Dirk Hartog Island serves up fitting finale to super successful Gascoyne Food Festival

The 2025 Gascoyne Food Festival signed off in spectacular style at the weekend, with Dirk Hartog Island providing the backdrop for a finale that blended the region’s scenery and seafood into an unforgettable experience.

Billed as Australia’s Last Sunset, the closing event took guests across Shark Bay for a tour of the Dirk Hartog Island’s original homestead and shearing shed with Dirk Hartog Island Eco Lodge hosting a tasting of the island’s small-batch gins, distilled with locally foraged native botanicals.

The visitors were swept to the island’s western cliffs on the farthest edge of the continent where the last rays of sun melted into the Indian Ocean. A long-table feast followed under the stars, with prawns, whiting and freshly-caught seafood matched with island baked breads and vegetables harvested in the Gascoyne.

Guests camped onsite overnight on Sunday before returning to the mainland the next morning.

Festival-goer Michelle Pinner described the night as “a bucket-list adventure, better than any five-star hotel … an experience I will never forget”.

The Dirk Hartog finale capped off a record-breaking year for the festival, the event more than doubling in size since 2024. Sixteen events across the region drew 1824 attendees, including almost 600 visitors from outside the Mid West and Gascoyne.

Organisers estimate the month-long festival has generated more than $500,000 in extra visitor spend.

Among the new initiatives was the Taste of the Gascoyne Food Trail, with local venues creating dishes that showcased regional produce. Bullara Station’s beef pie made from its own cattle and homegrown vegetables took out the people’s choice award.

Festival director Louise Cashmore said the Gascoyne was carving out a reputation as Australia’s most distinctive regional food destination.

“The pristine waters deliver world-class seafood, the fertile riverbanks produce tropical fruits and vegetables, and the pastoral lands create meat with a unique flavour profile,” she said.

“Through the festival we want people to taste the story of this land and sea.”

From station feasts to beachfront banquets, the program highlighted the diversity of the region’s produce and the creativity of its hosts.

The Gascoyne Food Festival will return in September 2026, promising another year of bucket-list culinary adventures.