Three Blue Ducks heads to the Snowy Mountains at Nimbo Fork Lodge near Gundagai

The Three Blue Ducks crew will open a fifth outpost later this month at Nimbo Fork Lodge near Gundagai. The venture is a happy by-product of the 2020 pandemic.

As the lockdown bit earlier this year, Three Blue Ducks' co-owner Mark LaBrooy found a temporary spot in the Nimbo Fork kitchen, in sleepy Killimicat, for French chef Edmee Driez.

"She loves it there," LaBrooy says. "We got talking with [Josh Walsh from Nimbo] and decided to go all-in on the Ducks at Nimbo Fork."

LaBrooy, who will also be in the kitchen, says it helps the lodge is half way between Sydney and Melbourne, where the Ducks are opening another venue.

With their interests stretching from Bronte to Byron Bay and now the lower reaches of the Snowy Mountains, the Three Blue Ducks are becoming the surf, dive and ski of hospitality groups.

"We'll really champion the produce in the area. It has some of the best beef in the country; I plan to sow a potato crop, sheep will be reared on site and there's obviously great trout nearby," LaBrooy says.

When it opens on November 25, LaBrooy will kick-start with butterflied trout with capers, garlic, lemon and dill and a tomahawk lamb chop with zucchini, mint and spring peas. Driez will add a little Le Ducks-style flair.

A noted fisherman and hunter, LaBrooy admits the location had a little extra pull. "I may or may not leave a fishing rod there," he says.