With sheep and beef reared to spec on its farm and Australia’s largest restaurant garden that informs the daily menu, Dunkeld’s Royal Mail Hotel has long offered a sense of its surrounds on the plate. But now, with a dedicated standalone space that offers sweeping views of the bush under the shadow of majestic Mount Sturgeon, the new restaurant is now a complete celebration of Australia and, finally, a world-class destination.

Locally quarried sandstone tables and soft pendant lighting add a dramatic sense of style and occasion to the restaurant that’s reached via a winding native garden path. Adding his name to the door, chef Robin Wickens is serving up a five- or eight-course menu that’s a pared back, refined statement of that garden produce shining bright.

A selection of elegant canapes – sticky carrot ‘leather’; aged kangaroo tartare on pickled onion cracker; a single radish covered in sorrel jelly – are pre-menu openers that set the scene for showstopping fare.

Dishes such as dry aged Great Ocean duck served with sharp rhubarb stalks, or a piece of blue eye dressed in kohlrabi juice, show restraint and confidence in letting produce do the talking.

A new-found joy in celebrating Australian wines is more in keeping with the kitchen’s ethos – though the museum stock of four-figured Burgundies are still waiting for fans – while switched on service keeps that wine flowing and water topped up.

Though admittedly no one’s rushing off anywhere (unless it’s back to your garden room with views over the Grampians National Park), the five-hour meal makes for a somewhat laboured undertaking, but when there’s the sweet-savoury elegance of blackberry leaf ice cream with fennel and lemon balm to end, who’s looking at the clock?

Dunkeld’s most famous dining room has been born anew, providing yet another reason to get off the beaten track in regional Victoria.

Must eat dish: Sweetbreads on sweet bread
Instagram: @royalmailhotel