The Old Cheese Factory, Robertson: What's Inside
The Old Cheese Factory, Robertson: what's inside.
The Robertson Cheese Factory has not made cheese in a long time, which catches people out. What it is now is an old dairy building full of small independent businesses, and one of the more enjoyable places to stop in the Southern Highlands. Stuga has a shelf inside it, so I am in there regularly. Here is what is actually in the building.
What is the Robertson Cheese Factory?
It was built in 1936, back when this part of the Southern Highlands ran on milk. It worked as a cheese factory for decades and stopped producing in 1989.
Rather than being knocked down or turned into apartments, which is what usually happens to a building like this, it was handed over to small businesses. So the bones are all still there. It reads as a working dairy building the moment you walk in, which is most of its charm.
People still call it the Robertson Cheese Factory, and the signs still say it. Just do not turn up expecting a production line.
What is inside now
Several independent businesses share the building, and between them they cover most of what you would want from a stop.
There is a café, which is the anchor and the reason a lot of people pull in off the highway in the first place. There is a cheese and produce counter, which is the appropriate joke and also genuinely good, carrying regional cheeses alongside olives, condiments and preserves made around the Highlands. There is a snack shop full of the sort of nostalgic confectionery you had forgotten existed. And there is the Cool Room Emporium, which is the vintage and retro collective, and where Stuga sits.
Tenants and menus change over time, as they do in any building like this, so check with the venue before you drive out specifically for one of them.
The Cool Room Emporium
The Cool Room takes up a good part of the building and runs as a collective: a lot of independent stallholders, each with their own patch, each backing their own judgement about what is worth stocking.
The mix is vintage and retro clothing, vinyl, homewares, collectables, memorabilia, giftware and a fair amount that resists categorisation. Because nobody curated the whole thing, the stock turns over constantly and it is never quite the same twice. Treat it as a regular stop rather than a one off.
The Old Cheese Factory
107 Hoddle Street, Robertson NSW 2577
Open daily, generally 10am to 4pm
Individual businesses inside keep their own hours. Confirm with the venue before a long drive.
The Robertson Cheese Factory official site →
More on the Cool Room Emporium →
Things to do in Robertson.
Robertson is a small town and that is the appeal. It sits at the top of Macquarie Pass, on the edge of the escarpment, which makes it green, cool and usually a good deal more pleasant than the coast below it.
The pie shop
Let's be honest about why most people stop in Robertson. The Robertson Pie Shop is a genuine institution on the Illawarra Highway and it is the reason half the cars in town are here. If you have driven up the pass and you are hungry, that is your answer. Two minutes from the Old Cheese Factory, so do both.
The drive itself
Coming up Macquarie Pass from the Illawarra is one of the better half hours of driving in New South Wales. Coming the other way, from the Highlands, you get farmland and then suddenly the edge of the world.
The town
A pub, a handful of shops, farm gates and rural venues in every direction. It is a lunch and a wander rather than a list of attractions, and it is better for it.
The rest of the Stuga trail.
Stuga is in three places up here and they make a decent day between them, none of them more than twenty minutes apart.
Robertson. The shelf in the Old Cheese Factory, and the pie shop for lunch.
Moss Vale. Twenty minutes west is the studio where all of it is actually made. It is a working studio rather than a shop, so it is by appointment, but it is the only place on earth you can smell the entire range in one go.
See inside the studio →
Bowral. Another ten minutes on, a Stuga shelf inside the Southern Highlands' biggest antiques and design emporium, and a town built for wandering around afterwards.
What's inside Dirty Jane's Bowral →
That is a full Southern Highlands day trip without ever driving far, and it is the version I would give a friend rather than the version off a tourism site.
The Robertson Cheese Factory, answered.
Does the Robertson Cheese Factory still make cheese?
No. It was built in 1936 and stopped producing in 1989. The building now houses several independent businesses, including a café, a cheese and produce counter, a snack shop and the Cool Room Emporium.
What are the opening hours?
Open daily, generally 10am to 4pm. Individual businesses inside can keep their own hours, so check with the venue before driving out specifically for one of them.
Is there a café?
Yes, and it is the anchor of the building. Menus change, so check with the venue directly rather than trusting a page like this one.
Where exactly is it?
107 Hoddle Street, Robertson NSW 2577, on the main road through town. Robertson sits at the top of Macquarie Pass, so if you are coming up from the Illawarra you cannot really miss it.
What is the Cool Room Emporium?
The vintage and retro collective inside the building. A lot of independent stallholders, each with their own patch: vintage and retro clothing, vinyl, homewares, collectables, memorabilia, giftware. Stock turns over constantly, so it is never the same twice.
What is there to do in Robertson NSW?
The Old Cheese Factory, the pie shop, the pub, a handful of shops, and farm venues in every direction. The drive up Macquarie Pass is half the reason to come. It is a lunch and a wander rather than a list of attractions, and it is better for it.
Is it worth stopping for?
Yes, if you like old buildings put to good use and small independent businesses. It is an hour rather than a whole day on its own, so pair it with the pie shop and the drive. If you are after a large scale tourist attraction, this is not that, and that is rather the point.
Where to find the Stuga shelf.
Handmade shaving, beard, body and perfume, made by hand in a studio in Moss Vale, twenty minutes down the road.
You will find it in the main hall, on the way through to the café. If you are walking in for coffee, you will pass it. It is a good place to smell things properly before you commit to a bottle, which is the one thing an online shop can never do for you.
The studio, Moss Vale
Twenty minutes west. Where all of it is made. Visits by appointment.
See inside the studioDirty Jane's Bowral
Another ten minutes on. The Highlands' biggest antiques and design emporium.
What's actually insideThe Rocks Markets, Sydney
My stall on George Street, every Saturday and Sunday of the year.
A stallholder's guideDirty Jane's Canberra
The Fyshwick sibling. Same collective idea, funkier mood.
Inside the Fyshwick storeAn independent guide written by a stallholder inside the building. Not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the Old Cheese Factory or the businesses in it. Details are correct to the best of our knowledge but always confirm with the venue.