General

The Clyde River Retreat is completely self-contained, surrounded on all sides by miles of State Forest and National Park. There are two well-maintained access routes that can be used to get to and from the retreat (Clyde Ridge Road from the north, and Carisbrook Fire Road from the east), and even though these roads are unsealed, they are generally well-maintained and suitable for normal passenger vehicles – you don’t need a 4WD to access the retreat via the recommended route (via Clyde Ridge Road), but you may need one for other local roads, or to explore the nearby National Parks.

The Retreat has four main buildings, its own orchard, vegetable garden, chicken run, on-site water tanks, landscaped gardens and plenty of privacy around each residence. It also features a large expanse of beautiful park-like grounds, with a communal outdoor kitchen and picnic area, plus a stage that can be used as a sun deck or for entertaining. It has 90 acres of unspoilt wilderness, bursting with native wildlife … and of course, it provides private access to over half a kilometre of the beautiful Clyde River.

We collect our own rainwater on-site for drinking and washing, and generate our own electrical power using solar cell arrays. Solar energy is also used for hot water in the two main lodges, and for those times when there has not been enough sun for several days there is a generator capable of recharging the solar batteries. The use of high-current devices (e.g. electric heaters and hair dryers) is generally discouraged – however, please check with the management because it depends very much on how much sun we are getting.

All buildings have gas stoves. The two lodges also have Rayburn wood-burning cooking stoves. The two lodges have wood-burning heaters, and the two smaller cottages have gas heaters. All the wood burned on the property is sustainably harvested from our own acreage, making us carbon-neutral for the bulk of our cooking and heating needs. LPG gas is also provided to all buildings. 240 volt power is available in all buildings.

All the toilets on the site are a dry composting type, with the humus eventually turned into compost and re-used on-site. No effluent is allowed to escape into the Clyde River.

There are about 75,000 litres of tank water in four separate tanks on the site, which provide all drinking and washing needs, and which also provide water for the rooftop sprinkler systems used to provide bushfire protection on all the buildings. Additional water can be pumped from the Clyde if necessary, and the site as a whole and each of the buildings are maintained to Rural Fire Service recommendations, making the site quite safe even in bushfire conditions.

There is a telephone line to the site, but no mobile reception. Internet access is available (via Satellite) with WiFi to all the lodges and cabins (note – mobile phones may not have WiFi access inside some cabins, but laptops generally do). Since our internet connection is satellite-based, and shared among all guests, it is generally not possible to stream video with any success. However, most other services (email, web browsing, facebook, twitter etc) are fine.

There is a washing machine on-site – but this needs to be used with permission from the management (to avoid unexpectedly leaving the other buildings without power!)

All bed linen and towels are provided in all buildings. All the buildings are fully equipped with kitchen equipment, and each cabin and lodge has an outdoor gas barbecue.

There are no council services provided to the site, which means one of our biggest problem is rubbish. We compost on-site as much as we can, but everything else has to be carted out to a remote waste management centre … by us. We provide each building with suitable recycling and compostable and non-compostable rubbish bins – please assist by separating your rubbish as much as possible.

The nearest place to buy food or petrol is Termeil – 16km east. The service station there provides a general store, a liquor store, fast food, and fishing bait and tackle as well as petrol and LPG. The nearest towns for all other services are Milton (30km north-east), Ulladulla (35km north-east), Nelligen (38km south) or Bateman’s Bay (50km south) – see here for a map.

The facilities provided in each of the buildings on the retreat is described on a separate page – use the menus at the top, or click on the links below:

Carisbrook Lodge

Bhundoo Lodge

Budawang Cottage

Didthul Cot