Balin Garu

Hi. Welcome to our Balin Garu, this beautiful, peaceful part of the world and our home.

We, Sol and George, invite you to share our slice of paradise, 500 acres along the upper Clarence River in the foothills of the Great Dividing Range in Northern New South Wales, Australia.

The main lodge provides elegant country home stay facilities for gay men (individuals, couples and small groups) ideal for discerning Australian and international travellers. Gay owned and operated, this fully catered, clothing optional, B&B type accommodation is a great way to experience the beauty of the Australian bush and its wildlife and particularly suitable for those exploring the east coast and country by car.

We also offer fully catered workshop/retreat facilities with spacious workspaces and bunkhouse style accommodation for groups of up to 30 as well as self catering camp style accommodation for groups of around 15.

We hope to meet you soon.
 

George first visited friends nearby more than 30 years ago, fell in love with the landscape and the river and has been a regular visitor ever since. We purchased the property in 2003, had the bunk house complex built and moved from Sydney in March 2006 to enjoy the tranquility of country life, our passion for nature conservation, our love of trees and gardens and to foster caring community among men. As owner builders and with the help of many incredibly talented craftsmen we commenced the main lodge in April 2006 and moved in June 2007 allowing us a wonderful opportunity to have our friends to stay and meet many new visitors from across the world. At the same time, we began creating a beautiful vegetable and flower garden, citrus and stone fruit orchards and planting hundreds of native trees and shrubs to attract the birds and other wildlife, a work in progress, hopefully a gift for generations to come.

The traditional Aboriginal owners of this part of NSW were the Bundjulung people of which there appears to have been a clan based around the Copmanhurst area which spoke a separate dialect and from which the words Balin Garu, literally “river stone”, have been taken. The property was originally part of Newbold Station, settled by Europeans in the 1840s, and in the early colonial period, the land was intensively logged, particularly for red cedar, followed by dairying and now mainly beef cattle production.

We wanted to escape from the busy lifestyle of the city and create a haven of peace and quietness, to enjoy the immense natural beauty of the land, the river and its wildlife and to do our best to restore the ecological values of the land and its smaller water courses. We long for a world where people live in respect and harmony with each other and the land with a sense of community and mutual support, contributing to a caring and peaceful world. We want to share these concepts and our home with those of like mind and commitment.

So we welcome guests who just want to rest, to experience the natural beauty of this place and the surrounding countryside (including many National Parks), to share in the activities of developing and maintaining the property and the gardens, to learn about environmental sustainability, to create things of beauty and/or to explore ideas of the mind, the heart and the soul.

The Main Lodge provides a large, sunny space with ample fresh air. Sit-down dinners can be accommodated for up to 14 guests. Amenities in the second floor include a commercial kitchen, reading area, several veranda including one fully screened, and a media lounge. The first floor houses three spacious bedrooms, two baths, sauna, kitchenette, reading room and workshop space.

The bunkhouse with a mix of single, bunk, double and queen beds opens onto the parterre-style vegetable gardens and greenhouse, and with its funky amenities block provides comfortable shared sleeping and living accomodation for up to 24 people.

The bunkhouse facilities can be used along with all those of the main lodge and studio for fully catered personal growth retreats and other workshops or used separately for smaller self catered gatherings with or without more limited use of main lodge facilities such as studio, steam room and spa.

Tariff for workshops of up to 30 people including use of the full facilities of the main lodge and bunkhouse is $45 per person per day for accommodation and $37 by negotiation for catering. Bunkhouse accomodation alone for self catering groups is $25 per day per head.