Yondah Beach house awarded Advanced Ecotourism
Located on the wild southern coast of Yorke Peninsula in South Australia, Yondah is a deluxe architect-designed (and pet-friendly!) beach house set on 300 stunning oceanfront acres where nature-lovers can enjoy panoramic sea views to Kangaroo Island, their own private beaches, dramatic cliff top walks and opportunities to view iconic marine wildlife including sea eagles, fur seals, and whales.
Named ‘Best Deluxe Accommodation in Australia’ at the QANTAS Australian Tourism Awards earlier this year, Yondah Beach House was also inducted into the SA Tourism Awards Hall of Fame after winning 'Best Deluxe Accommodation in SA' for three consecutive years in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
Now Yondah's owners, Michele Bain and Nick Cureton, can add Advanced Ecotourism to their list of accomplishments as testament to their continued passion and commitment towards conservation. They have achieved this by incorporating environmental interpretation into Yondah's guest experience, by protecting and restoring surrounding habitat, and by monitoring and reducing its contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.
Michele and Nick have just completed a major 6-year Trees for Life revegetation project at Yondah funded by an Australian Government Biodiversity Fund grant. This project has successfully re-vegetated the whole 300-acre site, converting bare paddocks into mallee woodland and providing new habitat for rare local species including the western pygmy possum, malleefowl and heath goanna. A stem audit in June 2017 indicates that around 600,000 seedlings have germinated which is 4.5 times better than expected! Michele and Nick have also begun restoring degraded dune vegetation, coastal heathlands and native grasslands, and they have established a 'Rare and Threatened' garden and a Butterfly garden. Yondah has also hosted an important research project by Adelaide University that is helping scientists understand the consequences of climate change on South Australia's native vegetation.
Yondah Beach House is also now largely powered by a 5kW ground-mounted solar system that feeds power back into the grid, and the property is 100% water self-sufficient following the installation of a simple gravity-powered on-site water harvesting system that incorporates several watering points for the local wildlife.
To offer guests a more meaningful holiday experience, Yondah Beach House uses interpretation to help guests engage with the natural and cultural values of the site and to help them connect to 'the bigger picture'. Low impact walking trails together with interpretive signage help visitors understand and appreciate the fragile coastal ecology of the site.
The team at Yondah Beach House also contributes to environmental monitoring and conservation programs, supports indigenous cultural tours, and has implemented green purchasing strategies.
For more information on Yondah's other environmental initiatives or to book yourself a fabulous 'luxe-in-nature' experience, visit the Yondah Beach House website here.