The Wheatsheaf Store

The Wheatsheaf Store is a country cafe, general store and provisions shop in the old Wheatsheaf Hotel building at 14433 New England Highway, on the corner of Bell Road at East Greenmount, about 25 minutes south of Toowoomba. The cafe side opens 6:30am weekdays and 7am weekends, closing 2pm daily, with the bottle shop drive-thru and backdoor takeaway running through to 7pm.

The dog setup

Dogs join you in the outdoor and covered outdoor courtyard, the rustic remnant of the hotel's original layout. Well-behaved dogs on lead are the deal, and there is no dog menu, so ask the counter staff for a water bowl when you arrive. Parking is easy, with a large rural lot straight off the highway.

The food and the building

The kitchen covers breakfast and lunch, with classic burgers and a cabinet of homemade cakes as the road-trip staples, plus coffee. The store stocks provisions, and the venue doubles as a small community hub, hosting local art workshops and rural events that get posted on its Facebook and Instagram pages. Check there if you are timing a visit around one.

Before or after the drive

East Greenmount itself has no dedicated off-leash park, so plan the run around the drive. The unfenced dog exercise zone at Ballin Park in Centenary Heights and the off-leash section of Queens Park in East Toowoomba sit roughly half an hour north up the highway corridor, and Cambooya's quiet streets a few minutes west make an easy on-lead leg-stretch.

Close by with the dogs

The Table Top track and Firetail Walk in Rangeville give an on-lead bushwalk on the way into Toowoomba, The Coffee Chest is another coffee stop up the range, and the fenced run at Kingsthorpe Dog Park is further on. The East Greenmount destination page and the QLD cafes index list the rest.