One Hour Out is an online publication that profiles and supports all the amazing food and drink experiences starting one hour out from the city.

We recognise the huge positive impact that tourism, hospitality and small-scale producers have on regional jobs, culture and the environment.

We also know how much a weekend visit to the country can enrich the lives of our city cousins.

We believe great things can happen when these two groups come together.

The problem

It used to be that the best thing happening outside Melbourne was a few parma-serving pubs and a handful of cellar doors. 

These days, regional communities are filled with inspired restaurants and cafes, small-scale food producers, wineries, breweries, cider houses, craftspeople and artisans.

That is if you can find them.

You might be familiar with the popular food and culture websites like Broadsheet, The Urban List, Timeout, etc., that profile cafes and restaurants in the cities.

We always suspected that regional areas were under-represented on these websites. However, it was only when we ran the numbers that we discovered how lacking it really is.

In the past 12 months 90% of all the content on The Urban List website was city focussed. On Broadsheet it was 95%. 

Considering there are more than 27.8 million daytrip visitors to regional Victoria each year, that is a whole lot of people these city-based publications pretty much ignore.

For people who live and work regionally, it’s frustrating and it sucks. Tourism, hospitality and small-scale producers are the lifeblood of these communities.

Enter OHO

One Hour Out is part online magazine, part travel guide and part directory of all the best food and drink experiences happening outside Melbourne.

One hour, two hours, three or four… It actually doesn’t matter. The name itself is simply a promise that you really don’t have to go that far to connect with the producers, brewers, makers and growers that ply their trade in regional areas.

It’s about getting more people out of the city more often, to discover the hidden gems of the country, to learn from and interact with small-scale food producers and the venues that turn their produce into amazing dining experiences.

As a purpose-driven business we want to make a positive contribution to regional communities by supporting local business, creating local jobs and retaining local talent.

We are currently in the process of registering as a B-Corporation to ensure that this commitment to the community is permanently embedded in the business.

Who we are

Jay heads up a small team running a digital studio in the Yarra Valley, with past clients like Queensland Tourism, Mt Baw Baw Alpine Resort, Dinner Plain Village, Yarra Ranges Tourism and Cobram Estate Olive Oil.

Over the years we have become passionate about the amazing small-scale growers, makers and brewers who dedicate themselves to a particular craft, with skill, passion and integrity.

We want to encourage our city cousins to interact with these businesses, to have a hands-on experience, take home some great locally grown produce and tell their friends and family all about their adventure.

We will remain 100% independent from any other organisations or associations and there will be NO membership fees for operators to be featured on the site. We simply plan to feature all the coolest stuff out of the city and fund it, in the long term, by working with a small selection of brands and advertisers who want to be seen by the same audience.

We need your help

By getting behind this idea you will be helping to launch a purpose-driven publication that aims to give regional-based small producers and hospitality venues the same exposure as their city-dwelling counterparts.

We have put together some fantastic rewards to entice your support. Some of the rewards make you feel good, some make you a little tipsy, some go straight to your hips! All donated by a sample of the same regional producers that we are so keen to promote.

If you currently run a regional food or wine business, then we have some great rewards for you to improve your own marketing presence with photography and digital marketing.

We promise to work as hard as we can to make sure your investment is rewarded well beyond whatever reward you select from the list. Please dig deep!

To do this properly we need to invest in a world-class website that is fast, super intuitive and works perfectly on mobiles and tablets.

After that, we need to build a network of the best writers and photographers to tell the stories of regional food and hospitality ventures.

Just like any startup, there are going to be a lot of up-front costs. and advertisers are unlikely to consider working with us until we have a big audience. Certainly that won’t happen overnight.

Therefore, the funds raised in this Pozible campaign will be used to cover the the costs of this start-up period including set-up fees, payments to photographers and writers and a programmer to turn our initial designs into a quality mobile-responsive website. 

Here are our start-up estimates:

Set-up fees legal, accounting and general admin = $4,500

Programmer for website (we can do our own design and project management) = $7,000

12 months of content production (photographers, copywriters etc) = $24,000

Total = $35,500 less $18,000 from the founders personal savings.

Total Pozible target = $17,500

That’s it! That’s the number we need to hit!!! 

Without it, the venture won’t be able to happen. The Pozible campaign will end and your pledge amount will not be processed. We can all walk away and pretend it never happened (Sad face).

If we exceed our target, extra funds will be used to increase the content by contracting more writers and photographers. If we really knock it out of the park then we will expedite the move to profiling regions outside other capitals like Sydney, Brisbane, Perth and Hobart (hell, maybe even Canberra!) and start the development of a mobile app to compliment the website (Happy face!).

So please make a pledge and share the link below with everyone you know. The more people who know about it, the more likely this publication will launch. The flow-on benefits for regional communities will be well worth the contribution.

https://pozible.com/project/one-hour-out

Help us build a platform for sharing all the amazing experiences that start just one hour out from the city!

Where do I start!

Finding quality photographers and writers in regional areas comes to mind. Builiding and maintaining a quality website. Keeping up the promotion on social media (and associated costs). Building a network of partners and advertisers. Contracting scurvy from all the late nights and pizza. The list goes on!!!!