rural Fire Brigade, don't you think?

MORE INFORMATION
igoulburn.com
countrylink.info
trappers.com.au
liedertheatre.com
grag.com.au
southhillgoulburn.com.au
williamyang.com
johndouglasart.com