Central Tilba, New South Wales, is the sort of place where you half expect to see horse-drawn carriages clip-clopping down the main street. It’s a town that seems frozen in a more charming, less hurried era. Our visit was a pleasant surprise, a delightful detour from the highway.
We began our exploration, naturally, with cheese.
The Tilba Dairy Factory, with its classic architecture, was too inviting to ignore. Sampling the local cheeses is a must. The variety was impressive, and we may have left with a slightly heavier bag than we arrived with. A culinary hazard we willingly embraced.
The village itself is a treasure trove of quaint shops and galleries. The Feather Merchant and Second Storey Store, housed in a building that’s as colorful as its name suggests, was full of fascinating curios.
Then we popped our heads into the Gulaga Gallery, a place teeming with local arts and crafts.
We ended up buying a small painting of the local landscape as a memento. It’s always nice to support local artists, and it's even nicer to add another thing to the caravan that we definitely needed.
For a mid-afternoon pick-me-up, we stopped at the ABC Cheese Factory Cafe Tilba.
A decorative nutcracker figure stood guard outside the door.
He looked like he'd seen his share of tourists come and go. We appreciated the coffee, which was indeed "Finest Coffee" as advertised, and the slightly eccentric atmosphere. It was a nice place to relax before moving on. Central Tilba is worth an stop if you’re ever in the area.
