A working sheep farm 10 minutes from Bathurst has quietly become one of regional NSW's more intriguing stays, and a new year-long events program is putting the city itself on the food-tourism map.

Wilga Station, a 105-hectare property on the Mid-Western Highway at Evans Plains, has been run by the same family for three generations of sheep farming. But since 2020, third-generation farmer Hamish Keith and his wife Mez have been turning it into a luxury farm stay. The original Farmer's Hut sleeps two and is famous for its three-sided picture window that frames the hills and boulders whatever the weather. Shearers Hall converted the historic workers' quarters into a five-bedroom house for up to 10 guests, popular with families and book clubs. In town, the couple also revitalised the old Wool Store in central Bathurst into studio apartments and a four-bedroom industrial-style penthouse.

Recent additions at the farm lean into the outdoor setting: a candlelit sunken hot tub beside a fire pit, a paddock-to-plate vegetable garden guests can raid, a natural swimming pond with a pontoon where anglers can try for Australian bass, and Indigenous tours led by local Wiradjuri elders along Evans Plain Creek, with creek-chilled bubbly and a cooked snack as a finale. The Keits leave the cultural storytelling to the elders themselves.

The bigger news is Bathurst's bid to join Mudgee and Orange as a food destination. BX After Dark, launched in August, is a year-round program of evening events across the city's heritage buildings and laneways. Highlights include The Wandering Table, a roaming dinner through the historic centre on November 13-14; Where the World Comes to Celebrate, February 11-14, timed with the Bathurst 12 Hour race weekend; and Harvest After Dark on May 15, an after-dark feast curated by chef Matt Moran. The dining scene beyond the events is growing too: Moran is at the nearby Rockley Pub, while Norma Joan (try the kangaroo tartare), the Firewater Hotel in an 1860s building and garden-set Pique-Nique all cook from local produce.

For Sydneysiders it's an easy weekend: Bathurst is about 3.5 hours' drive west, with gold-rush architecture, a wild bushranger past and now enough food and farm-stay appeal to rival its better-known central west neighbours. Rates start at $475 a night for the Farmer's Hut (breakfast hamper and sparkling included), $1100 for the whole of Shearers Hall, and from $250 at the Wool Store.