The Mornington Peninsula: lush and lovely

*This piece is written as a destination review for The Australian Travel Blog (http://blog.expedia.com.au/). The reviews are written by international travel bloggers.


There’s no doubt that Victoria’s hinterland boasts some of the loveliest and most diverse country in Australia. The landscape is full of sweeping vineyards, rugged mountains, rainforests, beaches and blue seas dotted with frolicking whales. The best news is that the Mornington Peninsula is just a one-hour drive from Melbourne’s CBD, so you can get there and back in a day and still experience some of the Peninsula’s fun (and delicious) activities.


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The Mornington Peninsula produces some of Australia’s finest wines, specialty beers and first-class gourmet food. The vineyards and breweries are run by friendly locals who will have a chat while guiding you through a tasting of their products. Most of the locations don’t charge for tastings and the owners will happily open an $80 bottle of award-winning Chardonnay just for you. Picturesque vineyards are often accompanied by Chef’s Hat restaurants (rated by The Age Good Food Guide) that base menus around produce grown in their own back gardens. All the vineyards are breathtakingly beautiful; here are some particularly eye-catching venues:

Photo by Mornington Peninsula Tourism

Montalto Vineyard and Olive Grove

The 35 acres at Montalto source premium cool climate wines and luscious olive products. Montalto’s crisp Chef’s Hat rated restaurant is acknowledged as the Peninsula’s best, while the adjoining piazza offers simple, tasty food for a reasonable price. You can explore the extensive kitchen garden and look around their permanent sculpture collection.

Photo by Mornington Peninsula Tourism

Red Hill Brewery

The owners of this unique micro-brewery cultivate their own organic hops field, all set in beautiful, rustic bushland. The brewery is open for public viewing and the bar is staffed by a charming expert who will get your taste buds tingling with a range of delicious hand-crafted ales. Watch out for their seasonal ale – this year was a superb “Temptation” brew with an appropriately wicked bite.

Photo by Steph Teh

Red Hill Estate

This multi-award winning estate has unrivalled views over Western Port Bay and Phillip Island. Max’s restaurant is the pioneer of winery restaurants on the Mornington Peninsula and the cellar door offers a sensational range of wines (tasting by appointment only). There is even luxury cottage accommodation for those who can’t bear to leave the spectacular venue.

The food and wine of the Mornington Peninsula can best be enjoyed by signing on with a guided tour. Wallaces’ Mornington Peninsula Winery Tours is run by local experts who will organise your trip and point out all the best places to visit. With someone else doing the driving, it will leave you free to indulge in that fine Shiraz, delectable Riesling or refreshing Pinot Grigio . . .

The Mornington Peninsula is home to a multitude of other activities – provided you don’t get too enthusiastic about the wines at the vineyards. For the adventurous, the Peninsula offers scuba-diving, surfing and deep-sea fishing, walking and bike tours. For those wanting a more relaxing holiday, there are horseback tours of the wineries and luxury cruises along the Peninsula’s coast. You can find all the information you need at Mornington Peninsula Tourism or the Visitor Information Centre at 359B Point Nepean Rd, Dromana VIC.

You can also find more fun things to do on the Mornington Peninsula and traveller reviews on Trip Advisor.


Filed under: Mornington Peninsula, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, Wineries, Food

Photography and the Ethics of Privacy

Talking about legal and ethical considerations has got me thinking about one of my pet issues - when does photography stop being an ethics-free activity and start impinging on people's privacy?

The Australian Journalists Association (AJA) code of ethics covers privacy pretty extensively - suggesting that journalists respect people's private grief, only use accurate material, and use fair and honest means to obtain pictures. The National Press Photographers Asssociation echoes the same ethics and the Society of Professional Journalists advises journalists should avoid "pandering to lurid curiosity".

The Encyclopedia Brittanica Online defines privacy as a right not to be emotionally disturbed or be subjected to tensions from baring intimate life and affairs to public view. Obviously the papparazzi and sensational photojournalists ignore the codes of ethics and overstep people's right to privacy all the time: taking photos of celebrities in their homes, nipple slips, ladies without their makeup on doing shopping etc. etc. They also love to take embarssing photos and videos of politicians doing gross things in session:

Mmmm...yummy...
There's always the argument that by being a public figure, you've given up the right to any personal privacy. But c'mon, does that mean it's ok for journalists to take pictures of women exiting cars without their underwear on?
(I won't show you the original photos, as they lack the artistically placed stars)

Celebrities and politicians are also a different kettle of fish than your average daily Joe. It's hard to justify taking pics like this of regular ladies hoo-has - then you'd be a perv. Taking photos in times of war is another ethically contentious issue. Is it ok to take a picture of a woman tearing off her clothes in grief over a son who's been caught in the crossfire? Children with their legs blown off, or vultures creeping up on helpless, supine babies?

There's been a few shakeups over the past few years about police and authority figures taking cameras from citizens and deleting photos. There was the Nick Holmes incident where police deleted films off his Blackberry. There were also a number of cases in 2008 where Surf Lifesavers seized cameras and handed them over to police for investigation. Do police and other authorities have the legal power to do this? No, they don't. Arguably, Surf Lifesavers are just using their good taste and morals to get rid of child pornography and unsavoury photos of topless women, but the police obviously have darker incentives. It's also perfectly legal (barring naked children) for people to take a photo anywhere they like in public. Kenneth Kobre says you are even allowed to take photos of people who are on private property, as long as they can be seen by the naked eye from wherever youare standing on public property.

Privacy laws are a double-edged sword at the moment: current Australian law dictates there are no laws against journalists overstepping boundaries into a subject's right to privacy; coincidentally, there are no laws to protect journalists against court suites filed against actions regarding invasion of privacy. But change is coming - in 2007 privacy law reviews from the Australian Press Council suggested a "public interest" defence for journalists. Bingo. It'd be pretty hard to justify photos of pantyless ladies as being in the public interest. Now to see how effective such a defence would be...it turned out to be so useful in defamation law...

Photograph privacy is a complicated issue. I guess journalists (professional and citizen!) should stick by their codes of professional and moral ethics and ask themselves the same question Machiavelli did: does the end result really justify the means?