Gluten Free in Australia
 

Before you roll your eyes I keep a GF diet due to medical necessity. It is not an option for me.
I will be bringing my usual stash of safe food but will be spending 12 days in Sydney and Melbourne
I already googled and found some restaurants and some supermarkets around but would love to hear first hand experiences of where to eat or where to buy food.
Especially if you know of any pastry/bakery shops
thank you in advance

Australia has very specific regulations on the importation food. Check carefully.

Gluten free is common, even in my local supermarket (I am not on a gluten free diet - eat anything)

Thank you for your word of caution
I was planning on bringing dried fruits and nuts and a few "granola type bars".
would that be a problem?

"dried fruits and nuts" is likely to be a problem (confiscated). Food processed and packaged by a manufacturer is generally OK. But do not rely on what I write: I am not the Au government. "granola type bars" are for sale in Australia.

But you need to do a lot more research
https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Ente/Brin
http://www.agriculture.gov.au/travel...g-in-australia
http://www.australia.gov.au/informat...and-quarantine

https://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntr...into-australia
http://www.fodors.com/community/aust...-australia.cfm

I disagree. Dried fruits and nuts are unlikely to be a problem (especially if commercially packaged) - the concern is more with fresh fruit. As long as you declare that you have food on your arrival card and accurately describe it to the Quarantine officer when asked, you will have no problems. The worst that will happen is your food items are confiscated, and you can buy more dried fruit and nuts once you are in Australia.

All these products exist in Australia and are easy to find in any supermarket. Buying them locally will save you the hassle of having to declare your food and wait in line for it all to be checked by quarantine. With that said, as long as the fruit doesn't have a seed it should be ok if it is commercially packaged. No problem with granola bars.

But I eat strictly GF so that makes it a little more difficult to find bars at a local store. especially something reasonably healthy and without tons of sugar.

But have you checked to see if these are available in Australia? I suspect they are. Australia is by my own comparison a more health-conscious country than the USA on the whole, although I can't say for sure they'll have exactly what you want.

It's up to you if you want to declare food and wait in a long customs line for your granola bars, but please consider the advice given (and research on your own to come to a final conclusion).

Look up Coles or Woolworths supermarkets online and search for Gluten Free. We now have a large range easily avail. Hipster stores or health food stores will have a good range too.

As a Celiac, I get it.
 

http://www.findmeglutenfree.com/sear...W,%20Australia

The Find Me GF app works worldwide.

The Schar GlutenFreeRoads website is international as well: http://www.glutenfreeroads.com/en/

Make sure you take the restaurant cards with you that explain what you can/can't have, and why you need it gluten-free:

http://www.celiactravel.com/cards/english/

Also it appears that Australia might be even more GF friendly than England (if you can take one traveler's word for it) and I found England to be a GF mecca compared to the fried-food capital of the South US that I live in.

http://www.celiactravel.com/stories/...-in-australia/

For me, I would take enough granola bars etc for the trip, because airline food sucks for GF usually, but hit a supermarket first thing and stock up on bars, dried fruit and nuts. Just because they don't have your brand, doesn't mean that they're not safe (after all, Celiacs live in Australia, too) and delicious.

There are lots of coeliac sufferers in Australia too. It is easy to get gluten free food at supermarkets as well as health food stores.

If it were me I would not bring in food for the hassle factor (could add 30 minutes to time to arrive due to queues at customs) and the risk of confiscation.

No worries finding GF food in the larger cities. Would not try to bring any food items into Oz.

Thank you all. I had already found about the supermarkets and the health food stores.

I am still interested to know if anybody has any first hand knowledge of any special restaurant, bakery or pastry shop that sells gluten free fresh items.

And I hear you loud and clear. Do not bring in food to Australia.

I live in Sydney. My little local RSL and numerous little cafes near me have a gluten free range. I think you'll find it easier than you think.

I don't know how to cut and paste on tablet. Google gluten free cafe (bakery) sydney and a ton of places will pop up.

Sorry no first-hand knowledge but you will find Melbourne extremely friendly to GF needs. Melbourne is a foodie paradise, and I am certain the GF goods will be very high quality, like everything else! Here are some links you might find useful.

The Queen Victoria Market has an unrivaled selection of shops in their 'Delicatessens' area (make sure you find it, people usually miss it, it is inside near the meat market). I have no doubt they'll be lots of fresh GF options in there. At QVM they also have one vendor that specializes in GF:
http://www.qvm.com.au/shops-and-stalls/invita/

GF bread:
https://www.theurbanlist.com/melbour...read-melbourne

I've heard really good things about the Ethiopian restaurant on this list:
http://thecoeliacplate.com/melbourne...t-gluten-free/

This bakery has locations further outside the city if you end up on a road trip:
http://glutenfree4u.com.au/