I was so excited when I saw there was a Cheese World at the end of the Great Ocean Road cause well.. I love cheese! What a good way to explore some local Australian cheeses! We made the drive, about 30-40 mins or so from our last stop along the Great Ocean Road, The Bay of Islands - and this was going further from where we needed to be that night (which was in Melbourne). Now after actually going here, would I go out of my way to come back?! Probably not! It wasn't worth the detour before heading back to the city!
We parked and there wasn't a whole lot of people there. They do produce all of their cheese right across the street, so you can see the dairy farm/cheese mills. There is a very very small cheese museum that they advertise, but no one was actually in there when we came. It looked like a cabin with old cheese machinery. Meh! As you enter the main building, I guess I was expecting a shop with lots and lots of cheeses.. I was expecting everything decked out in holiday fashion with cheese tastings and various jams, cheeses, and charcuterie you can try. But this place was just dead and definitely not festive. There was maybe a group or two sitting and eating lunch, looked like some older locals. The cheese section was literally two small fridge areas with pre-packaged cheeses that you would likely find at the grocery store. No amazing displays of blocks and blocks of cheeses that you could point out and try! They had a selection of maybe 10 cheeses all cut up into cubes that they'll let you taste. I really wasn't impressed with any of them that I tried. I was expecting so much more. The other section of the main building was a dining area - with a cafeteria style counter where you could order hot sandwiches, ice cream, or milk shakes. They had already closed the hot food area around 2pm (the place didn't close until 5pm). I ordered two cheese boards cause I was so disappointed with cheese world and needed my cheese fix anyways. Cheese was ok - boards weren't great - definitely don't expect your selections of fine salami/prosciutto! The sandwiches were ok as well - nothing seemed to wow me here. A lot of the store (like 90% of it) was definitely a gift shop selling random items such as sweets and honey, etc. I wouldn't recommend stopping here and I definitely wouldn't come back if I knew what it was! Not worth your trip or money! read more