The Racecourse Inn

All of the rooms are non-smoking, and some are not suitable for children under eight years old. For your comfort, there is a fan, an electric blanket, heating and in some cases air conditioning. Guests also have tea and coffee-making equipment, a television with a DVD player, an alarm clock and a radio, a bar-size refrigerator, a hair dryer and to make sure your clothes are in tip-top condition there is an iron and an ironing board. Wireless internet is free, and you have a selection of complimentary chocolates, sweets and port to indulge in. Some rooms also have a desk and a separate sitting area.

Downstairs at The Racecourse Inn, you can relax in front of a real fire in the vaulted dining room or enjoy a drink at the bar. Your friendly and professional hosts make sure that everything is to your satisfaction here in what used to be a coaching inn from the days of the convict settlements and is now a combination of old-world charm and twenty-first-century comforts. Newspapers are available, parking is free, and there is a luggage-storage option. You can even use the garden for a barbecue if you like.

If you take a short drive from The Racecourse Inn, there are a number of attractions to see such as Woolmers and Brickendon Estates, both of which are UNESCO World-Heritage-listed, and Evandale Market. In nearby Marlborough Street you can see an impressive collection of Grand Prix memorabilia at the Country Club Hotel, a memento of when in the fifties and sixties Longford had a temporary racecourse as host of the Australian Grand Prix. Fly fishing, wineries, hiking, Mole Creek Caves and Cradle Mountain National Park are just a handful of other activities and places of interest locally, and you are only about twenty minutes’ drive from the famous Cataract Gorge.