The House
A motel built for the climate
It opened in 1979 as a motel, which in central Australia at that date usually meant a concrete block with an awning. This one was designed by an architect from Adelaide who had worked in Darwin after Tracy and had opinions about roofs.
He built it one storey high and oriented east to west, with a verandah three and a half metres deep on the north side. The eaves on the south side do almost nothing, since they do not need to. The walls are rendered concrete block, and the stone on the north face came off the site when the pool was dug.
The 2014 work rebuilt the bathrooms, took out a partition that had divided the dining room since 1991, and turned the old function block beyond the pool into the gaming room. The verandah and the orientation stayed as they were.
Five things worth knowing
- Breakfast runs from six to ten in the dining room, and it starts early because half the guests have somewhere to be before eight.
- The pool is unsupervised and closes at ten.
- Children are welcome everywhere except the low block, at any hour.
- Please do not leave food on the verandah. The birds here are organised, and the dingo fence is not what people think it is.
- Rooms are held on a name and a telephone number; nothing is paid through this website.