A day on Flinders Island

Flying 3000 metres above Bass Strait, chef Rob Kabboord from Northcote restaurant Merricote is going through in his head the menu he is soon to serve on Flinders Island. He will cook a meal for 30 in a farm kitchen on the side of a granite outcrop. He has never been to this remote Bass Strait island, 150 kilometres south east of Wilsons Promontory, let alone seen the kitchen. He teamed up with local producer Flinders Island Meat to take part in The Age Good Food Month last month. Guests have paid $390 each to fly down to the island for a meal prepared from local produce.

Kabboord reaches into a box in the back of the Vortex Aviation twin engine Piper Chieftan and hands around little origami boxes laden with grissini, lavosh, a tube of chicken liver parfait and bresaola made from Flinders Island beef. "I want to knock Neil Perry off his airline catering throne," says Kabboord. "I'm starting small with Vortex."

Flinders Island itself is one of the most beautiful places on the planet. A range of granite mountains standing above native forest and rolling green pastures leading down to beaches of yellow sand lapped by azure waters. "You're never more than 10 kilometres away from the Bass Strait here," says James Madden, co-owner with his father of Flinders Island Meat. He is taking the group on a pre-prandial tour showing us the rich country where they source their meat. Cape Barren geese graze on the pastures alongside wild pigs and wild turkeys. There are no foxes on Flinders. "We believe it is the salt blowing in on the trade winds that gives the pasture the flavour that makes our meat taste so good," he says.

His father bought the island's dilapidated abattoir in 2011 and they now slaughter 250 sheep a week, sending much of the lamb off the island directly to top restaurants like Vue de Monde, Attica and Rockpool Bar and Grill. They have also created 10 jobs on the island, among a population of 850.

The tour bus heads north towards the centre of the island. Trish the bus driver gives us some insight into life on Flinders. The remote nature of the place means everything brought on to or taken off the island must be transported by ferry or plane, making the cost of doing business high. Fuel is around the $2-a-litre mark. The outlook of the locals is Flinders-centric. Their argot of anywhere not Flinders Island describes voyages to Melbourne, Hobart or even London as ''to away''. There is even fierce rivalry between the residents of two small towns, Whitemark and Lady Barron, just 25 kilometres apart.

Up in grazier Mick Grimshaw's farmhouse, Kabboord, to his relief, has found a modern, stylish kitchen to plate up the dishes. Grimshaw's house overlooks 1200 hectares of green, rolling pastures protected by bush-clad ranges. Kabboord is assisted by the town's butcher, Ciaran Condron, formerly a chef at Main Ridge restaurant Ten Minutes by Tractor. The meal starts with Rum Island oysters served with rum jelly, diced sea bananas and native limes followed by a terrine of wallaby and shiitake mushrooms. Madden explains that with the clearing of land and development of pasture the Flinders Island wallaby population has exploded. "Instead of shooters just culling the animals and leaving them for the crows, we are processing the wallabies on the island," he says. "Pasture-fed wallaby is not as gamey as other native meats and is very lean."

Kabboord's dish is sensational, a rich, juicy terrine held together by its own juices without the addition of any pork fat. Next is a Flinders Island rock lobster with a salad of cucumber and orange with a little goat's curd.

Mick Grimshaw pulls out a photo of himself with some rock lobsters he caught at a sheltered cove nearby.

"We grow good food here," he says. He and other locals have developed a brand to promote the island, Flinders Island Fresh, with a website.

"It's for those not living on our little bit of paradise to taste what we do here," he says.

The website, flindersislandfresh.com.au, goes live today, selling Flinders Island honey, dried garlic, chilli and other products to be shipped across Australia and around the world.

Kabboord sends out the lamb. Three different pieces: rump, shoulder and loin cutlet. It is sensational. A beautifully pink loin, marbled with succulent fat all the way through. The shoulder has cooked down beautifully moist and full-flavoured, the rump perfectly textured. What unites the different cuts is the delicate flavour of lamb plus the sought-after hint of iodine, something much prized in European lamb such as France's Agneau de pre-sale. The lamb is served with Unavale Vineyard pinot noir, produced just a few kilometres away.

Fellow grazier Scott Anderson addresses the room. "The logistics on Flinders Island are tough," he says, as the clouds break, flooding the valley and granite peaks behind him with golden light.

"But what we grow on this little rock in the middle of Bass Strait is some of the best in the world."

Flinders Island meat is available from: Sardes Quality Meat, Queen Victoria Market; Gary's Meats, Prahran Market; Skinner and Hackett, Carlton North; Prime Cuts, Mornington; Mornington Farmers Market, Flemington Farmers, Fitzroy Street, St Kilda Farmers Market and whole butchered lamb pickup from Moorabbin Airport. Order at flindersislandmeat.com.au.

The Flinders Island Pasture Fed Wallaby leg fillet is available from butchers including: (VIC) Gary's Meats, Prahran Market; T.O.M.S. Meats, South Melbourne Market; Nifra Game and Poultry, Queen Victoria Market.
(NSW) Selected Harris Farm stores and The Meat Emporium, Alexandria.