Castlemaine artisan producer Long Paddock Cheese has been named Best Australian Cheese at the International Cheese & Dairy Awards in the UK, putting the small Central Victorian fromagerie alongside Europe’s leading makers at one of the dairy industry’s oldest competitions.
The maker’s Banksia, a semi-hard cheese made from certified organic cow’s milk in the style of the traditional tommes of the French Alps, took the top award in its class. Long Paddock also placed second in the same class.
The win capped a strong medal tally. Long Paddock collected a silver medal for its Driftwood, a soft cheese bound in spruce bark and made in the Alpine Vacherin style, a second silver for its cloth-bound cheddar-style Granite, and a bronze for its blue cheese, Bluestone.
Long Paddock Cheese co-director, Gaetan Chapon, said the result mattered because of the company it kept. “We all work incredibly hard to make truly great cheese, and having our work recognised by international judges is testament to that effort,” he said.
“Considering we were up against some truly outstanding Australian cheesemakers, this win makes the achievement even more rewarding.”
The result carries commercial weight. The International Cheese & Dairy Awards, which date back to 1897, are judged blind by a panel of more than 250 graders, buyers and technical specialists, and their results are closely tracked by retail buyers and export distributors. For a small producer, a credible international placing can shorten the path to new accounts.
Long Paddock, based at The Mill in Castlemaine, runs a single site fromagerie supplying outlets nationally. Its certified organic milk comes from a single farm, and the business also runs a cheesemaking school.
“We are a small producer with a tight-knit team working at the other end of the world,” Chapon said. “To be recognised alongside some of the biggest and most respected cheesemakers across the globe means so much to our staff and to the local community who support us.”
The UK result follows gold for Banksia at France’s Mondial du Fromage in 2025, extending a run of international recognition for the four-year-old business.
