Bodalla Dairy Ice Cream, WoollahraCredit: Destination NSW
Bodalla Dairy ice cream flavours in cones.
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The current lockdown may mean that the NSW South Coast is off limits to Sydneysiders, but thanks to the city sibling of Eurobodalla’s Bodalla Dairy Farm, locals are still getting a taste of the dairy’s sweetest offerings from Woollahra’s Bodalla Dairy on Queen Street.
Pre-lockdown, the most popular purchase was a classic ice-cream cone. However, a swift pivot to focus on family take-home tubs and ice-cream cakes as locals bought more ice cream to eat at home, has seen the store churn out a whopping 75kg more ice-cream every week.
From this adaptation to their product-line, Bodalla Dairy is now selling 110 tubs of their famous ice cream each day, double the amount pre-lockdown, equating to around 70% of total revenue. “I’ve learnt it’s more profitable to sell a family-sized tub than a scoop – and the tubs are going gangbusters. A father will buy three tubs and ask for cones to create an at-home experience,” says Jane Stuart, whose family owns Bodalla Dairy.
Lockdown birthdays have also boosted sales of ice-cream cakes. “They take me three days to create and I’m selling at least two a day,” Stuart says.
But it’s not just creamy goodness enticing customers; Jane has also introduced a Buy-from-the-Bush Produce Market selling fresh produce from the South Coast and across regional NSW, including eggs from Cobargo and liquorice from Junee; plus installed a Bodalla Cheese fridge in-store featuring the Dairy’s range of cheeses infused with native and bush flavours. These two initiatives now deliver a combined 16% of total revenue.
Stuart designed her ice-creamery as a slice of the South Coast, which in a stroke of luck now brings welcome holiday inspo for stuck-at-home Sydneysiders. Eurobodalla images adorn the walls and there’s a photo montage of customers’ South Coast holidays. “I also decided to put the pozzetti [ice-cream cabinet] on the side, but at the back. It’s almost like a church – people come in and look up to the menu of flavours,” Stuart says.
Bodalla Dairy Ice Cream, Woollahra Credit: Destination NSW
Bodalla Dairy owner Jane Stuart outside the Woollahra ice creamery.
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Bodalla Dairy Ice Cream, Woollahra Credit: Destination NSW
Bodalla Dairy owner Jane Stuart outside the Woollahra ice creamery.
Bodalla Dairy Ice Cream, Woollahra Credit: Destination NSW
Bodalla’s take-home ice cream tubs.
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Bodalla Dairy Ice Cream, Woollahra Credit: Destination NSW
Bodalla’s take-home ice cream tubs.
It’s these heavenly flavours that are also enticing people during lockdown, with the team introducing eight new flavours since lockdown. “Our new flavours take our customers on a holiday – camping, surfing, or diving.”
The Let’s Go Diving flavour has local Narooma kelp, while Let’s Go Surfing has mango and coconut. Stuart recalls a customer sampling their best-selling Let’s Go Camping, which features smoked gum leaves. “’He said this tastes like sitting by a campfire.’ That’s exactly what we were trying to achieve.”
The artisan methods that achieve Bodalla’s piquancy have their origins in Italy. “When we decided to start making ice-cream, we bought the equipment from two brothers who were heading home to Italy.”
Stuart’s mother Sandra McCuaig declared no deal unless they came to Bodalla for a year to teach them ice-cream making. The brothers taught McCuaig to make everything from scratch: she roasted hazelnuts, rubbed them between her hands and ground them. “She learned to do the same with lemons, limes and mango,” Stuart says.
That’s the secret: they can create ice-cream with any ingredient with the fresh milk from their own dairy. McCuaig is still chief ice-cream churner, working overtime to meet demand during lockdown. In fact, she’s delivering her handmade ice-cream from Bodalla every 10 days now as opposed to the pre-lockdown fortnightly delivery.
So, what’s the next lockdown flavour? “I love walking through a dewy meadow at sunrise, so the next flavour Mum and I are making is morning dew and hay.”
The decision to open in the city was a nostalgic one. As a child, Stuart lived in Woollahra before they purchased the farm in 1989. When a friend asked if she’d like their vacant space on Queen Street for an ice-creamery, she was curious. “I was coming back and forth from Bodalla anyway. I knew the space. It used to be a bric-a-brac shop Mum and I went to.” When Stuart arrived to see the store, she vowed to make the space Bodalla’s Sydney home.
Stuart is grateful the family business is now thriving – they contemplated closing Bodalla Dairy Farm after the 2019 bushfires swept through just 200 metres from their house. “The sky was red in every direction,” she says. “We lost thousands of litres of milk and hundreds of kilos of cheese because of power outages. That was hard.”
Stuart says ice-cream is a magical thing because it absorbs so much flavour and reminds us of a more innocent time. “The feeling of nostalgia around ice cream comes from the fact that it’s one of our first autonomous choices as a child. Your parent stands back while you choose your flavour and that’s a huge memory.”
Bodalla Dairy Ice Cream, Woollahra Credit: Destination NSW
inside Bodalla Dairy’s ice creamery in Woollahra.
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Bodalla Dairy Ice Cream, Woollahra Credit: Destination NSW
inside Bodalla Dairy’s ice creamery in Woollahra.
Bodalla Dairy Ice Cream, Woollahra Credit: Destination NSW
Bodalla Dairy cheeses.
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Bodalla Dairy Ice Cream, Woollahra Credit: Destination NSW
Bodalla Dairy cheeses.
bodalladairy.com.au
148 Queen Street, Woollahra, NSW 2025
@bodalladairy
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The NSW Government via Destination NSW is sharing a series of NSW Success Stories – businesses of all types that have adapted their offerings to face the current environment and continue serving their community with a fresh approach and shining success. These innovative initiatives are nothing short of inspiring.
More Inspirational Stories
The Fall Guy Credit: Universal & UPI Media
The Fall Guy in Sydney with a spectacular Glebe Island Silo Stunt
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Action-comedy film The Fall Guy explodes onto Australian screens on 24 April, and along with Hollywood superstars Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt, Sydney also plays a starring role. But the city isn’t just a backdrop to many of the action-packed scenes in the film, it also offers real-life action experiences to get your heart pumping. Here’s our guide to high-octane experiences in Sydney.
On-the-water adrenaline
Just like Ryan Gosling blasting around Sydney Harbour in a high-speed boat chase, you too can feel the wind in your hair, the sea spray on your face and your heart in your mouth on an Oz Jet Boating experience. These bright red, shark-faced jetboats fish-tail, spin and slide under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, past Dawes Point Park (where we meet Jean Claude the kelpie in the film) and the iconic Sydney Opera House, leaving you breathless and somewhat damp. Turn it down a notch with a two-, three- or five-day course from EastSail, with classes on the calm shores of Rushcutters Bay, or go five-star by hiring your very own superyacht from the fleet at Sydney Harbour Luxe Charters – Ghost II was featured in the film.
Get locked in an escape room
A bolted door, a countdown clock and a series of fiendish puzzles – outsmart the bad guys and challenge your friends in one of Sydney’s best escape rooms. Award-winning The Cipher Room, with locations in Newtown and St Peters, offers immersive, expertly designed rooms. Choose from a film noir-style hotel, a mysterious abandoned toy shop or a dystopian French bunker. Entermission Sydney has virtual-reality rooms, with themes like Alice in Wonderland, a pirate ship or space station. While not strictly an escape room, the one-of-a-kind Hijinx Hotel is a fun escape-like challenge set inside a quirky 15-room hotel.
Hickson Road Reserve, Dawes Point Credit: Destination NSW
Friends walking along Sydney Harbour in the morning.
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Hickson Road Reserve, Dawes Point Credit: Destination NSW
Friends walking along Sydney Harbour in the morning.
Oz Jet Boating, Sydney Harbour Credit: Destination NSW
Experience the incredible speed of the red shark boats as they blast across Sydney harbour at high speed with Oz Jet Boating.
#feelnewsydney
Oz Jet Boating, Sydney Harbour Credit: Destination NSW
Experience the incredible speed of the red shark boats as they blast across Sydney harbour at high speed with Oz Jet Boating.
Find your need for speed
It’s not an action movie without a car chase, and while you can’t speed through the CBD streets like Ryan Gosling and Jean Claude, you can still challenge your friends to race via go kart at Hyper Karting Moore Park. At the 410-metre indoor track, the electric cars offer plenty of exhilarating straights and corners, with a high-speed function to help you overtake your mates. True petrol heads should make a pitstop at Luddenham Raceway in southwest Sydney, where the go karts are fuelled and the 600m outdoor pro circuit offers 12 high-speed corners and even nighttime drives. Want to do the real thing? Trackschool has half-day passenger or driving experiences in a Porsche 911 Carrera also at the raceway.
Have an adventure up high
A high-stakes, sky-high chopper scene is an action flick essential; recreate the experience (minus the stress) on a flight with Sydney HeliTours. The 20- or 30-minute tours take in jaw-dropping views of harbour icons like the Sydney Opera House, Taronga Zoo, Bondi Beach and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Or live out your Hollywood star dreams onboard the luxury Sydney Seaplanes. If free-falling from the sky like Ryan Gosling does jumping from a multi-story building is the heart race you crave, get the thrills without the spills at iFly Downunder: fully accessible, all-ages indoor skydiving that will make you feel like a superhero. Or take a day trip to the Blue Mountains for a ride on Scenic World’s 270m-high glass-cased Beyond Skyway for that soaring feeling while safely enclosed in a cable car.
Luddenham Raceway, Luddenham Credit: Destination NSW
Track Day at Luddenham Raceway Motorsport Park, Luddenham.
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Luddenham Raceway, Luddenham Credit: Destination NSW
Track Day at Luddenham Raceway Motorsport Park, Luddenham.
Sydney Seaplanes, Rose Bay Credit: Destination NSW
Couple ready to enjoy a Sydney Seaplanes flight from Rose Bay, Sydney.
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Sydney Seaplanes, Rose Bay Credit: Destination NSW
Couple ready to enjoy a Sydney Seaplanes flight from Rose Bay, Sydney.
Scale walls and cliffs
Action heroes need to be agile and spider-like; flex your skills scaling rock walls at one of Sydney’s top indoor rock-climbing centres. Climb Fit in St Leonards has beginner and high-tech climbs using augmented reality, while Ledge is a smaller centre in Camperdown perfect for beginners, and BlocHaus in Marrickville focuses solely on bouldering. If you prefer to climb surrounded by waterfalls and forests, make the extra leap to the Blue Mountains, and challenge yourself on an abseil or rock-climb under the expert guidance of the Blue Mountains Adventure Company.
Spots to refuel
After all that adventuring, you’re going to need a spot to refuel and cheers to a big day. Make it a meal with a view at Aster Bar on top of the InterContinental Sydney – with uninterrupted views of the harbour. The rooftop bar featured in the film is the Ivy – which is a local favourite for big nights out. Partake in Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt’s love for spicy margaritas at Centro 86, a new underground tequila bar in the CBD, or taste award-winning cocktails at Dean and Nancy on 22. Finish up with a feast at one of the restaurants located around Jones Bay Wharf (you’ll spot this area in the film as Ryan Gosling hides on his boat from the bad guys) or snack in the late-night dining havens in Chinatown: try Japanese izakaya Nakano Darling, xiao long bao from Nanjing Dumpling or Mamak’s legendary roti.
Rest your head
Even heroes need their beauty sleep. Rest up like an A-lister at the Kimpton Margot, a recently opened CBD hotel with Art Deco touches, and featured in the movie (ask Kevin for the fruit plate). Compact yet comfortable, the Little National Hotel is located in the heart of the city near Wynyard (also a major filming locale for The Fall Guy). And for a boutique hotel suitable for everyone from film stars to stunt crew, stay in the Ace Hotel in Surry Hills, with unique in-room features like guitars, record players and locally made custom robes.
Sydney Adventure Tours, Katoomba Credit: Destination NSW
Sydney Adventure Tours offers private tours to the Blue Mountains. With an experienced tour guide, take a bushwalk through nature and experience the rainforests.
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Sydney Adventure Tours, Katoomba Credit: Destination NSW
Sydney Adventure Tours offers private tours to the Blue Mountains. With an experienced tour guide, take a bushwalk through nature and experience the rainforests.
Little National Hotel, Sydney Credit: Little National Hotel
The rooftop lounge at the Little National, in Wynyard in Sydney.
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Little National Hotel, Sydney Credit: Little National Hotel
The rooftop lounge at the Little National, in Wynyard in Sydney.