Cockatoo Room: Function, seminar and celebration space

Gallery Images: 

Cockatoo Room

The Cockatoo Room is a multi-purpose celebration, entertainment or seminar space for self-catered or contract-catered groups.The room is designed so you can use its features and the commercial kitchen next door to create the event experience you want. For more Cockatoo Room images see Functions>Function Room Gallery subtab.

Cockatoo Room is surrounded by coastal forest, lawns and gardens and overlooks Lake Willinga 125m away.  Its levelled and gently sloping grounds with lake views have now been chosen by numerous brides and grooms as the perfect place for their outdoor wedding followed by an indoor reception. 

The Cockatoo Room consists of a 100 square metre room, a 30sqm foyer seamlessly accessible through concertina hardwood doors, a 7sqm servery, a 47sqm verandah and a 20sqm coverable pergola. Up to 80 seated diners can fit comfortably into the function room itself. Using verandahs, seated dining events for up to 100 people can be accommodated.

The adjoining Café Cottage commercial-standard kitchen is stocked so up meals for up to 100 people can be catered for. Events larger than this need to be finger-food events. Up to 180 finger-food diners milling through the several indoor and outdoor spaces available in both Casfe and Cockatoo can be accommodated.

Flexible and multi-purpose uses

Cockatoo Room is separated from Cafe Cottage by a covered foyer/breezeway (see floorplan below). We have designed the room to accommodate a wide variety of family, workshop, corporate and (even) accommodation uses. Corporate event uses fully provided for include seminars, team-building retreats, planning and review sessions, educational intensives etc. Family event uses envisaged include major birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and reunions. Cockatoo also makes a great common room for guest groups who book all of our cottages and who just need a space to meet in. It is perfect for games (we have 2 table tennis tables and equipment), rehearsals, dancing, cultural and artistic uses, exhibitions, lifestyle/healthy living workshops, yoga, martial arts or other physical or aesthetic disciplines.

Undercover event capacity (excluding gardens and lawns, # of persons)

* There is dining crockery/cutlery for only 100 diners.

Catering

Bawley Bush Cottages is a self catering venue where guests are free to engage their own function caterers and support staff.....see list of Local Providers under the Functions tab for local providers you might want to contact. If you don't want to cater your function and/or you can't independently make satisfactory catering arrangements please email us your requirements and we will forward it as a group email to all our qualified caterers asking them to provide you a quote. You can take it from there. We do not provide function support services, such as catering, ourselves.

Cockatoo Room has a kitchenette separated from the main room by a timber roller shutter and from the Cafe Cottage by a foyer. For events of up to say 30 people the kitchenette can serve as a bar. It contains a domestic dish-drawer, gas hot plate, double bowl sink, large clear-fronted drinks or food fridge, under-bench freezer, storage cupboards and a servery bench. It is stocked with crockery etc for 10 so it can be used as a kitchen when booked as a self contained cottage. Meals for small groups and tea and coffee for larger ones can be made and washed up there independently of the Cafe kitchen. Our rule is that in the event our rooms and equipment are not left in the same clean condition provided to you we will charge a cleaning fee based on an hourly rate.

By concurrently booking the adjoining Café Cottage with its commercial-standard kitchen guests can easily self-cater a large function. Mobile sofa beds in Cockatoo can be rolled to the foyer. The Cafe  kitchen (elsewhere described) has a domestic and commercial stove, two refrigerators, a full-size freezer, a domestic and a commercial dishwasher as well as a range of supporting equipment. Together, Cafe Cottage and Cockatoo Room kitchens are stocked with cooking gear, crockery, cutlery and glassware, to serve 80 people and the use of these items is included in the tariff. If the supplied equipment is not left clean and stored away as found a substantial cleaning fee will be charged. If the floors, verandas and cupboards are not left reasonably clean we will also charge a cleaning fee.Tablecloths are not included in room hire but can be separately hired from us, from others or you can bring your own.

Minimum accommodation requirement

Use of Cockatoo as a function space for a wedding is normally available only in combination with accommodation in at least Cafe, Cormorant and Oystercatcher (on weeknights for at least 1 night and on weekends for at least 2 nights). However circumstances vary for each event and time of year and in some circumstances we will consider varying this requirement.

 Floor plan

The floor-plans of Cafe Cottage and Cockatoo Room follow. Click the downloadable floorplan .pdf below this plan if you want larger or printable detail:-

Cockatoo Function Room Floor Plan, printable  - Pdf 114Kb

Function sleeping

Our cottages, excluding Cockatoo, can accommodate up to 38 people. This range is broad because it depends on whether or not guests are sharing bedrooms and depends on whether or not Kookaburra Cottage is available on your chosen dates. If each single guest requires their own bedroom then we can sleep up to 16 people in our cottages. If sharing (eg as couples, twins, triples and some 4's) then up to 38 people can be in accommodated. If the Cockatoo room is used for accommodation too then we can sleep more people inside. If you need more accommodation than this, and most weddings do, there is camper van/caravan/tent space available. Access to Cockatoo bathrooms and showers is available for any camping overflow. Usually other cottage providers and/or holiday homes or bed-and-breakfasts at Bawley Point accommodate overflow sleeping requirements. Links to cottages and B&Bs can be found at www.bawleycoast.com.au and holiday homes at www.stayz.com.au.

Budgeting

Cockatoo Room function tariffs are separate from accommodation tariffs. They are fully detailed under our Tariffs tab where we show package tariffs to cover most uses. 

Amenities

Each guest group can configure Cockatoo and its verandahs with our stored trestle-tables and stackable chairs as they wish, indoors and outdoors. If additional equipment needs to be hired we ask that steps be taken to ensure that our equipment does not get mixed up with hired gear.

Access to the verandah is via french doors and bifolding windows.Larger groups typically set up a temporary bar on the verandah or on the lawns. 

The room is designed so it can be blacked out for presentations and has a whiteboard, butchers’ paper hanging system, a pull-down projection screen and a data projector for Powerpoint/TV/video/DVD presentations. It has a separate 101cm HD TV. It also has a 4.8m X 2.5m stage that can raised and lowered depending on guest needs as well as high quality audio gear (details below). The room has ample storage for supporting equipment so that groups that need it can have lots of clear floorspace. This might be for yoga, dancing and other similar activities.

Exclusions
The space is not available for use by celebratory parties of people who are predominantly under the age of 25, for major birthdays under the age of 25 or for any function where alcohol use will not be closely managed by the booking party.

Insurance

We hold Public and Products Liability insurance which covers our legal liability to third parties resulting from our negligence or alleged negligence in respect of personal injury and/or property damage arising from our business activities. Bawley Bush Cottages is in no manner liable for injuries people may suffer as a result of participating in any activity or service organised by guests or by a supplier guests have contracted (eg exercise induced injury, food related illness, interpersonal claims, psychological injury etc). We are also not liable for workers compensation claims by employees not engaged directly by ourselves.

If guests choose to engage external contractors to deliver services on our property they are welcome to do so, but losses or damages arising from delivery of those services will not be our responsibility. It is therefore encumbent on guests who wish to avoid the possibility of personal liability to ensure that any contractors they engage carry their own public and professional liability and workers compensation insurances and that such insurance will be current at the time of service delivery. 

Detailed building specifications

• Externally Cockatoo has a gable roof and is made of compressed earth bricks. It has hand made blackbutt french doors opening onto the verandah and bifolding feature windows that look over the lake.
• Internally the room has a mixed Victorian hardwood floor, ironbark round log feature beams, hardwood minor beams and rafters. The ceiling is exposed Zincalume mini-orb. Walls are radiata pine finished with Porters wood wash paints.
• There are feature stained-glass windows in each gable end depicting our favourite bird, the glossy black cockatoo and its exclusive casuarina habitat.
• There are side and rear doors. The bifolding rear doors open onto the foyer/ breezeway that separaes Cafe Cottage from Cockatoo Room.,
• There are 2 ceiling fans and 2 X opening gable windows.
• Servery room described above.
• Access to 5 toilets including for 1 for people with disabilities. The premises comply with disability access requirements.
• Wood heater: Nectre 2 with firewood supplied
• Removable hospital style curtains X 2 for privacy screens when room used for accommodation.

• All windows/doors can be blacked out.

• Detailed equipment specifications
  
  

• Stackable folding seating for 80 people and 18 X blowmoulded foldup tables (1835mm X 760mm).
• Storage cupboards for stackable chairs, fold-up tables, partitions table-tennis tables and whiteboard. 
• Domestic LG micro-hifi tuner/CD player with USB port and own speakers.
• Professional audio equipment including jack array at rear of stage leading to Soundcraft EFX12 (12-channel) mixing desk at rear of room. This is fully plugged in ready for use.
• Redback A2733B Professional audio player with MP3/USB and SD card input already  wired to mixer
• 3 X boom-style microphone stands
• Microphones: 2x AKG D5, 1 X AKG D880, various leads, jacks and filters. We do not have walk-around microphone.
• Monitor/fold-back speakers: 2 X Laney CX usually connected in series.
• Yamaha main speakers: 2 X MSR 400 high-quality main speakers permanently connected to mixer.
• Guitar holders: At stage X 2
• Overhead data projector: Viewsonic PJD6241 with composite video, S-video, 15-pin analog RGB or component, 9-pin RS 232 and HDMI inputs. This can be set up to project images on screen and sound through the main Yamaha speakers. 
• Pull-down overhead projection screen.
• Separate LG 42LH20D 101cm HDTV HDMI-wired to receive DVD player input.
• DVD player: HDMI domestic standard LG also plays CDs.
• Stage 4.8m X 2.5m at front of room that can electrically rise to any level up to 450mm above floor level.
• Mirror ball: 400mm with 3 X dedicated spotlights
• Dimmable low voltage house lights
• Spotlight dimmer control adjacent to mixing desk: Jands 4PAK-D
• Spot lighting: 2 X PR Pro Par PR3040 with barn doors and gels: 2 X Source 4 Junior.
• Ample power supply with separate audio equipment circuit.
• Pinboard partitions (up to 14) that can be used for displays.
• Tablecloths available for hire

To book Bawley Bush Cottages for a function please phone (02) 6100 4743. On-line booking of the Cockatoo Room using our Book Now button is available only for its use as a cottage.