Flowers bring beauty, joy and sustenance. The cultivation of flowers is a creative gateway, allowing us to discover profound and surprising truths about ourselves. Everyone needs flowers in their life.

This February, join plant lover and author Jac Semmler as she uproots what we know about gardening, and digs into the perennial importance of flowers in our homes, communities and cities.

Over a three-course flower-inspired menu curated by The Moat, Semmler will discuss the relationship between beauty and practicality in gardening, investigate cultivating gardens in the face of climate change, and share her thoughts on the role of plants in our lives.

With a focus on abundant flora, Semmler’s book Super Bloom and its companion, The Super Bloom Handbook, offer a how-to guide for gardening that emphasises the critical role flowers play in our lives.

All tickets include a three-course plant-based meal and a glass of wine on arrival. Gluten free options available.

Photos by Sarah Pannell

"Be drunk with love!"

Join us for a love affair this Valentine’s Day.

Book now to delight your partner with a beautiful Italian dinner in the sublime surrounds of The Moat. You’ll enjoy sparkling on arrival, followed by a romantic three course meal.

Inspired equally by real life and the possibilities of the future, Sharlene Allsopp’s debut novel The Great Undoing investigates truth, identity and historical reckoning.

In the near future, all identity information is encoded in digital language. Nations know where everyone is, all the time. Scarlet Friday’s job is to correct historical record. When she is stranded on the other side of the world amidst a global digital collapse and discovers an old history book with fading text, she decides to embed a new history into its pages.

An exciting new voice in Australia’s literary landscape, Allsopp is an alumnus of The Wheeler Centre’s Next Chapter program. Join the author as she launches her new work with host Sophie Black and special guests.

Rethink what it means to witness performers at their most naked, literally and figuratively.

For this Spring Fling instalment of the Next Big Thing series, we’re spotlighting new and adventurous writers whose work goes above and beyond literary boundaries.

Discover new works and celebrate fresh writing talent in a special Emerging Writers’ Festival edition of the Wheeler Centre’s much-loved Next Big Thing readings series.

Over a drink at the Moat, hear readings from some of the brightest emerging literary stars including Pip Finkemeyer (Sad Girl Novel), Dan Hogan (Secret Third Thing), Elfy Scott (The One Thing We’ve Never Spoken About), Aisling Smith (After the Rain), Grace Yee (Chinese Fish) and Tara Grace, author of ‘Perrenial Bodies’ published in Grain, the summer edition of Voiceworks.

Get on down to The Moat for the launch of the Faber Writing Anthology, featuring Melbourne’s Writing a Novel students, and hosted by novelists and tutors Miles Allinson and Emily Bitto. The Anthology features a wide range of excerpts from novels-in-progress, each of which creates an intriguing and often magical world for readers to explore.

Join us at the Moat for a captivating conversation and poetry reading with Anthony Joseph – poet, novelist, academic, musician and winner of this year’s TS Eliot Prize for Poetry.

Radio host and writer Jacinta Parsons discusses female ageing and ageism for the final instalment of M/OTHER's free Soapbox Series.

Writer, performance artist, sex worker and parent Frankie van Kan explores queering the parenting narrative as part of M/OTHER's free Soapbox Series. 

Writer and podcaster Madison Griffiths discusses agency, choice and abortion as part of M/OTHER's free Soapbox Series. 

What can we learn from fungi? In her latest book, Underground Lovers, ecologist Alison Pouliot delves into the dazzling lives of fungi to unearth the mysteries and potential of this often-unseen world.

This February, join Alison Pouliot for a surprising and informative evening exploring the science and wonder of fungi.

Over a mushroom-themed menu at the Moat, Pouliot will create an interactive fungus display, investigating the role of fungi in our ecosystems, their curious forms and ways, and how they are deeply entwined in our lives.

Join us on Thursday 16 February for an intimate wine dinner with The Wine Depository and winemaker Greg Clack from XO Wine Company.

XO Wine Company is a boutique winery hand-making small batch (sometimes just one barrel) wines from the Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale. Kate and Greg use their experience in commercial wineries to combine practical with minimal intervention and artistic flair. The result are pure wines, with a bit of funk, that taste of the variety and site.

Tickets are limited; gather your wine drinking friends and book your seats now.

"Be drunk with love!"

Join us for a love affair at the Moat.

Book now to delight your partner with a beautiful & romantic Italian dinner in the sublime surrounds of The Moat.

Valentine’s dinner includes bubbles and oysters on arrival followed by a three course set menu for $100 per person.

Please notify us of any dietaries 24 hours prior to arrival and we can sort an alternate.

Celebrate the end of the year at The Moat before we close for the holidays!

Join us on Friday 23 December for a very special Christmas Menu Finale. 

You’ll enjoy three courses starting with our stracciatella, followed by your choice of our handmade pasta and finishing with our tiramisu, for $40 per person.

World Gin Day is this Saturday 11 June. To celebrate, we’re offering Happy Hour prices all day on some of our favourite gin-based cocktails!

Make this Valentine’s Day one to remember in one of Melbourne’s most intimate and romantic spots.

Join us for a night of love on Monday 14 February.

Enjoy our love cocktail on arrival, designed to get the romance flowing!

Then, you and your special someone will dine on a three course menu, created by our chef especially for Valentine’s Day!

Our Valentine’s Day experience is just $100 per person - book your table for two today!

Experience an Italian afternoon tea of antipasto, sweet treats and prosecco at The Moat, set to the sounds of live opera and musical theatre classics!

On 20 February, buy dinner for someone in a fire-affected community by dining at The Moat. We’ll donate half of our dinner proceedings to World Central Kitchen's Feel Good Food program currently operating in Mallacoota.