A plan to serve fresh, local produce on Tasmania’s Flinders Island has seen the rebirth of an old port site as a unique restaurant.
Story Andrew Bain Photo Lily Moeller
A derelict storage shed on the shores of a remote Bass Strait island might hardly seem a thing of inspiration, but whenever Jo Youl looked at the abandoned building by the wharf in Flinders Island’s main town of Whitemark, she saw grander things. A restaurant arose in her mind – a place devoted to island produce – looking onto Bass Strait sunsets, with some of Australia’s best chefs rotating through the kitchen.
Three years ago, she turned that dream into reality. The old shed, which served the island of 800 people until its main port was shifted to the town of Lady Barron in the early 1980s, was demolished and another arose in its footprint, designed to replicate a wharf shed. Flinders Wharf was born.
“I suppose the concept behind it is that when I used to come here on holidays as a child, we’d live off the land and go fishing in the river and we’d get the most amazing food,” Jo says. “Then, when I moved here 10 years ago, it was really hard to access that food. Having a paddock-to-plate background and an agri-marketing background, I just saw such potential to access these amazing ingredients.”
This story excerpt is from Issue #142
Outback Magazine: April/May 2022
