First impressions of Eumundi, especially on a stinking hot day, are that it's maybe just another one horse town along the railway line, on the way to somewhere more interesting in Noosa. But STOP! Take a closer look. Or alternatively, take advantage of the air conditioning inside some of the shops and cafés. It's a little gem.
We have recently moved to the outskirts of Eumundi and, by UK standards, it's more like a village. There's one main street where all the shops and cafés are and residential areas are mainly behind this street on either side. It is most famous for its markets which are held in the town centre every Wednesday and Saturday. You can buy all sorts from here, particularly clothes and jewellery and it's quite good for souvenirs to take back home to Blighty.
These markets have enabled Eumundi to develop a bohemian, arty crafty image up and down the main street. You can choose from exclusively designed art from the glassware shops or gear from The Hemp Shop (man)! And the most exciting shop to open recently is Berkelouw's bookshop which sells a vast array of over 100,000 second hand, rare and out of print books, all classified and displayed accordingly, in addition to brand new ones. It's a family owned small chain of 7 stores in Australia and one in Los Angeles. The Eumundi one has a great café attached to it - guaranteed to help you lose track of time. We recently had breakfast in there and it was yummy. And of course we had to buy a book!
The choice of where to eat is great for such a small village. In our first week here, up to our eyes in cardboard boxes and not wanting to cook or wash up, we grabbed a take away from a Thai place. It was good and we could just as easily have stayed there to eat. In fact it would have saved me from even more washing up.
Last night we went out for dinner properly in our village for the first time. We had a BEAUTIFUL meal at the Balinese looking Modern Primitive, although the food wasn't balinese and, during the day they serve tapas. It was all organic and cooked to order, and we realised after a while that the reason they weren't very busy was because they were staggering the bookings so that you got really personal service. It was great to eat in a restaurant where the staff were keen to suggest what would go well with your meal, and the flavours were awesome!
How cool is that for a village? And that's the first place we've tried. We've got all the rest of the main street to do yet!
I'll be back with any further updates on the quest to eat my way round Australia!
(19.2.08) Non food update: Eumundi now has a lovely, brand new, open air, heated swimming pool. It's not very big (25m) but I racked up half a kilometre easily enough and it's fine for keeping up your fitness. The best thing about it is that (so far) it's not very busy, during the week at least, and the kids pool is a good distance away from the grown up lane swimming one. It's basic but clean and peaceful, and we really like it so there.
Hi, I just found your blog and was wondering if you still live there? We are thinking about making the move from Sydney to Eumundi within the next 6 months. We moved to Sydney from UK back in 1999 and although love Sydney its just too expensive to live there now!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the read anyway, cheers. Lucy
Hey Lucy - don't know how else to reply other than on here. Yes - we're still in Eumundi and very happy here - we absolutely love it. In fact, even though we're always talking about moving house, we would definitely stay in the area.
ReplyDeleteSadly Modern Primitive has now closed down but there are still some great place to eat - Azzurro's and the Fig Tree come to mind and the Thai restaurant is pretty good too. Plus how many other villages can boast their own handmade chocolate factory?!
Let us know if you make that move - either here or on our facebook page - facebook.com/davidfrithjewellery
cheers, Becky