Three Gippsland businesses making the most of local produce

Stretching from Melbourne’s eastern fringe to the New South Wales border, Gippsland is known for its natural beauty, rich farming history and premium produce.

We spoke to three Gippsland founders at different stages of their journeys about how they’re making the most of what their region has to offer, while navigating the ups and downs of running a business.

Creating a destination restaurant

The owner and head chef of Hogget Kitchen, Trevor Perkins, starts each week by checking in with the local farmers who supply the restaurant with fresh ingredients that will shape that week’s menu.

"We are so lucky to live in a region with an abundance of incredible produce," he says. "I’m constantly talking to our growers and farmers. Every week, I wait for a call from Luke, our fisherman, to see what wild fish he's caught – then that's our fish."

Inspired by time spent with winemakers William Downie and Patrick Sullivan, Trevor founded the farm-to-table restaurant – which overlooks a vineyard run by the pair in West Gippsland’s Warragul – in 2017. His vision was a home-like setting where he could serve seasonal dishes made from regional produce, paired with local wines.

True to this philosophy, Trevor and his team also source ingredients from the restaurant’s own farm in Nilma North, 15 minutes away, and from a native garden out the back, which was planted by the property's owners 15 years ago. "It boasts a huge range of native ingredients like lemon myrtle, Davidson’s plum, river mint, warrigal greens, mountain pepper and more."

While the restaurant has cemented its status as a Gippsland destination over the past decade, the early days of establishing the business came with challenges. "Staffing was difficult and lunch and dinner services were chaos," Trevor recalls. "We had to invest in a lot of training and set new procedures to shift towards our goal. Over time and with discipline, we started to get a return in quality and control."

With more than 30 years' experience in the hospitality industry, his advice to other small business owners is to focus on the end goal and not be afraid to ask for help. "Look at your strengths and weaknesses, then delegate and employ staff to help where you need it. Because even if you have the skills to do it all, you can’t!"

Launching a farm-to-bottle spirit brand

As a sixth-generation farmer, Ross Shaw has a strong connection to the Central Gippsland region. "The Shaw family have been farming in Gippsland for over 160 years now," he says. "Today, we produce grain crops, prime lamb and cattle."

After time spent working as an agronomist in the Riverina in New South Wales, and a stint on a cattle station in Far North Queensland, he bought his own slice of the family farm and started dreaming up a side business.

"I knew that I wanted to keep the family farming tradition going. But the big challenge with farming is the wildly fluctuating inputs and commodity prices," he says. "I wanted to create a product that I could sell directly to customers and value-add to what we could grow on the farm."

Ross went "down a rabbit hole" researching the craft spirits industry and launched the first products under his new brand, Shaws Distillery, in October last year – a red wheat vodka and sugar beet spirit. "Everything starts with crops that we’ve grown on the farm," he says. "The grain is malted, mashed and fermented, and then it’s distilled and aged on the farm until it’s ready to release."

A typical day for Ross includes a mix of emails, packing orders, harvesting crops or sowing seeds, managing cattle, and working in the distillery. 

"The biggest challenge has been learning how to build a brand, particularly how to tell a story in a way that resonates with customers, and navigating distribution channels," he says. "I’m still very much on that learning path, but I just take it one challenge at a time."

With whisky ageing for release later this year, Ross hopes to expand locally and online, with a longer-term goal of having his products stocked in larger retailers. His advice to other would-be founders is to go for it and stay the course.

"It’s probably never going to feel like the right time to start, and when you do, it probably won’t look as perfect as you envisioned, but just persist and keep working towards your goals."

Growing a business through the decades

Harry Friend was working as a civil engineer in Melbourne when a friend persuaded him to go along to a wine festival in the regional Victorian town of Rutherglen.  "Before I knew it, the romance of those festivals – visiting the old wineries up there; speaking to the old winemakers – I thought, I can plant some vines myself," Harry says.

He planted half an acre of vines on his parents' dairy farm in Glengarry in 1980 and bottled his first wine in 1985, winning a gold medal at an amateur wine show. "We used to get our friends to volunteer to pick grapes. We’d crush the grapes into a 44-gallon drum and take them to our garage in Oakleigh. That garage became our winery."

Harry and his wife Val moved to the Gippsland farm full-time in 1995 and relocated the winery, Narkoojee, from their Melbourne garage to the old Glengarry butter factory. They’ve continued to expand in the decades since, building a winery at the farm in 2004 and opening a 65-seat restaurant in 2013.

Taking on shareholders early on has helped fund the business’s growth, but Harry says increased local competition and cash flow are two of their biggest challenges. "We’ve got a lot of personnel to pay," he says. "The bank has been very good to us over the years – they currently fund our annual purchase of barrels."

Despite Narkoojee’s growth, it remains "very much a family business", says Harry. His son Axel joined as winemaker in 2013, Val manages the vineyard staff, and Axel’s partner Jo works as a business manager.

Over 45 years since he planted the first vines, Harry says "it’s been a great adventure". He advises others looking to build their own business to start with a plan. "It's all very well growing grapes and making wine, but you have to sustain it," he says. "Make sure you do a lot of planning."

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Published: 23 April 2026