Ecological Ethos
"We share a life-long love of wilderness and are committed to self-sufficiency and sustainability. We welcome our guests knowing they seek respite from busy lives and noisy cities. Come and share our way of life for a weekend, a week, or longer, and come to know the true meaning of what we call the Tranquillity, Luxury, and Relaxation that are the Girraween Environmental Lodges.
Your hosts, Paul and Bengu
Low energy, environmentally friendly
The Girraween Environmental Lodge and lodge chalets were built 20 years ago before the term “environmental” had any other meaning aside from being in the environment. The vision was to create a low energy, environmentally friendly wilderness resort that had a minimal impact on the natural environment ,from both a construction and maintenance perspective and was to be as self-sufficient as possible.
Wilderness resort
The wilderness resort was thoughtfully designed by renowned Brisbane architect Graeme Richardson with a large input from Jonathan Marr (one of the founders), it was to be a low energy consuming, self sufficient and low maintenance village and was ,when built, as environmentally friendly as anything that is purpose built today and we are presently very close to being fully “off grid”.
Re-use, recycle
The greater part of the lodges are built from plantation harvested timber or re-cycled timber and other building materials wherever that was possible to achieve under the building codes. The wall framing and trusses are cypress plantation pine, timber beams and posts are recycled hardwood from various building in Brisbane, majority of the linings are either plantation hardwood ply or recycled hardwood lining boards, even the kitchen and vanity are made from recycled hardwood.
Sustainability
The original design provided for harvested rain water supply to the chalets with separate grey water supply to the toilet cisterns and reticulated emergency fire fighting water to the village. All our water was on-site harvested rainwater until 10 years ago when Health department requirements made it impractical to use it in the chalets for anything other than toilet flushing and swimming pools.
Our sewage is treated via a biological treatment plant and clean effluent dispersed on the property which is monitored on a regular basis. Our linen is washed offsite by a local company which uses harvested rainwater and heat sanitisation rather than harsh chemicals in its processes.
Ecologically friendly processes
We make some of our own cleaning products on site using environmentally friendly materials. We go to great lengths to eliminate any excessively packaged single use items and most of products found in the chalets originate from bulk supplies which we re-fill into re-usable containers. Waste recycling separation is carried out by our staff onsite, prior to removal from the property as we found that very few of our guests were correctly separating the recyclables. As a licensed accommodation supplier we are covered by many health dept regulations which, unfortunately, prevents us from carrying out many more ecological friendly processes.
Our guests recognise and often praise the smallest things we have done to support our commitment to sustainability and "Travel for Good"; such as discarding single use toiletries, chucx, chemicalised bbq cleaners, and air refresheners, single use coffee pots and more.
Self-sufficiency
The property has solar power with battery storage that supplements the use of electricity on site with plans to add the maximum allowable renewable electricity generation in the near future. All the lighting and fridges and appliances are maximum efficiency and low energy consuming products.
Heating in the lodges is carried out through high efficiency wood fire stoves the firewood that provides the heating has been exclusively taken from dead and fallen trees on ours and nearby properties. Cooling is provided by nature and the excellent design of the lodges which capture the natural breezes and require very little assistance from the ceiling fans We have our own pine plantation for future use in building work which was established over 50 years ago. There has also been a native bush re-generation work in progress which unfortunately is temporarily on hold due to continuing drought conditions.
Conservation land property
Being surrounded by Girraween National Park, a decision was made to keep the property in line with many of the National Park conservation directives and so our walking trails are very natural and non-intrusive on the native bush, there are no cats or dogs allowed, and all guests are expected to be respectful of their natural environment. Girraween Environmental Lodge is registered with Land For Wildlife South East Queensland as a conservation land property.
