South Australia (Adelaide Region)

The Bavarian-style restaurants and coffee houses, crafts, antique and gift shops are thoroughly commercial, but it’s still enjoyable, especially in autumn when the chestnuts and elms lining the main street have turned golden and the German food tastes just right for the season. 

The Hahndorf Antique Clock Museum (daily 9.30am–5pm; $5) has an impressive and noisy working collection, while the Hahndorf Academy (Mon–Sat 10am–5pm, Sun noon–5pm; $2) once contained the work of the nineteenth-century artist Hans Heysen who settled in Hahndorf in 1908. However, the thirty landscape paintings – mostly of local scenes – were stolen in 1995 and only a few sketches remain beside a collection of photographs, prints, displays and well-written interpretive boards that shed light on the lives of early German settlers. There are, however, a couple of Heysen’s paintings on display at his old home, The Cedars, about 2.5km northwest, off Ambleside Road (10am–4pm; closed Sat; guided tours 11am, 1pm & 3pm; $7 studio and house; shop and garden free); you can also see the studio where he painted.

For a glass of authentic locally brewed pilsner, head for the lovely wooden bar of the German Arms Hotel, which has a log fire and photos of old Hahndorf, a reasonably priced bistro, and a more expensive restaurant. There are dozens of other places to eat, all with filling meals for around $6. At the other end of the main street, Karl’s German Coffee House, in a homestead with verandah dining (closed Mon & Tues), serves marginally lighter meals than the hotel, while The German Cake Shop, near the tourist office, just off the main street on Pine Avenue (Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat & Sun 8am–5pm), is a crowded bakery and coffee shop where the speciality is bienenstich, a yeast cake topped with honey and almonds, and filled with cream, butter and custard. For a picnic, stock up at Hahndorf Gourmet Foods, two shops south of tourist information, famous for their home-made wurst; try their excellent café for meaty snacks.