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I was four years old when I first visited Carawirry Forest Escape. It was my first time in Australia, and my parents had booked a cabin in the rainforest with their friends – a group of 20- and 30-somethings (plus two small children) piled into a magical, timber-clad idyll between the trees. Two decades on, I didn’t realise this was the same place I’d booked for my friends and me (similar ages, much delayed on the life-progression front) until after I left; memories of my first-ever rainforest escape flooding back as we locked up our cabin and left the weekend behind us.
A lot has changed at Carawirry in the 24 years between my visits – the well-appointed kitchens and linen-draped bedrooms have definitely had a refresh – but, when I think about it, a lot has stayed the same, too. In a beautiful way, Carawirry is a place that feels lost in time. On the edge of a valley suspended between the gum trees, phone signal fades out (there’s Starlink Wi-Fi if you really need to stay connected) and all that really matters is the hour in front of you: slow mornings feeding the wallabies that roam the property, walks between waterfalls, long dinners and nights around the fire, with the cinnamon scent of mulled wine lacing the air like a Christmas kiss. If you’re looking for a magical, surprisingly affordable forest escape within easy reach of Sydney, Carawirry has you covered.
Sprawling across 100 hectares of forest, the property is home to four standalone stays – each tucked into a secluded pocket that feels totally removed from civilisation. We arrived in the dark on a Friday night (the drive from Sydney takes around three hours with stops, so it’s entirely achievable to arrive in time for dinner if you head straight after work), and woke on Saturday morning to an ethereal layer of mist lacing the valley. Our cabin – The Treehouse – sleeps up to eight guests, and with rates starting at around $369 per night, it’s a surprisingly achievable option for a group of friends looking for a forest getaway. The open-plan layout of the top floor – two large, warmly lit bedrooms with partition-style timber walls, each home to a queen-size bed and super-comfy sofa bed – made the whole experience feel like a very elevated camping trip. And, in my opinion, there’s nothing more magical than waking up between the treetops with a group of your favourite people.
We spent our weekend between the warmth of the cabin and the forest beyond it – hiking along riverbanks and pulling tarot cards around the roaring campfire, before piling into the house for long, red wine-fuelled dinners.
While the immersion in nature feels akin to camping, the set-up is a whole lot more high-end – with the cabins each home to well-appointed kitchens, cosy sitting rooms, big, comfy beds wrapped in gorgeous linen and some kind of indoor-outdoor bathing situation. For The Treehouse, the bath set-up comprises two huge freestanding tubs that sit next to each other in a ‘bathhouse’ suspended between the trees, with bifold doors opening up into the canopy. Wide verandas wait outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, with benches and swinging seats primed for morning meditation sessions and post-lunch chats.
On the way back to Sydney, we lost a few beautiful hours in the sleepy nearby town of Dungog – pastries and coffee at The Barn (a must-visit patisserie housed in a beautifully mismatched converted barn), and a slow-paced stroll along the quiet side street to the historic theatre. It was here that it dawned on me that I’d stayed at Carawirry before – maybe in the way that the importance of a moment only becomes clear once it’s passed, and your mind starts to mould it into a memory.
This wasn’t my first visit to Carawirry, and it won’t be my last. As the love notes scrawled in The Treehouse’s visitor book confirmed, this low-key forest getaway is the site of an untold number of precious memories – and chances are, you won’t realise quite how special they are until you’ve left the forest behind you.
You’ll find Carawirry Forest Escape at 73 Cabbage Tree Road, Main Creek, NSW 2420. Prices start at $368.50 per night for two guests, although rates vary depending on the cabin, dates and number of guests. You can learn more and book via Carawirry Forest Escape.
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