A hot chocolatey heaven and surrounding haven to boot

By Bree Harding

Jan 27, 2025

Between us we ordered pink salt caramel, cinnamon spice, vanilla and mint hot chocolates, and that wasn’t even half of the flavours available. Photo by Bree Harding

When I was a kid, I was convinced I’d develop a taste for tea or coffee when I grew up.

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Now, either I never did experience that tastebud evolution or I still haven’t grown up.

I do like a hot chocolate every now and then during winter, but so do my kids, so this neither supports nor disproves my theory.

On Saturday we returned to Gargarro at Girgarre for lunch at the Gargarro Café, which has a whopping nine hot chocolate variations to choose from.

The café and community hub is a fresh two-storey space with all different kinds of artwork on the walls to peruse while you dine. Photo by Bree Harding

The day might not have delivered a typically ripe temperature for needing to be warmed by the sweet milky drink, but inside the air-conditioned and art-adorned two-storey community hub and eatery, ordering four different hot chocolate flavours seemed like a novel thing to do on our weekend.

While my three teenage boys and I did not actually take sips out of each other’s mugs in some germ-sharing cocoa-drinking version of pass-the-parcel, the exercise provided an excuse to talk to each other.

You know, as opposed to bickering or staring at our phones.

We sipped while we discussed our bevies, comparing findings, just like wine connoisseurs make wine notes and beer lovers critique their liquid shots from a tasting paddle.

This artwork hanging above the stairs at the Gargarro Cafe was my favourite. Photo by Bree Harding

I love a good salty-sweet combination, such as choc-dipped pretzels, so I ordered a pink salt caramel hot chocky, which was... intriguing.

I’m still undecided if I would order it again and I think I changed my mind with each alternating sip, such is the effect of two vastly contrasting flavours dancing for dominance on my tongue’s tip.

The café has indoor and outdoor, upstairs and downstairs dining options. All of them look out over the botanic gardens. Photo by Bree Harding

The view out the window of the gardens from our table was lovely. Photo by Bree Harding

My 17-year-old ordered a cinnamon-spiced variation, while my 15-year-old sampled a vanilla version, both reporting they were delicious.

My 14-year-old settled on a mint offering and then told me he wouldn’t have to brush his teeth if he were to drink that for breakfast.

Nice try, buddy, nice try.

The hot chocolates were not the only delicious thing on the menu. Photo by Bree Harding

Between the four of us, we still didn’t sample half of the flavours on the menu, which gives us a good reason to return to the enticing destination once again.

Another one is for the Gargarro Green Thumbs Nursery behind the café and within the town’s botanic gardens.

The nursery is open on Thursdays and Saturdays, so if you want some bargain plants, plan your visit for one of those days. Photo by Bree Harding

It’s open on Thursdays and Saturdays and there are plants for sale for as little as $1, as well as second-hand pots, gardening accessories and friendly, knowledgeable staff to help with identification and growing instructions.

Plants are sourced from the Gargarro Gardens native collection, among other places.

A spiral staircase leads visitors up to a viewing tower within the Gargarro Botanic Gardens at Girgarre. Photo by Bree Harding

The small Goulburn Valley town of Girgarre is in the Shire of Campaspe and has a population somewhere between 500 and 600.

It’s seemingly ‘out in the middle of nowhere’, where you might not expect to find such an impressive facility, but it’s there in all its inviting glory at the end of an easy half-hour drive from Shepparton.

The gardens are a tranquil place to spend time. Photo by Bree Harding

The gardens feature several plant species, multiple water features, board walks, a viewing tower at the top of a spiral staircase, an entertainment soundshell, park benches and a healthy population of bird life.

It’s a true gem in the Goulburn Valley.

I’m guilty of not showcasing some of our close attractions, not because I don’t think they’re as great as any you’ll find in other places, but because I sometimes blindly assume locals already know they exist.

I’m reminded, however, when I post stories of the places we visit on my personal social media.

Fragile, but fortified, the gardens are full of beautiful native flora. Photo by Bree Harding

Local friends often query where we are and subsequently take themselves for a visit.

As would be the case for many of my fellow parents with working teens and sport-playing kids, it’s hard to wander too far on our precious shortened weekends, so places like Gargarro are a nice handy option to put a welcome dent in a monotonous routine where we still sometimes feel chained to schedules.

The gardens are one of many drawcards to the tiny town of Girgarre. Photo by Bree Harding

If a smorgasbord of hot chocolate (and all the other delicious things on the Gargarro Cafe’s menu, including an all-day breakfast), indigenous flora and cheap plants alone don’t entice you to go that direction, the progressive little town of Girgarre offers a few other things that might pique your interest.

On the second Sunday of each month you can find around 120 stalls at a farmers’ produce and craft market.

Also once a month, there are some 70 musically minded people who meet to play, sing and catch up at Jigarre Jammin sessions for up to five hours at a time (find out more on the Facbook page).

And each year in January, music lovers from near and far converge on the tiny township for its annual Moosic Muster.