About Midginbil Eco Resort (formerly known as "Midginbil Hill")
Midginbil Eco Resort is a family owned & operated business. We are a venue that hosts school camps, weddings, groups & retreats.
We have a variety of accommodation & catering options, wedding packages & self catering options for groups (excl. weddings, we provide meals during the stay, excluding the wedding reception as it is a DIY wedding).
Our school camp packages include accommodation, all rooms with ensuites, tailored activity programs & catering, with delicious, home cooked style meals. We have a dedicated team, that ensure the students & teachers experience is the “full package”. We provide a safe environment for students to challenge themselves, be challenged, learn team building skills, learn new skills & most of all to have fun!
We have two dining areas on the property, the barn & the original 1906 homestead dining room & deck.
The property boasts a spectacular 400acres, with views to the escarpments of the heritage listed “Night Cap” National Park. We are surrounded by lush, green rainforest, a pool, tennis court & volley ball net.
THE HISTORY
The property was originally a large working dairy farm from the late 1800’s until the late 1960’s.
In 1971, the property, then known as “Devonshire”, Perch Creek was purchased by John & Annette Flower. The run down 400acre cattle property & the cattle crash in 1973 forced them to diversify & “Midginbil Hill” was born for “farm & eco tourism”.
The property started as a farm stay/campground & then became an outdoor education centre for school camps. John worked off farm at the sugar mill & Annette learned to speak Japanese & they started hosting Japanese students for camps. They grew a thriving business over their years here!
Midginbil has had a variety of different names over the years & a diversity of wonderful business, allowing others to share this beautiful venue & property. And a chance to regenerate the amazing flora & fauna here.
About Us
Our Story
We purchased “Midginbil Hill” in January 2020 & renamed the property to “Midginbil Eco Resort”.
We are country people, Russell & our 3 fabulous children, have lived in regional Australia all their lives. I’m like the “Farmer Wants A Wife” bride from the city. I married a 4th generation farmer in the Riverina, NSW. I have lived half my life in the city & half in the country. And when I say city, it was Canberra & Gold Coast, no majorly big cities.
But my country roots must have been strong, as I too was born in the Riverina & had family living there & ended up back there many years later.
Family business is in our hearts, we love providing opportunities for our children to work with us & learn about business.
Our three children Seth, Jasmine & Justin have worked at various times in our businesses over the years.
When Russell & I got married in 1995, on the farm, in a mown out patch of wheat on the hill. We never knew the adventures before us. We expanded the farming enterprise & had a family.
After many years, Russ wanted a tree change from farming, too many droughts & variabilities, so we leased the farm out in 2007, the Global financial crisis hit, we packed up our belongings & the kids and made the trek to the other side of Australia, Kununurra WA.
We purchased a mango farm on Lake Kununurra, Russ got to cleaning up the run down property, got a casual job with the turf farm up the road & I studied to get my real estate certificate & started a real estate business with another local female agent, who at the time was working from home. We started a “Professionals” real estate agency, which was super exciting. Then the real estate market up there started feeling the effects of the GFC, schooling was a challenge, my mum got sick & we decided to come back to the farm in 2009.
In November 2012 we purchased a holiday park on Lake Hume, just out of Albury, NSW & owned & operated the business until October 2019. We took the business from a run down, unprofitable business with bad customer service, to an award winning, “Top Parks” park, ATAP accredited, profitable business, with great customer service.
In 2013 we sold the farm. Woohh, that was a relief.
Our children worked in the business. We hosted school camps & family groups/functions & events, so they helped in the kitchen, activities, grounds, housekeeping & reception, wherever we needed them really. They were great all rounders!
We built the business up & sold it and found the magical Midginbil in the Tweed Valley, NSW.
I did my schooling on the Gold Coast, so we were coming back to my area.
Currently, Seth & Justin are working with us & we love owning & operating a business with our children!
That’s our story!
Values
At Midginbil, we share a common passion, and that is providing a venue where people enjoy themselves, have fun & create lasting memories. Our guests love the calm & peaceful vibe, it’s one of our repeated phrases, “It’s so peaceful out here & so pretty!”. And, it’s true!
To share our property & host weddings/groups/stays & school camps, gives us an immense amount of joy.
We are truly grateful for our beautiful property & the opportunity for others to enjoy it too.
And because Russell & our kids were fortunate to grow up on the farm, we are passionate about getting kids outdoors & into the country! To be immersed in the beauty of nature & enjoy some bush therapy & nature nurture.
We believe in disconnecting kids from devices (and adults haha!!) & connecting with the outdoors & nature.
Sustainability
We are also passionate about our environment & the future of the planet, not just for us, but for our future generations.
What we have started doing in our backyard:
Grow fruit & veggies – we are incorporating a sustainable farming/kitchen garden. With a vision of adding this as an activity into the school camps program & use our produce in our cooking for catering.
All food scraps are fed to our bird menagerie – chooks, geese & guinea fowl. The guinea fowl love eating ticks, which is a win/win for us & the birds!
We have 4 kids (goats) Milly, Tilly, Willy & Billy.
We have a plan to increase our solar power & use power saving globes. We turn off electrical appliances that do not need to be running for now reason. We are very conscious of needing to turn on a light. It’s just thinking about every decision in our daily lives & business & how we can do it better or more sustainably & efficiently. It’s asking ourselves the questions ALL THE TIME!
We recycle & reuse where possible to reduce waste.
We have a compost
Our house is completely off grid & our boys house is on solar hot water & both have composting toilets.