Contrary's onClarence

Ulmarra's National Trust-classified streetscape is lined with 19th-century river-port buildings, and this rambling antiques store is one of the reasons visitors slow down. Inside, the stock runs deep: vintage and antique furniture, jewellery, silver and glass, giftware and secondhand clothing packed across the floor, the sort of place that rewards a proper rummage. It trades seven days from nine to four on the Pacific Highway frontage, and the owners are as much part of the appeal as the wares, ready with the backstory on a piece or the era it came from. Where many regional antique shops have thinned out or closed, this one has held its ground as an anchor of the village's browsing trade, sitting comfortably among the galleries and cafes of one of the Clarence's best-preserved heritage towns.