Snow, salt scrubs and an outdoor hot bath in Japanese inspired surrounds is a nice place to start when looking to have a conference with a difference, writes Kate Gibbs
While setting a conference or strategy session on the top of any mountain will certainly impress staff and colleagues, Victoria’s MountHotham has just opened a spa and retreat, complete with conference facilities, for the more discerning conference group. Kate Gibbs reports
Nestled in the settlement Dinner Plain, just above the snow line between HothamAirport and the ski slopes, the Onsen Retreat and Spa is a fully catered conference facility, complete with spa and an outdoor Japanese hot bath.
For the business group, teambuilding can be done in the high country using any of Dinner Plain’s own outdoor facilities. Bushwalking, hiking, horse riding, mountain biking, fly fishing and 4WD off road tours will make any group exhausted enough to rest easy during a workshop or conference indoors.
Our group took an hour-long walk through the Dinner Plain area, where twisted gums dropped cakes of wet snow on the path before us in the afternoon sun. The name Hotham is of course synonymous with skiing, which is still possible now in late season.
Determined to make the most of the alpine experience when there was no conferencing to be done, some of our party arrived at the doors of the Spa at 7am, ready for some serious pampering. The Retreat’s own Spa facilities include a whole menu of therapeutic skin care, body therapies and spa rituals. An Onsen Escape Ritual, for example, begins with a foot soak and scrub and includes a hari and scalp treatment and Sabai stone facial massage. After a pure mountain water cleanse, some shiatsu will help you return to mountain life feeling energised and hydrated.
The Retreat’s Lounge offers full catering for groups of up to 40. Floating into the Lounge after a massage, our group was served a large rocket salad with pear and parmesan, and a warming goulash.
The Lounge is also an intimate meeting venue with conference seating for up to 40 people. Breakout meetings rooms are also available in nearby venues also on the Dinner Plain. Elegant and cosy with an open stone fireplace, perfect for snowy alpine conditions, the Lounge can also open up to offer views into the local gum trees.
The Onsen building was designed by Grounds Kent, based in Perth. Keeping to the strict guidelines of Dinner Plain building styles, the architects had to use local stone and wood for the majority of the building’s exterior. Certain colour schemes were required, as they are with all buildings at Dinner Plain, based on the local hues of eucalyptus’ pale khaki, slate grey and Australian native bark’s browns and silvers. Together with the Japanese inspired Onsen style, the result is a minimalist, warm, alpine building.
Tea and coffee are served all day, and the Lounge offers state of the art audio visual equipment to cater to all conference needs. A data projector, computer, DVD and VCR player, flipcharts and an electronic flipboard are all available. All onsite equipment is included in the daily hire rate of $380.
Getting there
Qantas leaves both Melbourne and Sydney for Hotham in the winter months, and charter flights operating out of Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra and Tasmania head directly to MountHotham all year. Charter companies that fly to Hotham include:
Adagold www.adagold.com
Australasian Jet www.ausjet.com.au
Corporate Air www.corporate-air.com.au
Curtis Aviation www.curtisaviation.com.au
LilydaleAirport www.lilydaleairport.com.au
Tasair Pty Ltd www.tasair.com.au
TooradinFlyingSchool www.tooradinflyingschool.com.au
Tradewinds Charter www.twaircraftcharter.com
More information
For more information on accommodation and conferences at Hotham's DinnerPlainVillage, contact:
Onsen Retreat and Spa, DP Central & Spa
Phone: 03 51508880
Web: www.onsen.com.au
Email: [email protected]
The writer was a guest of MountHothamand Dinner Plain Village.
