Holistic Retreats Victoria - The Eco Retreat

Welcome to
The Eco Retreat

A Nature Retreat on the Surf Coast Victoria

A sanctuary for slow living, creativity, and
nature-based wisdom in the heart of Boonah on the Surf Coast.

Tucked into 70 acres of the ancient Otway Ranges foothills in Boonah, Victoria, The Eco Retreat is a living, breathing sanctuary for nature-based living, creativity, well-being and renewal, just two hours from Melbourne. Located near the coastline of Aireys Inlet, this peaceful wilderness haven offers a spacious environment for contemplation, creativity and nature connection. As phase one gets underway, the retreat is actively cultivating an organic garden, orchard, landcare, walking trails, and an art studio with a gallery, with plans to eventually host daylong and weekend holistic retreats. In the meantime, you are invited to follow their journey, read their vision via the Slow Acres farm blog, explore the wildlife in the field notes, connect with our whatsapp community, or sign up for their newsletter to stay inspired and get involved.

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Creative Arts Studio

Slow Acres

Welcome to Slow Acres, a blog about life on Boonah farm and the evolution of our land-based projects in the Otways by Marion Miller.

A New Chapter at The Eco Retreat

Hello friends, old and new. For those who don’t know us, I’m Marion. My husband Richard, our dog Lewis (pictured below), and I are the founders of The Eco Retreat. I am currently managing the Boonah farm and the "TER" project, and I look forward to keeping you updated on our happenings! We have officially launched our new website, where I’ll be sharing this farm blog on a regular basis. Many of you may not know that I recently resigned from my counselling and coaching role an

Marion Miller

Apr 7

At Boonah farm were share the land with many species of wildlife. We’re interested in understanding what species are already here, which ones are endangered and finding out what we can do to regenerate and protect their habitat.

We’ve been working on a digital field guide to track and catalogue our wildlife encounters and new flora and fauna we discover. We are also creating a guest book for visitors to share reflections on sit spots, walking the land and wildlife encounters with photos, drawing, scientific knowledge or poetry.

Here’s a small collection of photos of some of the species that have been spotted here and are now shared on the wilderness field guide page on our website.

It’s been awe inspiring to encounter our wild kin in their natural habitat, we should always keep a healthy distance and aim for a harmonious relationship with the whole web of life.

#landcare #wildnerness #otways #ecotherapy

Hearts full and an almost full house this weekend! Incredibly grateful for the past few days with the young ones visiting at Boonah farm while Richy is away. Sharing meals, stories and slow moments together. So nice to see them resting and connecting with nature.

Now for a bit of a self retreat with some local Pondalowie red, a great book, roaring fire, art, study and some longer meditations as the clouds set in low over the ranges. Some work to do on the gardens this week too! ☁️

#naturelover #otways #retreat

Happy Friday friends 🌻 at Boonah farm Lewis and I have been gardening! We’ve bought lots of beautiful native and indigenous flowering plants from Bambra Native Plants. Next week we have a week of rain so perfect timing and all the plants have lovely flowers the birds, bees and humans can enjoy! This is the first garden bed and the entrance to the house and soon to be studio/gallery. Lots of inspiration, colour, perfume and beauty growing just out front.🌷🪻🌸💐🌺

#gardening #countrylife #slowliving

Stage one of @theecoretreat project we’re calling Beautify and today I got back to what we started at Easter and removed more of the blackberry brambles.

I dug up a bucket of roots from one garden bed and started cutting back the brambles on the other side of the house to discover an old cattle yard. All the clippings are being gathered for our first bon fire ritual this winter!

Cutting back the brambles thoughts of old folktales went through my mind but alas no damsel in a castle was found, just a rusty old gate that had collapsed in on itself.

Later, I experimented with crushing some berries to make natural paint and I’m fond of eating them too!

The other task I got onto was planning out the orchard and staking the places for nine fruit trees to be planted early spring. I’m creating a digital calendar to manage the fertiliser, watering and harvest. But first some soil improvement.

I’m bemused that there is a cauldron outside the laundry door at the entrance to the orchard. Double, double toil and trouble. Perhaps I can brew some fruit and herbs to create a potion to stop the blackberries from spreading?!

A magical end to the week when we walked the land and saw two deers and a mob of kangaroos grazing in the back paddock. Happy Friday!

#farmlife #organicgardening #slowliving

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Follow us on Instagram

@theecoretreat

Welcome to
The Eco Retreat

A sanctuary for slow living, creativity, and
nature-based wisdom in the heart of Boonah on the Surf Coast.

Organic Farm & Orchard

Nature-Based Retreats

Wilderness

Creative Arts Studio

Slow Acres

A New Chapter at The Eco Retreat

Follow us on Instagram

Welcome to The Eco Retreat

A sanctuary for slow living, creativity, and nature-based wisdom in the heart of Boonah on the Surf Coast.

Organic Farm & Orchard

Nature-Based Retreats

Wilderness

Creative Arts Studio

Slow Acres

A New Chapter at The Eco Retreat

​

Follow us on Instagram

Welcome to
The Eco Retreat

A sanctuary for slow living, creativity, and
nature-based wisdom in the heart of Boonah on the Surf Coast.