That rush for tickets might also reflect the reputation of the host restaurant for the Moran dinners. The Stunned Mullet, superbly sited above Town Beach, is the Port's first hatted restaurant and has earned a TripAdvisor's Travellers' Choice rating in 2014 and 2015, making its co-owner David Henry a celebrated regional chef.

Henry owns the decade-old restaurant with Lou Perri and their wine list, which has been voted one of the nation's best by Gourmet Traveller Wine and Fine Wine Partners, is very much influenced by Perri's private cellar, begun in London before his move to Australia with an Australian wife.

Guru seafood supplier John Susman, who supplies the Stunned Mullet with much of the line-caught and farmed fish on its menu, including the signature Patagonian toothfish, believes Perri's wine list is about the best in the country. And people do travel for it – Perri says anecdotally Port Macquarie is now a must-do stopover between Byron Bay and Sydney. And this genial host should know: to watch him work the floor ministering to his patrons is to witness a master of the art – and he knows where everyone of those patrons hails from.

A LOT OF MONEY

The majority of them are still local – there's a lot of money in the Port today, with $200 million worth of infrastructure under way and three university campuses, with Griffith University set to open to 5000 more students in 2016, including an international intake. An architecturally impressive new arts centre, with a theatre boasting acoustics deemed the best in Australia, was named Performing Arts Centre of the Year in 2012. The fact it sent a council broke might be considered mere collateral damage.

All of which makes Port Macquarie much more than a retirement centre. Popular mayor Peter Besseling, a former professional rugby player, wants his town to be a "smart city of the future", and he has the stats to prove it's on its way. Those moving to the Port these days are aged 35 to 49, in the prime of their career and with young families. They are looking for lifestyle advantages and an increasing number of career and business opportunities in health services, tourism, manufacturing, construction and the retail trade.

Among that demographic are Kate McCarron and her husband Drury Woolnough, a Canadian chef she met while working in London. McCarron is a Port Macquarie girl who thought she would never come home but the buzz of the place has brought her back and she and Woolnough recently opened Drury Lane Eatery on the plaza just by the arts centre. This very cool little cafe is right on trend: Woolnough's house-made seasonal preserves and pickles sit alongside shared plates of slow-cooked lamb, honey-roasted heirloom carrots and Bellingen smokehouse salmon, while a great menu of teas feature the likes of kukicha twig, linden flower and blue cornflower.

IMPRESSIVE CREDENTIALS

Among the local chefs are those with impressive credentials. Lindsey Schwab did time in the kitchens of Merrony's and the Bathers' Pavilion in Sydney. He was on the road travelling for eight years, including a stint at The Providores in London, and ideas for his menu at Fusion Seven were collected on these travels.

In my experience, fusion is a difficult thing to pull off, but Schwab's food, dressed in everything from yuzu pearls to nettle puree, a mushroom ceviche, truffle umeboshi, pomegranate or a black garlic sauce, just sings. The masterfully integrated ingredients on his menu have been recognised by the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Food Guide since 2011 and this town is lucky to have him.

He, of course, would say he has the local produce to back him. And Port Macquarie's siting on the mid-north coast, where first hints of the semi-tropical lushness of northern NSW are in evidence, is a horn of plenty. It is why the food festival got going in the first place, initially at Wauchope in the glorious hinterland. It is the food and wine bowl of a region that reaches into city markets as well.

STRUT THEIR STUFF

Meat and poultry farmers, boutique wineries and brewers, market gardeners and food producers such as Barbushco Bushfoods, Comboyne and Ewetopia cheeses, Lorne Valley macadamias, Armstrong Oysters, Wilmaria Olives, Ricardoes Tomatoes and coffee industry guru Sean Edwards' Cafe Culture, whose industry magazine has an international circulation, all strut their stuff for the big food event of the year in November among the 100 participating stalls, a lot of them serving remarkably good Asian-influenced street food. But you don't have to wait to meet these producers on home ground – there are weekly and monthly markets year round.

Hastings River meanders through Port Macquarie, creating some great riverside precincts, like the lively nightlife quarter that houses the Latin Loafer, a cool bar with a good vibe, specialising in Latin American and Spanish food, wine and cocktails. Riverside accommodation includes Sails Resort, which is undergoing a $14 million refurbishment due for completion in November next year. So far the project has upgraded the pool area and suites and the resort overlooks a serene reach of the river. There are a number of riverside and ocean-view hotels and apartment blocks that bill themselves as luxury and an airport with daily flights between Sydney, northern NSW and Brisbane.

Governor Macquarie, for whom the town is named, created the penal settlement in 1821 and it ultimately catered to the better class of convict, literate ones with an education, such as political prisoners who were seen as a cut above your common petty thief. He would be pleased to see the place succeeding mightily today and full of capable and talented people who are remaking the community. 

The writer was a guest of Port Macquarie-Hastings Council and Destination NSW.