Why you should skip the winter sun and head to this chilly Australian city instead

While most Australians chase the sun north for a winter reprieve, I willingly head south into the teeth of a Tasmanian winter. There is a distinct, bracing magic to this part of the world, where crisp, frost-bitten mornings and frozen fingers are just part of the charm.

A mere 90-minute flight from Sydney lands you in Launceston, a UNESCO City of Gastronomy. But while eating your way through the cold is a perfectly valid itinerary, this winter-resilient city offers plenty of other ways to thaw out. Here is how to get your blood circulating again in the chilly south. discovertasmania.com.au/off-season/

"This starter is 44 years old. It came from Queensland. It's called Patricia."

Laura, a local baker wearing a flour-covered apron, is guiding us through the gentle art of making sourdough.

"Slash with panache! Have confidence!" she says as we score the tops of our loaves ready for the oven. Laura is teaching us to do a fern pattern - tracing the knife over the dough ever so lightly - but mine looks more like a leggy alien.

We are at Ferment HQ, a new research and development hub for chefs, producers and researchers who want to test or manufacture food and drink products that require fermentation - which is about 30 per cent of everything we consume. The large building includes spaces for micro brewers, a "cheese cave", and a sensory deprivation lab for product testing.

Laura begins her class by reading all the ingredients on the back of a loaf of Wonder White bread. Not great. Convincing us that baking our own is better, she then gives us all the tools we need - notes, skills, and a small jar of "Patricia" - to make sourdough at home.

Ferment HQ, based 12km from Launceston in Legana, hosts fermentation workshops year-round including soft cheese, pickling and yoghurt-making. fermenthq.com.au

Visiting Waverley Mills' woollen textile mill on Distillery Creek is like stepping back in time. The smell of fleece and sounds of whirring machines surround us as Amy, a Tasmanian wool grower, guides us through the process of manufacturing an Australian wool blanket or scarf.

"We are the last mill of our kind left in Australia. What makes us unique is the wool never leaves Australia," Amy says, as we move into a large room where yarn is being wound onto spindles, on a machine the length of my house.

Waverley processes merino and alpaca fleece, and recycled wool, to make woollen yarn in three weights: soft, which is used to make super-fine merino scarves; mid-weight, which is for luxurious bed blankets; and heavy, which produces camping, picnic and pet blankets.

During our session, which is one of two weekly mill tours, we witness woollen marvels being woven for some major brand names, as well as a prominent Melbourne private school's uniforms being recycled and turned into picnic rugs.

As a factory worker feeds yarn into a machine, and a beautiful patchwork of colours comes out the other side, he proudly says he's been working at the mill for 33 years. He is one of 35 employees where there used to be 500.

Looking through the gift shop at the end of our tour, I understand why Australian-made blankets can cost up to $1000 each. And I plan to save for one - it will last a lifetime. waverleymills.com

I am about to prune a potentially decades-old pinot noir vine at House of Arras sparkling winery at Pipers River, around 45km north of Launceston. The wrong cut could decapitate a limb that might be responsible for bearing multiple-award-winning vintages. I feel the pressure. Luckily, William and his dog Flinders are there to teach me the ropes.

I have already tasted some of the winery's impressive vintages at the cellar door and now my group has donned gardening gloves and are bearing secateurs for the vine-pruning class. I get some good cuts in and train the vine along the wire. Mission complete, I go back to my glass of sparkling and purvey the scene around me, which includes rolling hills, and Flinders lazing in a patch of sun.

This isn't my first farm and dog experience of the day. Earlier, we visited Pipers Brook truffle farm around the corner, where we met Ian and his pooch Diego - master truffle hunter - and watched the duo work the rows of French oak trees searching for the black diamonds.

"We would have made a great capital," says Madi, our Launceston by Foot tour guide, as she leads us around the third-oldest city in Australia. She speaks of the north-versus-south rivalry that ensued after Hobart won capital bragging rites and now manifests in beer: Boags vs Cascade.

But while beer runs deep in this city settled on fertile lands and now known as the paddock-to-plate capital, "look up" is the advice we're given; Launceston is now known as much for its "shop tops" as it was once known for its drinking establishments. Edwardian, Art Deco and Federation buildings still stand together, saved from the housing boom that had developers in other cities knock down all their old buildings in the 50s and 60s.

There was "a pub and brothel on every corner" back in the day, Madi tells us, as we look at the beautiful old Cornwall Hotel, said to be the city's oldest surviving brick building, erected in 1856. Up the street, we gaze up at the former Crown Mills Rolled Oats and Oatmeal factory - now a commercial office and creative hub - that once pumped out 20 tonnes of oats per week.

But the tour's most magical story comes outside the Majestic Theatre, built for the cinema in 1917, where New Zealand couple Albert and Sarah Corrick and their eight children - all multi-instrumentalists - brought silent movies to life with their performances. Launceston by Foot runs walking tours most days on a variety of topics. launcestonbyfoot.com

The writer was a guest of Tourism Tasmania