Hamilton

A women's wear boutique on Hamilton's main retail strip, stocking designer clothing, imported shoes, bags, jewellery and a tightly edited run of homewares, candles and fragrance. The buy is more considered than a regional town might suggest, favouring established labels and quieter, longer-wearing pieces over fast fashion. It functions as a genuine destination shop for the surrounding Western District grazing country, where the nearest comparable range otherwise means a drive to Ballarat or Melbourne. Independently owned and run from a double shopfront on Gray Street, it trades six days with a short Saturday.

A hamper company on Gray Street, filling its boxes from regional Victorian makers and growers: Chocamama, Bagdad Foods, Two White Ducks. Take theirs or build your own. The larder runs to fresh food you have to collect in person, and there is an olive green tartan blanket in recycled wool made with Grampians Goods Co, which is a long way past putting local produce in a box.