Stanthorpe

Stanthorpe sits at around eight hundred and fifty metres on the Granite Belt, high enough that it regularly records Queensland's lowest temperatures, drops below freezing through winter and has seen snow, which the town markets under the name Brass Monkey season. That altitude supports a fruit and wine district unlike anywhere else in the state: apples, pears, stone fruit and around fifty cellar doors growing varieties including shiraz, verdelho and a group of lesser-known Mediterranean grapes marketed locally as strange birds. Italian families who came after the Second World War shaped much of the farming. Granite country surrounds the town, with Girraween to the south and boulder-strewn reserves closer in.

History

The Kambuwal people's territory stretched across the border between Queensland and New South Wales, its eastern edge around Stanthorpe and the scarp of the Great Dividing Range. Before 1872 the area, known as Quart Pot Creek, held large pastoral runs and a few prospectors, but tin found that year brought miners from many countries, and for a time it was the largest alluvial tin field in Queensland; the new name, from the Latin stannum, tin, and the old English thorpe, village, means tin town (Wikipedia, Stanthorpe, Queensland).

The main sights

• The cellar doors - around fifty small wineries across the Granite Belt.
• The orchards - apple, pear and stone fruit farms with seasonal picking.
• The cold season - frost, occasional snow and the winter Brass Monkey promotion.
• The granite country - boulders and domes in reserves around the town.

When to go

March to May for the apple harvest and autumn colour, September to November for spring; winter is cold and marketed as such, with June and July drawing visitors specifically for the frost. Summer is mild by Queensland standards.

Before you go

Cellar doors are scattered across the district and need a driver. Many open only Friday to Sunday. Winter nights are genuinely cold and accommodation heating varies. The town itself is a working farm centre rather than a resort.

Nearby

Girraween National Park lies south; Warwick and Toowoomba are north.

Key facts