Where to Travel For Australia’s Best Cheese, According To The Godfather Of The Good Stuff Will Studd

Will Studd dials into our Google call from his 14-year-old granddaughter’s room. His backdrop, plastered with posters of the Geelong Cats and Taylor Swift, is worlds away from the quaint European dairy farms and cheese mongers where he's spent most of his career filming. The international cheese specialist (yes, that’s also our dream job) has travelled to the world’s best cheese regions over the last 40-odd years. And while his knowledge is extraordinary, he’s refreshingly humble. “I'm on a mission to make the planet a better place for cheese,” Studd tell us.

“Cheese shouldn’t be something we take for granted—it should have a story on the table.” And if that sounds a little romantic, it’s because it is. For Studd, cheese, at its best, is a love letter to land, animals, and tradition.

Studd’s passionate pursuit of the perfect cheese has seen him travel everywhere, from Lombardy to Bhutan, India, parachuting him into Aussies’ loungerooms through his award-winning Cheese Slides documentary series. But where does Studd travel in pursuit of cracking cheese a little closer to home? And which local cheese makers should you be eyeing up in the supermarket?

Here, we asked the cheese-loving legend to share destinations across Australia where you can taste the real magic of cheese done right.

Bruny Island Cheese Co.

Tasmania

Image Credit: Bruny Island Cheese Co. | Instagram

“This one’s right at the top of my list,” Will says right off the bat. “Nick [Haddow] gets it—he really nails it when it comes to understanding day by day, season by season.”

A ferry ride south of Hobart lands you on Bruny Island, where Nick’s passion project has turned into one of Australia’s most respected cheesemaking operations. His raw milk cheeses—made with milk from his own herd—embody what Will calls a “taste of place.” That means you can actually taste the salt air, the native flora and the season. Sit down at the cellar door, order a flight of cheese with a local beer or cider (Nick brews his own), and you’ll feel like you’ve stumbled into something rare and deeply personal.

Prom Country Cheese

Victoria

Image Credit: Prom Country Cheese | Instagram

Down in South Gippsland, Prom Country Cheese offers more than beautiful wedges. “There’s this wonderful calm about that farm that's extraordinary,” Studd says. “It’s like the animals are happy—and when you’ve got a happy herd, you’re going to get great milk.”

Daniel Hales’ farm is home to one of the most diverse and human-friendly herds Will has ever encountered. The cheeses (many of them raw milk) are a direct reflection of that environment. If you’re lucky, you might meet the camels too, who, according to Will, help control weeds. It’s a whimsy place, and the cheeses—gentle, complex, earthy—are some of the best in Victoria.

Pecora Cheese And Wine

Robertson, NSW

Image Credit: Pecora Cheese And Wine | Abbie Melle

If you want to understand how deeply personal cheesemaking can be, head to Pecora Dairy in Robertson, a small town famous for its giant potato and, increasingly, its raw milk sheep cheese.

“They’re leaders,” Will says. “Their cheese is seasonal—that’s what cheese is all about.”

Pecora is one of the few places in Australia pushing the boundaries of raw milk cheese, using milk from their East Friesian flock. The results are soft, expressive, and deeply tied to the rhythms of nature. Visit their cellar door, grab a cheese board, and watch the mist roll over the Southern Highlands. This is the kind of place that shifts how you think about food.

Section 28

Adelaide Hills, South Australia

Will describes Section 28 as “spot on”. Nestled in the Adelaide Hills, this operation is the passion project of Kim Masters, who’s making alpine-style cheeses that rival their European counterparts.

“Some of his cheeses are really something else,” Studd says.

Each wheel is crafted with serious care and aged to perfection, revealing layers of flavour that only come with time and dedication. Studd recommends pairing the cheese with a local pinot or a Hills cider. Then, you’ll understand why people are starting to talk about Section 28 in the same breath as global heavyweights.

Long Paddock Cheese

Castlemaine, Victoria

Finally, for those wanting to learn more—and maybe even roll up their sleeves—Long Paddock in Castlemaine offers both cheese and cheese school

“These are benchmark cheeses,” Will says of the team, who carry the legacy of the legendary Holy Goat. “They’re investing in a herd to produce more interesting milk—and that’s where great cheese begins.”

Take a course at the Castlemaine Cheese School or visit their shop for a taste of Victoria’s most thoughtful pasteurised cheeses.

As Will puts it, “The great thing about cheese is, you take a basic thing like milk, and you’ve got so many different options of where it can go.” We both agree that eating cheese is an adventure (one I feel I've hardly started after this conversation). Exciting stuff.

Wil Studd's new documentary series Cheese: Searching for a Taste of Place is streaming on SBS now.