We are your hosts, Bill Powell and Pip James
From sea-change to today
Our sea-change from Sydney started as a gleam in our eyes in 1991. Our aim was to find land on which we could build an eco-retreat consisting of workshop, celebration and holiday accommodation facilities. In 1993 after an east coast search we purchased a vacant lakeside, but virtually inaccessible, 100 acres of forest at Bawley Point. We relocated to it and started a new life from scratch, living in an isolated caravan with no services or facilities.
We somewhat innocently decided we would act on an existing approval to subdivide, use the lakeside lot so created to build our dream on and sell the other lots to finance it. With architectural assistance, we prepared a tourism development application. After we obtained the Tourist Facility consent in 1994 we spent 1995 undertaking the 4-lot subdivision infrastructure works: land clearing, access roads, a bridge, 11000-volt electricity and telephone services. We then finally started work on the retreat itself, a shed in 1996. The shed later evolved into the Lake Willinga Bush Cafe which we operated at weekends and holidays from late 1997 to late 2000 while we resolved development dificulties.
Development was not straight forward, not easy and ours remains a cautionary tale unfortuantely experienced by most NSW land developers. There was bureaucratically generated frustration and delay at almost every turn. We also suffered from the effects of the recession of the 90s/early 2000s that seriously affected regional land markets. But most of our problems were with the delays caused by often pointless, constantly changing, wasteful and the occasionally unbelievably stupid NSW state planning "system".
Serial politically motivated and ever-changing regulations were and are still today being enforced by ever-changing authorities and their public servants. For us those state and local governemnt servants were plainly themselves struggling with changes but were trapped in their frustrating employment environments by their own need for salary. The NSW Planning Department itself made silly mistakes in drafting of LEP legislation directly relating to our property they had to twice correct after it was enacted. That was was like moving wet concrete. The errors occurred simply because those State Planning geniuses refused/failed to take notice of or consult with local Council in the first place. They never compensated us or apologised for their stupidity in arbitrarily deleting the right for our subdivided lots to have residences built on them. They didn't care we couldn't sell land without that right. Taken together these difficulties nearly broke us. However we outlasted the morons and our original vision has now been significantly achieved.
That vision included the creation of a beautiful, incontrovertibly Australian, high quality coastal retreat that not only complemented and interpreted the stunning local environment but featured the use of local materials. We opened our first cottages in 2002 but it was not until 2009 that we built the multi-purpose celebration/function space we consider to be the very heart of our vision. It has already proved to be just that with most early use being for weddings, family reunions and accommodation..
We have made extensive use of milled-on-site local hardwoods from trees cleared to make our roads, building spaces and mandated clearings. For some walls we have also used compressed earth blocks that we pressed on-site. Much infrastructure work is needed to service substantially separated cottages. Bawley Bush Cottages is a continuing work in progress that we now recognise cannot be completed in our lifetimes. However we will continue building more approved accommodation to create a community of similar secluded cottages. And we plan to undertake a group title subdivision to ultimately sell the holiday cottages with on-site tourism management to like-minded people.
Our eco credentials
Though our cottages and function space are all grid-connected with modern electric and LPG appliances, we try to minimize our environmental footprint. It's a challenge. We aim to make our buildings appear as elements of the bush rather than being separate from it. We are completely self sufficient in water and deliver drinking, treated dam and untreated dam water to all buildings. Half of our toilets are composting ones, we recycle all rubbish and we compost all of our own and guest food wastes in a worm farm. We have a state-of-the-art, passive waste water treatment system designed to protect the adjacent pristine lake from the possibility of nutrient contamination. We use solar and wood-fired water heating.
Our residence
The photo of the building across the dam on the flashing masthead above is the 3BR cottage we built to live in for ourselves. It's on the entrance road to Bawley Bush Cottages. We aim to travel for extended periods and when we are away this residence will be available for guests to rent as Kookaburra Cottage. It is listed under the Accommodation tab and, when available, can be booked in the same way as our other cottages.
Your privacy
You are welcome to call in on arrival or during your stay but we want our guests to feel they will be private and secluded. Checking in is not necessary and the chances are you will not see us at all. Access arrangements are contained on your booking confirmation. However you will find that someone, either us or one of our staff, will be available to promptly respond to any comfort oversights or technical problems you might experience during your stay.
We hope you choose to stay here. If you do, we know from the experience of others that you will be glad you did.
Enjoy!
Bill and Pip