About an hour up the road from Melbourne's CBD and airport, on the Melba Highway at Dixons Creek, Yarra Valley Estate runs an award-winning conference, wedding and group-accommodation venue across 120 acres of native bushland — eight event spaces, 48 ensuite rooms, on-site catering, and a purpose-planted Edible Forest supplying its kitchens.
The property's story starts a long way from corporate retreats. In 1983, John and Louise Ward were operating a deer farm on the site before building what was formerly the Yarra Valley Conference Centre, now Yarra Valley Estate. The venue's own account of the transformation is blunt: formerly "a deer park stripped bare of all its trees and shrubs", the 120 acres have since been nurtured and rehabilitated into lush forest with organic vegetable gardens and a private wildlife rehabilitation centre, Babbajin Park. "Our venue has a warm and inviting atmosphere making guests feel like they are returning home," Louise Ward says on the estate's site.
The family-run, retreat-style operation now trades on doing everything in one place. Conferences run from 10 to 160 people across the eight spaces, backed by what the venue describes as more than 30 years of events experience, and its published client list ranges from Monash, the University of Melbourne and Deloitte to Toyota, ALDI and Landcare. "It was such a lovely venue with beautiful surrounds. We received many compliments for the two day programme," reads one University of Melbourne testimonial the estate displays.
The 48 ensuite rooms are spread across three wings, each with its own shared lounge, fully equipped kitchen, private balcony and barbecue; smaller groups can book a single wing, while the entire property sleeps up to 96 guests. Around them sit a swimming pool, tennis court, walking trails and an on-site dining hall. For something different, a glamping village of fully furnished safari-style tents — electric heater included — caters to groups of 10 or more from $379 per tent per night, twin-share, either on its own or bolted onto a wedding or conference.
The forest that feeds the kitchen
At the heart of the operation is the Edible Forest — the vision of owner Louise Ward, home to more than 300 edible and medicinal plants, and the source of seasonal produce used throughout the estate's catering. The business describes it as Victoria's largest food forest, and notes it has been featured on ABC's Gardening Australia. Guided 'Tour, Taste & Educate' walks run Fridays through Sundays year-round, a nursery sells unusual seedlings, harvest preserves and worm 'tea' fertiliser, and the Harvest Hub — a portable learning kitchen — hosts cooking and preserving classes. The region's official tourism body lists the venue with in-house chefs preparing meals from the forest's produce.
The sustainability programme runs well beyond the garden. A Sustainable Tourism Accredited Business, the estate generates solar power on site, lights its buildings with LEDs, runs rainwater tanks and e-water cleaning systems that cut chemical use, and sends kitchen scraps to a commercial worm farm. Waste is split across recycling, organics, soft-plastics and e-waste streams, guest amenities come in bulk refills, and multi-night stays run on reduced housekeeping schedules.
Two Premier's awards, and a carbon-neutral stamp
The recognition has followed. The estate has won the Premier's Sustainability Award in the small-to-medium enterprise category two years running — for the certified programs it runs across energy, waste, water and community development, per its announcement — along with the UNAA World Environment Day Award and the RACV Tourism Award for Excellence in Sustainable Tourism. It is a certified carbon-neutral business, holds a Silver benchmark from global tourism certifier EarthCheck, and has begun the process of B Corp certification. "The award wins mean so much to me, as a small business we have implemented procedures & policies which ensure a sustainable future for the next generations," Louise Ward said in the estate's announcement. "Although my husband John & I have the vision, we would not be able to accomplish anything without the commitment of our team who are as committed to sustainability as we are."
Giving back is written into the model: the business contributes 11 per cent of net revenue to community programs, and its charity work spans four areas — the environment, children, animals and its "closest neighbours" in Papua New Guinea.
Weddings lean on the same one-property pitch. Couples choose from four ceremony sites — the Air Chapel, the Wetlands, the Window-Front or the Sculpture Gardens — then keep the reception and guest accommodation on the same 120 acres, with the venue styling itself Victoria's premiere sustainable wedding venue. Guests who want to stay close to the celebration can add the glamping village for the weekend.
Guests seem to agree with the approach — the venue wears a 4.6 Google rating on its homepage. The Wards' own measure of success, published on the estate's site, is simpler: "we aim to leave the environment in a better shape than when we found it, for future generations."
