Australia’s South Coast runs about 250 miles from the dairy town of Berry — two hours south of Sydney via the Grand Pacific Drive, which is bordered by rolling farmland on one side and gleaming ocean on the other — down to a historic whaling center near the Victorian state border. In the mountains above are sites sacred to the Yuin and Ngarigo peoples, who have lived in the southeastern part of what is now known as New South Wales for as long as 60,000 years, as well as a half-dozen bird-rich national parks, including one in Eurobodalla that is an important roost for the highly endangered Swift parrot.

In the 1950s, residents of Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne began using the area for fishing and boating. Then came the Australian mining boom at the turn of the millennium. As real estate in major cities became increasingly unaffordable, the young and creative either headed north, to the now thoroughly discovered surfer’s paradise Byron Bay, or to the quiet pleasures of the south coast: an abundance of bushland, sandy beaches and the country’s most sought-after oysters, which are sold from picturesque roadside shacks.

Of late, the area has become known as well for its food. On the more formal end of the spectrum is the British chef Rick Stein, who arrived in the New South Wales town of Mollymook in 2009 to take over the restaurant at Bannisters by the Sea, a small hotel that soon became a global destination. Stein’s success there spurred a wider culinary awakening and an attendant restaurant scene. Yet despite the tourists, the beauty of the place remains blissfully unspoiled. For one, there are more than 10 million kangaroos among the south coast’s ghostly eucalyptus trees and golden dunes. The inhabitants must consider the region, as D.H. Lawrence characterised it in his Australia-set novel, “Kangaroo” (1923), to be a harmless Eden.

Words by Amelia Lester