Worth Knowing
* Scenic Rim Eat Local Month 2026 runs 29 May to 30 June, with 153 events (including 51 brand-new experiences) across the region. The Winter Harvest Festival runs the full weekend of 26 to 28 June in Kalbar. Full program and bookings at eatlocalmonth.com.au.
* The Scenic Rim is one hour southwest of Brisbane and the Gold Coast, spanning more than 4,000 square kilometres of ancient volcanic farmland. In 2025, it welcomed more than 787,000 day visitors and nearly half a million overnight guests, contributing $217 million to the local economy.
* 2026 marks the 15th year of Eat Local Month, a Gold Award winner for Excellence in Food Tourism at the 2025 Queensland Tourism Awards, and the biggest program to date with 12 volunteer ambassador chefs and events ranging from long-table dinners in paddocks to on-farm workshops and family adventures.
* Key venues and producers include Witches Falls Winery, Kooroomba Vineyard and Lavender Farm, Binna Burra Lodge, Tommerup’s Dairy Farm, Kalfresh, the Scenic Rim Farm Shop at Kalbar, Summer Land Camels and Cauldron Distillery.
* The Scenic Rim holds ECO Destination Certification through Ecotourism Australia. A new 64-page Scenic Rim Visitor Guide is available at visitor information centres across Queensland. Accommodation from camping to luxury lodges at visitscenicrim.com.au.
Some events earn a standing invitation. The Scenic Rim Eat Local Month launch at the Scenic Rim Farm Shop, outside Kalbar, is one of them. When TML first attended, we may have left with a list of every producer worth knowing and, if we’re honest, smoked mushroom pie on our shirts. The event has only grown since.
Fifteen years ago, a small group of Scenic Rim farmers decided to open their paddocks to anyone curious enough to come and look. What started as Eat Local Week is now Eat Local Month. The 2026 program runs throughout June, with 153 events, twelve ambassador chefs and a Gold Award for Excellence in Food Tourism. This year, the launch brought two miniature Highland coos named Macca and Hazel to the Farm Shop gates. Highland Coos, by the way, is the correct Scottish name for the breed. They’d like you to know.
Why the Scenic Rim?
The name comes from the landscape itself: ancient, long-extinct volcanoes encircling some of Australia’s most fertile farmland, just an hour southwest of Brisbane. Dozens of producers, farmers, food artisans, brewers and winemakers have found their home here, coaxing extraordinary things from the volcanic soil.
What has happened here in the past eight years is remarkable. The Scenic Rim wasn’t known as a luxury escape destination, and now it has eco cabins, vineyard stays and wellness retreats, drawing visitors from across Queensland, and increasingly Australia. In 2025, the region welcomed more than 787,000 day visitors and nearly half a million overnight guests, contributing $217 million to the local economy. A new 64-page Visitor Guide has just been released to help travellers navigate the lot.
Yet it remains the kind of place where farmers wave from paddocks and local producers know your name.
Eat Local Month
What began in 2011 as a modest celebration of local growers has flourished into Australia’s most authentic paddock-to-plate food and farming event. The 2026 program is the biggest yet: 42 on-farm adventures, 40 lunches and dinners in paddocks and on mountaintops, 48 family-friendly events and 62 workshops and experiences. The whole thing is supported by 12 volunteer ambassador chefs, a roll call most capital city food festivals would quietly envy.
Founding ambassador Chef Josh Lopez, now 11 years in, still frames it best: the best meals come with a story, and sometimes a little dirt under the nails.
The Eats
The 2026 launch menu at the Farm Shop added a new cast of producers to the tables: Lindy’s sweet corn fritters with 4Real Milk labneh and Butcher Co bacon relish, Fifth Acre frittata bites, Three Girls Skipping’s scones with Vanbery Jam Co rosella jam, and savoury Kalfresh sweet corn madeleines with Towri cheese. By all accounts, the fritters alone justified the drive.
New for 2026
Fifty-one new experiences make the 15th year the most expansive yet. The most anticipated collaboration of the month pairs Tamborine Mountain’s French bakery Franquette with Brisbane’s intimate diner Joy.
At Northview Highlands, first-timer Sarah Canning opens the gates of her farm for a picnic among her miniature Highland Coos, Valais Blacknose sheep and Pygmy goats.
Fox Hill Grove hosts Blume for a dinner-and-cocktail experience, along with a cocktail masterclass featuring local botanicals. Peddly Picnics leads a Ride, Gather and Graze trail around Tamborine Mountain.
For those wanting to go further still, Forage to Feast at Tommerup’s Dairy Farm and the Farm to Table Tour with Javier Codina offer rare, behind-the-scenes encounters with the producers themselves.
The Carrot Capital
The Scenic Rim is Australia’s carrot-growing capital. Kalfresh alone harvests 600 million annually, nine billion over the life of this event. The beloved Kalfresh Carrot Day sells out every year without fail. And June is the only month Moffatt’s Fresh Produce makes their sought-after Carrot Ice-Cream, a detail that tells you everything about how seriously this region takes its produce. The Moffatt family has been farming this land for over a century.
The Winter Harvest Festival
The finale runs across the full weekend of 26 to 28 June in Kalbar: tractor pulling, tasting plates, market stalls and farmers in person. Christmas-in-July dinners at the Rainforest Restaurant, with vegetables, herbs and edible flowers picked that morning from the garden. Book early.
Events sell out reliably, and accommodation goes well in advance.
Full 2026 program at eatlocalmonth.com.au. Accommodation from camping to luxury lodges at visitscenicrim.com.au.
Fifteen years in, the Scenic Rim still feels like a discovery. Ancient country, extraordinary producers, food that knows exactly where it came from. The shirt was worth it.
