A world-class exhibition has come to this stunning town in Victoria

The rich landscapes of south-western Victoria have long been a drawcard for visitors. Colonial graziers grew their wealth off the fertile volcanic soil, while modern-day hikers flock to the trails and views of the Grampians National Park.

But a plot twist for the region is now seeing art aficionados lured to see the Old Masters in a thoroughly New World setting. Showing at the Hamilton Gallery, Emerging From Darkness: Faith, Emotion and The Body in the Baroque brings together 70 works from the Baroque period, which spanned the early-17th to mid-18th centuries, and represents one of the most ambitious exhibitions ever held in regional Australia.

Belgian master Peter Paul Rubens' Self-Portrait, all moody contrasts of light and dark, is a major drawcard; next to it hangs a portrait of a bishop by Sofonisba Anguissola, one of three female artists represented here who defied convention to stake their own claim to Baroque greatness.

"Hanging a fairly obscure artist next to the Rubens runs the risk of making that artist look bad," says exhibition co-curator, the National Gallery of Victoria's Laurie Benson. "But it's an extraordinary portrait that sheds a light on these untold female artists."

The exhibition also offers the chance to see Artemisia Gentileschi's Lucretia. It is the first time the emotion-drenched depiction of the tragic heroine by Europe's first female professional painter has been publicly displayed in Australia. Therein lies the unique appeal of Emerging from Darkness. While many of the works are on loan from the National Gallery of Victoria, others have been loaned from private collections.

"From this period the NGV only has Lavinia Fontana," says Benson, whose two-year negotiations with the Hamilton Gallery resulted in the upgrade of its climate-control system, which will not only protect the precious works, but also help ensure future significant exhibitions. "There is no gallery in Australia that has these women artists. A show like this can draw them together and tell a significant story. Hamilton deserves kudos for putting this on; it's a really ambitious show that lifts the bar for regional galleries."

The exhibition is a standalone reason to hit the road, but there are other compelling reasons to explore Victoria's wild south-west. A food and wine scene punching above its weight coalesces at the Royal Mail Hotel, the heart of the tiny town of Dunkeld, population 688. Just 25 minutes' drive from Hamilton, it's one of regional Australia's must-do experiences.

There's an award-winning restaurant, Wickens at Royal Mail, a wine list that includes the largest collection of Bordeaux and Burgundy south of the equator, and newly updated accommodation of eight bluestone shearers' quarters turned into luxurious boltholes nestled below the dramatic backdrop of Mt Sturgeon.

Seen from the outside, the cottages are a perfectly preserved relic of the 1850s. Step inside and you're greeted by the accessories of indulgence, including a cosy wood fire, high-thread-count linens on the plushest bed and a cocktail bar.

The Royal Mail's 22 on-site rooms are no slouch in the style stakes either but the cottages, tucked a few kilometres down a red dirt road in their own nature reserve, are the perfect retreat into serenity, gently soundtracked by magpies and kookaburras.

It feels like it's a world away from anywhere, but a quick phone call will elicit a staff member to ferry you back into town for one of the hotel's unique experiences included with every stay.

A vinophile could lose themself for days inside the encyclopaedic list of 30,000 bottles, many of them back vintages and rarities. For those newer to the game of sipping and swirling, a tasting in the climate-controlled cellars - really a renovated storage space on the other side of the road - is a great introduction to a collection that also has plenty of time for local heroes (look no further than Crawford River's delectable riesling) as well as European heavy hitters.

It's also worth the trip to the organic gardens, the biggest in Australia, where a gaggle of ducks are on pest-control duties and 400 varieties of edible plants are grown in neatly tended plots. You can taste the fruits of the gardeners' labours back in the Royal Mail front bar, where a gin and tonic is made with the hotel's own Garden Gin, an aromatic marriage of marigold, earthy spruce tips and the resinous citrus of hops.

The restaurant is the jewel in the hotel's crown. Launched several years ago in bespoke new digs at the end of a whimsical native garden path, Wickens at Royal Mail offers a mountain tableau foregrounded by towering eucalypts, wild grasses and the occasional native animal cameo.

Aside from the staggering produce at his disposal and an earth-hued dining room deserving a place in a design magazine, it's easy to see why an English native finds himself in a small Aussie rural town in charge of a restaurant bearing his name. "A place like this just gets under your skin," says Robin Wickens, who was lured here 11 years ago. "For a chef, the whole region is just so rich with possibility."

Dinner offers five or eight courses of local seasonal produce, distilling terroir into bijou dishes thrumming with flavour. A tiny tart makes a star of eel, fished from the hotel's ponds and smoked to a state of haunting delicacy; a pastry-wrapped baton of kangaroo anointed with the bright kick of mustard fruits and apple puree sprouts a painterly thicket of green leaves; a pink wodge of local duck makes magic with a fat-scything cherry compote.

It makes perfect sense to be eating such place-centred food as a wallaby bounds past on its sunset rounds and cockatoos noisily negotiate their sleeping arrangements just outside the panoramic windows. It's dinner as art ... or art as dinner? Either way, those Baroque masters would surely approve.

Read more on Explore:

Getting there: Hamilton is about 300 kilometres west of Melbourne, or about three-and-a-half hours' drive. Emerging from Darkness is showing until April 14, see hamiltongallery.org

Staying there: Rooms at the Royal Mail Hotel start from $225 a night at the main Parker Street site. The tariff includes optional experiences such as a kitchen garden tour and wine tasting, see royalmail.com.au

Explore more: visitgrampians.com.au

The writer was a guest of Hamilton Gallery.